Donald Cerrone has unfinished business with Nate Diaz.
In an interview with Pro MMA Radio, the lightweight star opened up about his UFC 141 loss to the Cesar Gracie student. He didn’t have any excuses other than simply having an off night:
I haven’t really watched the fight to tell you the truth. I was just real flat-footed, man I was just off. Some people have off nights and that was a hell of an off night, you know? I wasn’t fighting the way I fight. No excuses, he showed up that night and I didn’t.
Diaz seems to be showing up a lot lately. At UFC on Fox 3, he submitted Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Jim Miller and earned the right to challenge the winner of Benson Henderson vs. Frankie Edgar for the UFC lightweight title.
Despite hordes of trash talk exchanged between the two, Cerrone has tremendous respect for what Diaz has been able to accomplish since returning to the lightweight division.
“My hat’s off to the dude. He looked real good against Jim Miller,” he said. “I’m a fan of the dude. As much [expletive] as we were talking, he goes out there and fights, that’s what he does.”
Cerrone tends to stick to the road less traveled, which is standing and banging it out on the feet. Diaz was the first fighter to ever oblige him in a stand-up war and best the exchanges.
Losing is bad enough, but being dominated in your own area of expertise can be discouraging.
For Cerrone, a rematch and the opportunity to redeem himself is a given. But for Diaz, it really doesn’t make a lot of sense. Why go backwards to fight a guy you already defeated so handily?
Cerrone plans on pulling out all the stops to get Diaz to accept the rematch. If he defeats Jeremy Stephens at UFC on Fuel 3, fans should expect an interesting post-fight interview:
After [the Stephens fight], I’m going to call him out and get him to fight me in a rematch in Denver, see if he takes the bait. He throws down, I would like to fight him again on the main card and get that fight of the night because it would be another scrap for sure.
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