Every second of silence feels like forever when that quiet overwhelms a national television broadcast. UFC, in particular, doesn’t allow even an instant of quiet solitude. Whether it’s the roar of the crowd, the nonstop hucksterism of an announce crew with a million products to sell or the various sound effects Fox appends to each show, quiet is decidedly not part of the process.
Perhaps that’s why it felt like Nate Diaz (18-10) was having a moment immediately after his emphatic return to the UFC Octagon against rising star Michael Johnson.
There was no actual silence, of course. The audience at home could see the ever-voluble Diaz gesticulating wildly as color commentator Joe Rogan looked on with what could only be described as amused awe.
But at home, there was dead quiet. Diaz, in his fashion, had delivered a diatribe so foul and F-bomb-filled that Fox’s censors were overwhelmed, choosing silence instead of risking the fine-able offense of missing an expletive and inviting trouble.
In a way, it was appropriate. Diaz overwhelmed the censors just as he had Johnson. For 15 minutes, he kept up his usual blistering pace. For much of it, Johnson matched him blow for blow. But in that third round, and beyond as poor Rogan discovered, Diaz was every bit as strong as he was in the opening frame.
“Diaz was able to keep throwing punches through the whole fight at the same pace. He kept landing the jab and then working in the combinations with the left,” UFC light heavyweight champion and Fox Sports commentator Daniel Cormier said after the fight. “This guy is a player if he’s serious. If Nate Diaz has his mental game intact, he can beat anybody in this division.”
For Diaz, who has been out of the cage for more than a year, it was an extraordinary return to form. But while he certainly announced himself as a lightweight contender, it would be unfair to try to limit Diaz’s impact to mere sport. There’s something about a Diaz fight, as Bloody Elbow’s Tim Burke explained, that can turn regular old cage fighting into some kind of performance art:
Nate Diaz made MMA fun for 15 minutes. I mean, it’s always fun to a degree – we all like the punchy kicky. But the typical Diaz antics just make for better theater, and it always helps when he’s beating up his opponent while doing it. He got Michael Johnson off of his game, and it helped him to win the fight.
The “typical Diaz antics”—much like those of his older brother, Nick—include the kind antisocial behavior that would draw dozens of flags in the National Football League. Diaz taunts opponents without mercy, alternating between mean mug stares and dismissive smiles, each sneer a message that, no you can’t hurt him and, yes, he can and will hurt you.
At one point in the bout, he literally stopped what he was doing to point and laugh at an ineffectual Johnson sequence. Later he slapped his opponent with an open hand, then pantomimed doing exactly that. You know, just in case anyone had missed the emasculating moment.
When he rolled for a kneebar long after the final bell rang, then tossed his hands up into the air in triumph, it was a the perfect cherry for what had become a classic Diaz sundae.
Heated banter before the fight? Check.
Confrontation that nearly spiraled out of control? Check.
Swarming, offensive boxing that eventually wears his opponent down? Postfight shenanigans? Check and check.
It was everything we have come to expect from the Diaz brothers, athletes who delight and dismay depending on a fan’s point of view. To some they are a caustic reminder of the sport’s course origins. To others, they are a welcome respite in a world where the notion of respect at times feels equal parts compulsory and smarmy.
Everyone is a product of their environment. If the Diaz brothers are rude, crude and socially unacceptable, it’s because that’s exactly what it took to survive their childhood in Stockton, California, at one point listed among the most miserable cities in America by Forbes. It’s there where MMA Fighting’s Ben Fowlkes wrote that the Diaz ethos was created and nurtured:
These days it was strip malls and chain stores, but it had been much worse in the years prior. Growing up here, Diaz learned a certain tough guy code before he learned anything else. He learned how not to stare at people, and yet how not to look away. He learned when trouble was about to start up, and how to make other people believe he was ready for it.
If it all feels familiar, that’s because new UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor has combined the Diaz’s antisocial tendencies with former middleweight contender Chael Sonnen’s gift for gab to create the most compelling act in MMA history. It makes sense, then, that Diaz would direct that already infamous postfight rant in McGregor’s direction.
“F–k that,” Diaz said. “Conor McGregor, you’re taking everything I worked for, motherf–ker. I’m gonna fight your f–king ass. You know what’s the real fight, what’s the real money fight — me. Not these clowns that you already punked at the press conference. Ain’t nobody wants to see that. You know you can beat them already. It’s an easy fight. You want the real s–t. Right here.”
McGregor, who has indicated a desire to move up to 155 pounds, immediately met fire with fire.
“Line them up on their knees with their hands out,” McGregor wrote on Twitter. “I want them to beg me.”
While brother Nick has been in several blockbusters, including bouts with certain first-ballot Hall of Famers Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre, McGregor’s presence would provide a spotlight brighter than any Nate has ever seen. While he once fought Benson Henderson for the lightweight title, Henderson’s star shines with a different wattage than McGregor’s.
At this point, a McGregor fight would be the biggest of almost anyone’s career. (Warning: Video contains NSFW language.)
“Conor did a great job. He did a great job,” Diaz told MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani (transcription by MMAMania). “That’s what you’re supposed to do. If he wants to come up and get the money fight, get the good fight. You know where that’s at.”
If the bout should happen, it would immediately become one of 2016’s most anticipated fights, an amazing stylistic matchup almost guaranteed to be a fight-of-the-year-caliber scrap.
Jonathan Snowden covers combat sports for Bleacher Report.
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