Leading up to his August fight with Anthony Pettis, the younger Diaz brother explained why he has no interest in 155 pounds.
After nearly three years away from the sport, Nate Diaz is set to return for a welterweight fight against Anthony Pettis at UFC 241 on August 17. How he’ll look after so much time away from the cage is uncertain, but at least he’s been training hard the entire time, unlike his brother who is more interested in partying these days. He’s also still the same Nate Diaz we knew and loved before, as evidenced by his interview on Ariel Helwani’s MMA show this afternoon.
Diaz kept a number of topics a bit vague when asked but did make one thing clear: he’s done cutting down to 155, and why should he when he’s already conquered the whole division?
”I’m just done with the 155 thing, that’s in the past now,” Diaz told Helwani. “I just think it’s time to start fighting at a more comfortable weight class. there’s nothing for me there, I already did everything, beat everybody. Feel like I’m the king of that division, so I’m going to leave that where it’s at. There was no love for me over there.”
When asked how he could be considered the king when he never faced Khabib in the cage, Nate laughed.
”Khabib, I already slapped him in his face, I already told you guys,” he said. “And I beat Conor before him, quicker than him, easier than him. And then he’s just gonna ignore that and act like whatever? he’s just a little big headed right now, so I’m just like whatever. I don’t need to fight him anyways because I already got a victory over him, so it’s like he’s just going to hide out and play champ and act like a good guy, mister humble f**king Khabib. I’m not buying that s**t. I don’t need to sit around here and chase nobody. Anybody need to do any chasing, they need to come this way.”
”So I’m gonna retire that vision as champ. I slapped Conor and Khabib, so how does that make anyone [else] a winner?”
Nate’s altercation with Khabib at a World Series of Fighting event back in 2015 is well documented, but Diaz explained once again why things fell out the way they did.
”At World Series of Fighting, and the reason he got slapped is because he was not humble and not this nice guy,” Nate said. “He was sitting there with his friends trying to get a fight with me, taking a picture of me, making fun of me. So I capitalized and told him ‘F**k you’ and I slapped him in his face and he was spooked for his life. His whole team, nobody did s**t. Kron Gracie was with me, we were two on fifteen and the whole Russian army was hard to everyone but they were scared for their lives when that happened.”
”So why do I have to sit around and chase, he’s new at this whole champion s**t, he thinks he’s ahead of the game, ahead of everyone, and he’s hiding out. But soon he’s gonna realize there’s nobody to fight anyways, he f**ked up because he could have fought me but he’s playing big dog. So you know what, I don’t need to sit here and wait for no fights. I need to get this show on the road, I ain’t playing with these lightweights no more.”
”I’m done with 155, I’m done with all those bitches,” he concluded. “Poirier pussed out, hurt his midsection in there, I don’t believe that either. I think he mentally pussed out and now that’s the guy fighting for the title? And Khabib loving that because he’s gonna have an easy fight. It’s like get the f**k outta here. So that’s why that division is retired, I owned all those motherf**kers.”