After a lengthy contract dispute with the UFC, Nate Diaz made his return in less than optimal shape, and he got thoroughly dominated by Rafael Dos Anjos. While both Nate and his brother Nick have stated that he dealt with multiple issues and injuries during camp, White clearly wasn’t happy about what he saw.
During the UFC on FOX post-fight press conference, White spoke about a number of issues he has with Diaz, which have even led to a $10,000 fine:
There’s a laundry list of issues [with Diaz]. Like I’ve said, I’ve always liked Nate, but he’s his own worst enemy. He says he wants to make more money, then he comes in four pounds over weight, which now you lose 20 percent of your purse. Did a ton of other stuff — got fined $10,000.
But, I’ll give him this: He’s tough as hell. Those leg kicks he ate, Dos Anjos should have come back here and been arrested for attempted murder with that fight. He absolutely destroyed him. It was a one-sided beating. Diaz needs to either get serious about this sport, get his head together or retire.
But, we’re in business with him right now. You accept a certain amount of “whatever” when you are in business with the Diaz brothers — and we have other guys where lots of things happen behind the scenes and we try our best to be fair — but these guys are just over the top. He needs to get his head together, get back in the game or retire.
While the reason for the fine wasn’t clearly disclosed, Diaz did miss the open-workouts during fight week because he ‘overslept’ and didn’t think it was mandatory.
This was the only fight Diaz had in 2014, and he did state the need for a payday as the reason why he didn’t pull out of the contest due to injuries. Unfortunately for him, even with his new contract having a bump up in base pay, he still won’t be earning that much this year because of various fines. MMA Mania broke down the numbers:
Diaz recently revealed that he now makes $60,000 to show, even though he was “conned” into accepting an eight-fight deal. If that’s still accurate, Diaz forfeited $12,000 to dos Anjos for the scale fail and another $10,000 for the undisclosed fine that White mentioned, leaving him with just $38,000 in earnings inside the Octagon for 2014. That’s just not going to cut it.
Although retirement has already been mentioned, the 10-year MMA vet in Diaz, is still just 29 years old.
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