Esther Lin, MMA Fighting
The main event fight for UFC 244 featured an all out war between Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz for the Baddest Motherf**ker belt, an imaginary title thought up by Nate Diaz and turned into reality for one night only by the UFC. Scheduled to wrap the custom made hardware around the winner’s waist? None other than superstar Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Unfortunately, the fireworks-delivering fight delivered a dud of an ending as the NYSAC ringside physician waved off the bout between the third and fourth wins, earning Masvidal a TKO win. Not exactly the baddest motherf**ker way to win the Baddest Motherf**ker belt, and fans lustily booed the turn of events. Not even The Rock could turn those jeers into cheers, and he performed his duties with a disappointed look on his face.
That’s not how Nate Diaz saw things, though. At the post-fight press conference the Stockton native threw shade at the UFC for a variety of perceived injustices, from rushing him back into the cage before old scars could heal to already angling to screw him out of an immediate rematch against Masvidal.
Even the choice of The Rock as BMF representative seemed to annoy him.
”F**k The Rock too, man,” Diaz said. “That motherf**ker over here playing me. See him over here smiling with Masvidal. Should have had Mike Tyson handing out a belt if anybody. I don’t give a f**k about any belt anyway, but he can get it too.”
”N**ga, he’s on that side, f**k him. I’m on the west coast side, Mike Tyson should have been here anyway, he’s the baddest man on the planet, right? He should have been the one over here.”
At this point Nate stopped and began to smile and laugh.
”You guys caught me at a bad time,” he admitted. “The Rock’s cool, I like Ballers. But he picked the wrong side, he picked the other side so he can get it too. He can get his ass whupped too, straight up. With all due respect, he can get it too.”
Who knows, maybe Mike Tyson can handle belt duties should Masvidal vs. Diaz 2 go down on the west coast, somewhere far away from New York and its questionable officials. As it stands, Nate may be right: the UFC does seem to be preparing to move on from this battle of BMFs.
Given how salty Nate can get about business decisions that don’t turn out in his favor, it could be a while before we see Diaz back in the cage. Given how entertaining he was both inside and outside the Octagon, that’d be a real shame.