(“Nice win, Nate, but I’m also going to need you to come in on Sunday, mkay? Thaaanks.” Photo via Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)
Two months after being removed from the UFC’s rankings out of spite, Nate Diaz is still M.I.A. Well, he’s not missing in the traditional sense, as much as he’s taking an extended break from MMA competition (a “Stocktation”, if you will) until the UFC meets his likely insane salary demands. Well, not *insane* salary demands, but something much higher than his longtime promotion is willing to fork over.
But seeing as Dana White has *never* ended a relationship on good terms (“Mrs. Janice from 8th grade Chemistry is a f*cking joke!”), it means that now is about the time for him to start discrediting Diaz using as many fudged numbers and blatant lies as he can fit into a media scrum before his head starts glowing red with rage. You know, kind of like how he treats the history of mixed martial arts.
From his interview with MMAFighting published earlier today, here are just a couple of the lies White spun in an attempt to convince us that Nate Diaz was never that good anyway.
Dana White: “You realize he’s like 1-3 in his last three fights? He’s 1-3, he’s nowhere near a title fight, he’s never won a title, and he doesn’t move the needle.”
Reality: Well, one cannot be 1-3 in their past three fights, because math, but Diaz is 1-2 in his past three fights, with his sole win coming over former title challenger Gray Maynard. So, you know, a tomato can.
White: “Lowest rated FOX show ever. Lowest rated FOX show ever. His numbers, he doesn’t pull the numbers in.”
Reality: Diaz’s two FOX headlining gigs, UFC on FOX 3 and 5, drew 2.25 million and 3.41 million, respectively. The lowest rated FOX show actually belongs to Demetrious Johnson (obviously), whose UFC on FOX 8 title defense against John Moraga drew just 2.04 million viewers*. Diaz’s victory over Maynard at the TUF 18 Finale drew 1,129,000 viewers, however, which is significantly higher than many Fight Night cards.
In fact, the only time White isn’t technically lying in his interview is when he’s giving his opinion of Diaz, which is that Nate “isn’t a needle mover” and also “doesn’t move the needle.” Not like, say, Gina Carano, who should be signed by the UFC next week and fighting Ronda Rousey in December.
A (occasionally hilarious) dumbass? Yes. A homophobe? Maybe. Suffering from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome? Some of the signs are there. The point ith, Nate Diaz may be many things, but to claim that he isn’t one of the bigger stars in a division whose champion hasn’t fought in nearly a year is poppycock. Pure, unadulterated, poppycock.
The saddest part is, no self-respecting (re: credentialed) MMA journalist will ever have the cojones to call out The Baldfather on his BS, not even when it takes the absolute minimum amount of research to do so. His ability to present reality as he sees it is second to none, and we just soak that shit up like a sponge. But to sum up what we’ve learned today: Nate Diaz isn’t a star, Royston Wee is, and Dana White’s ego has seen yet another fighter removed from the roster. Maybe he’ll eventually figure out that the common denominator in all of his hostile relationships is himself.
Nah, he won’t.
*UFC on FOX 11 drew just 1.98 million viewers, but those numbers were revised to 2.5 million.