Maybe Dana White should take his own advice.
The UFC president nearly came to blows with welterweight bruiser Nate Diaz long before the Stockton slapper became a household name. Turns out both parties “were drinking” at the same club back in late 2014 when Diaz was in Las Vegas to help Gilbert Melendez coach Season 20 of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF).
And it should be noted that White is no stranger to brawling with his talent.
“I almost beat up Dana White in a club one time here too, you should’ve seen it,” Diaz told ESPN. “He was talking shit and I was arguing with him. I was mad at him — I shouldn’t have been mad at him, I understand. It was a long time ago, when Gilbert did The Ultimate Fighter. Everybody had gotten off the show and then we went to the club when Dana and them were having a big afterparty, and then Dana’s all [intoxicated]. He’s all, ‘What’s up, motherfucker?’ I was like, ‘What’s up?’ And he’s telling me about, ‘What do you want?’ I was like, ‘What the fuck do you think I want? More money and better fights than everyone here.’ It’s because I was never on the destination for a title though, at the time.”
Diaz was probably still mad about this.
Fortunately cooler heads prevailed, or perhaps the altercation was not as serious for White as it was for Diaz. What we can say for certain, based on the available footage, is that it does not take much to get a brawl started for the former lightweight. Just ask retired 155-pound titleholder Khabib Nurmagomedov and his cronies.
“Allegedly,” White told reporters about his Diaz altercation during the “Contender Series” press conference on Tuesday. “Allegedly. We were drinking.”
Diaz will have an opportunity to squeeze in one last ass whooping when he collides with welterweight phenom Khamzat Chimaev atop the UFC 279 pay-per-view (PPV) event this Sat. night (Sept. 10, 2022) inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, in what marks the final fight on the TUF champ’s existing contract.
To see who else is fighting at UFC 279 click here.