Sometimes you’re more proud of someone in defeat than in victory, and Nate Diaz’s loss on Saturday to Benson Henderson at UFC on Fox 5 was one of those times for Cesar Gracie.
His boy lasted the full five rounds in his lightweight championship battle, but only had a busted eye and a bruised ego to show for it.
But nevertheless, Gracie is proud of his performance.
In an interview with MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani, Nick’s coach and manager said, “A lesser heart person would have quit. A lesser heart person would have shrivelled up and ‘OK I’m ready to go home and get my cheque’, but Nate came back in and never did that. Nate’s so tough, and I’m proud of him.”
Henderson produced the performance of a champion to defeat Nate, who never looked like a threat throughout the entire match. In the post-fight presser, the younger Diaz brother blamed the blurry vision in his eye, which got caught by a Henderson left early in the match, for his loss. It was a point reiterated by Gracie.
“He got hit with a really hot one in the first round. The fight was going really good, the first half of the round I said, ‘OK, he’s not getting taken down,’ he’s looking good, everything was on track and everything. And at the end of the round, he got hit with a really hard one. Ben Henderson popped him with a left hand I think, and Nate said it felt like his whole fist went into his eye socket and then popped back out, and I could see something that changed. In the second, he kept getting taken down and pretty much lost every round, and you know that’s the fight game.”
Gracie said that more than anything, Nick is sorry that he let his team down, but his loss now clears the way for Nate’s training partner, Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez, to step up for a title shot against Henderson.
Alongside Eddie Alvarez, Melendez is considered the best lightweight outside the UFC, and he also happens to be trained by Gracie.
There’s no word yet who Henderson’s next opponent will be, and with the 155-pound division one of the most stacked in the entire UFC, there’s plenty to choose from. But both Gracie and Nate are already campaigning for Melendez.
“I think that’s the fight they should make.” Gracie told Helwani.
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