Getty UFC President Dana White attends a news conference for the bout between boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor.
UFC president Dana White reacted to Nate Diaz completing the last fight on his current deal with the promotion.
Initially, Diaz got scheduled to take on the top-ranked welterweight prospect Khamzat Chimaev in the headlining bout of UFC 279 this past Saturday. Chimaev had agreed to a welterweight contest but failed to show up on the contractual weight, coming in seven and a half pounds over the nontitle limit at 178.5 pounds.
Tony Ferguson stepped up to replace Chimaev in a surprising shuffle of three matchups on the card. Diaz competed against Ferguson in the new main event on one day’s notice. The Stockton native managed to come out on top with a finish in the fourth round.
NATE DIAZ DOES ONE MORE TIME!!!!!!! #UFC279 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
At the post-fight press conference, White shared his thoughts on Diaz finally becoming a free agent after serving 15 years under the UFC banner.
“No matter what Nate does from here on out,” White told Heavy among other media members. “This is his house, he’s been here forever. It’s been a blast having him here and I wish him well. He and I had this discussion months ago at the offices, whatever he moves on to do, I wish him nothing but the best. If he is starting his own organization or getting into promoting or doing something else, I wish him nothing but the best of luck. It’s been awesome having him here.”
Diaz Wants To Return for the Title
After what could be his final outing in the promotion, Diaz reassured the fans that he plans to return to the UFC at some point in the future. But first, he is looking to venture into another combat sport and become the best at it.
“At the end of the day, I love the UFC,” Diaz said in the post-fight octagon interview. “Shoutout to Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta, and Hunter Campbell for giving me the opportunity, and the platform the whole time for everybody and for myself. I feel like right now, I’ve had the longest career in the UFC, and I’ve had the most successful one out of everybody. I outdid everyone on pay. I outdid everybody on surviving.
“I want to get out of the UFC for a minute and show all these UFC fighters how to take over and own up another sport how you are supposed to do it. Conor McGregor did not know how to do it, and none of these other fighters know how to do it.
“So, I’m going to go out there and take over another profession and become the best at that. Show everybody I’m the best at that and I’m going to be right the f*** back here to get a motherf****** UFC title, the best title in the world.”
Nate Diaz sounds off to close out #UFC279!
Diaz declared he beat Chimaev as well
Before taking to the octagon opposite Ferguson, Diaz proclaimed himself as the first loss on the undefeated Chimaev’s record.
“It’s all a mess. It’s f****** irritating,” Diaz said via MMA Fighting. “I trained for Khamzat. I don’t even know how to fight this guy. I’m going to watch some video, but s***, it don’t matter anyway because I train for everybody always anyway. I don’t train for fights anymore, I just train to fight everybody always, ready for war. It for sure makes me happy though that I’m not supporting the bulls*** that they’ve [the UFC] been trying to push on me the whole time.
“Scared. That f****** fool is scared,” Diaz said. “At least I don’t have to deal with this, so that’s 1-0 on [Chimaev]. So if I can get through this dude tomorrow, then that’s 2-0 for the weekend. So this is 2-for-1.”