Nate Diaz was apparently far from being 100% in the biggest fights of his life.
The ex-UFC superstar has never been one to pull out of many fights, only having to withdraw once due to injury in a legendary promotional run that lasted from 2007 all the way to 2022, where he finished out his contract with a submission win over Tony Ferguson at UFC 279.
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Diaz (21-13) may not have always won, but the Stockton-native fought just about everybody the UFC put in front of him in the lightweight and welterweight divisions, getting inside the Octagon with the likes of Conor McGregor, Leon Edwards, Jorge Masvidal, Anthony Pettis and many more.
Hoping to avenge one of his losses to BMF rival Jorge Masvidal in a boxing match this Friday, Diaz would reflect on his UFC heyday, disclosing injuries in fights that he refused to pull out of.
Diaz’s former foe McGregor has also fought through a number of injuries, finally succumbing to a broken toe, which forced him out of his UFC 303 main event vs. Michael Chandler. This was McGregor’s first fight withdrawal in the UFC, due to injury.
“Yeah, I’ve been f***** up. That’s what I’m feeling Conor right now,” Diaz said on MightyCast. “Who been on his ass? I’ve been f***** up for hella fights and I don’t be pulling out fights especially if I make a big ass deal.
“I was f***** up when I fought Masvidal. I tore him my meniscus two weeks before I fought him and I couldn’t even f****** hardly walk in the fight,” Diaz revealed. “I didn’t even know I tore my meniscus. I found that out after. But, I was training and I was like, dude, I could hardly even walk. And I was like, hell no, we’re going here. It was Madison Square Garden, headlining and f****** Donald Trump came through. Think that was the first president ever been at UFC. I’m like, yeah right, I’m going to that fight.”
Fighting with a torn meniscus, Diaz would go on to lose via doctor stoppage TKO after Masvidal opened up a huge cut over one of his eyes, with “Gamebred” becoming the inaugural BMF Champion the night of UFC 244 in Nov. 2019.
UFC 244 in New York City was just one of the several massive main event spots Diaz was a part of, with none bigger than his rematch with heated rival Conor McGregor at UFC 202 – who Diaz beat months prior, shocking the world with a second-round submission of the featherweight champ.
Diaz lost the rubber match with McGregor, but not by much with the judges scoring the fight a majority decision after five rounds of action. Diaz says he considered withdrawing from the bout beforehand because of a rib injury.
“Conor, I f****** got, I f***** ripped the cartilage in my rib,” Diaz revisited the lead-up to UFC 202. “I was like, I can’t even fight this motherf*****, f*** that. I’m not not going…’ I was like, ‘f*** that s***’. I was f***** up in that fight.”
In addition to his past fights with Masvidal and McGregor, Nate Diaz says he had an injured rib going into his 2014 loss against former champ Rafael Dos Anjos.
McGregor and Diaz left their series all tied up at 1-1 with a big question mark on whether the trilogy fight will ever take place, especially with Diaz no longer under UFC contract.
Many were to quick to judge Conor McGregor following his unprecented withdrawal from UFC 303 due to injury, with the Irishman taking shots from Islam Makhachev, Dustin Poirier and Rafael Dos Anjos, but not his former Diaz, who thought McGregor pulling out was probably a ‘good idea’.
“I think it was just a minor thing,” Diaz told MMA Junkie, regarding McGregor’s withdrawal. “I think they made a bigger deal out of it than it is. Good idea. If I get f****** up, I would like to push the fight back too, but people f****** freak out. I think I wouldn’t want to fight until I’m 100 percent ready to rock too, because in the past I’ve done all kinds of s*** I shouldn’t have done.”
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Source link: UFC News: Nate Diaz Reveals Injuries in Conor McGregor, Jorge Masvidal Fights