It’ll probably come as no surprise to fight fans that Jake Shields was in the corner of Nate Diaz at UFC 196, both literally and figuratively, but the World Series of Fighting welterweight put his money where his mouth is.
Shields says that despite the fact Nate Diaz was partying down in Mexico just before he got the phone call from UFC to fill in for a sore vagina Rafael dos Anjos in the main event of UFC 196, he was confident in the 209 Stockton slap coming through against Conor McGregor.
As he told it to Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show:
“I absolutely thought Nate was going to win. I went and bet money on him. There were things I was worried about. Like the fact that Nate was in Cabo right before the fight. Him and [Gilbert Melendez] were out in Cabo, drinking, eating, you know, having fun and partying, not training, so that was in the back of my head. Nate’s a cardio freak, so I was like, ‘Well hopefully that doesn’t hurt him.’ I definitely thought Nate was gonna win. I think Conor’s a great fighter, but I think he got a little overhyped.”
Although Diaz got a little busted up in the first round of the fight, Shields said he never lost faith in the toughness of his teammate, and that it was actually part of the gameplan.
“I think that’s why Nate kind of cruised through round one because he was a little worried about blowing himself out…so he didn’t really put any pressure on until the second. That’s why he kind of let Conor beat him up a little bit,” Shields said. “Obviously Conor landed some better shots than he wanted, but Nate’s game plan was not to do much in round one, let Conor go crazy and then come back and start beating him up in rounds two and three. We were thinking it was going to take until round three, but Conor just didn’t have the heart Nate had. Conor’s a great fighter, but he hasn’t been in the wars Nate has. Nate’s experienced; he knows how to dig deep when it’s time.”
In the post-fight press conference, Diaz even said that with a full training camp he believes that McGregor would never have been hit at all and his fight would have been “flawless.” His teammates were pretty excited about the outcome, including Shields, although it seems as though he was reluctant to get blood all over his shiny white Reebok kit.
Shields had other reasons to dislike McGregor prior to the fight, including accusations the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt is on steroids and threatening to strangle him at a press conference. The veteran said the “crap” talked about Diaz and his camp was understandable because McGregor was trying to sell the fight, but some of it was out of line.
“He’s got to realize, I’m a 170-pounder; he’s a 145-pounder. He starts telling me he’ll strangle me. I’ll pick him up and I’ll choke him out no problem. He’s mouthing off like he thinks if he talks crap to people like us there’s no repercussions. I was glad Nate went and beat him up and got it settled.”
Anybody else make money on Diaz like Shields? How well did it pay off? Sound off below!