At the official UFC 202 Open Workouts on Thursday evening (watch video highlights here), Nate Diaz gave a brief interview where he touched on such topics as the wild scene at Wednesday’s press conference, his pay for his rematch against Conor McGregor and wanting to get Nick Diaz unbanned from the rest of the UFC 202-related events this weekend.
Regarding the incident that unfolded at the final official press conference for Saturday’s pay-per-view in Las Vegas, Diaz explained what bothered him enough to simply get up and walk out along with the rest of his team in the middle of the event.
“I’m here as a businessman, doing what I’ve got to do,” Diaz said. “We’re all in the business. I want to behave myself and come out here and act right, but I’ve got to keep it real too. But not even keep it real — like, stay true to myself and what I believe in and I believe that if a mother*cker comes in with his team like they’re the head honcho sh*t, I’m going to let you know that we’ve got a whole gang ready to ride. You what I’m saying? So it’s all good. So they came in like they were hot sh*t, but we’ve got a whole army in here, so it ain’t nothing I ain’t seen before. It’s all good.”
From there, the subject switched to his brother, fellow UFC fighter Nick Diaz. As things stand right now, Nick will not be able to be in the corner of his younger brother for what will no doubt be the biggest fight of his career. The elder of the two Diaz brothers still owes $75,000 of his $100,000 fine to the Nevada State Athletic Commission stemming from the suspension they handed down to him — and later reduced greatly after a lot of public pressure — for a controversial positive marijuana test he had for his 2015 fight against MMA legend Anderson Silva.
“Nick’s the master ninja in this whole sh*t. He’s the best fighter in the world. So if I can get him there, that’s the best thing. But they won’t leave him alone, so hopefully we can get him in. I hope so, and either way it’s going to be all good. He’s here to represent for me, just like I’m always there to represent for him.”
Finally, the subject of the payday Diaz will receive for his second fight with the UFC’s biggest star in what will likely be the biggest PPV event in company history came up.
While Diaz will undoubtedly be receiving the single biggest payday in his storied MMA career on Saturday night, he still isn’t satisfied. Diaz stayed true to his original form when addressing the subject, giving a very Diaz Brothers-type of response — short and sweet.
When asked how big the payday would be, Diaz simply responded, “Less than I deserve.”
For those who missed the wild scene at the press conference, you can watch a complete video archive by clicking here. You can also watch a behind-the-scenes video of the incident that UFC released by clicking here. To hear Diaz’s reaction to the incident, watch the following video of his appearance on “UFC Tonight” by clicking here. To hear McGregor’s reaction, watch either of his TV appearances that followed the melee by clicking here and/or here.
UFC 202: Diaz vs. McGregor 2 goes down live from the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada this Saturday, August 20, 2016. Join us here at MMANews.com this Saturday for live round-by-round results coverage of the UFC 202 pay-per-view.
H/T: MMAFighting.com