When we put together notable reactions to former WWE Champion CM Punk signing with UFC, Nate Diaz was one of them. It read, simply, “Why?”
In an interview with MMA Junkie, he made his thoughts a little more colorful: “It’s horrible for the sport.”
Uh, tell us how you really feel, Nate.
“He might do great, but why does he get a chance?” Diaz asked. “He’s an amateur. You’re going to put an amateur in there with pros? That makes us all amateurs, so I think it’s ridiculous. As far as I’m concerned, f*ck him, f*ck the whole situation. Anybody who takes that fight is tripping.”
Here’s the rant. NSFW language, obviously.
Diaz feels that a 36-year old pro wrestler deciding to step into the cage on MMA’s highest level without any professional fight experience, and getting paid more than most to do it. He considers it, “making a joke out of [his] serious life.”
“If I want to, I can’t go play in the NBA – not even Stefan Struve’s big ass,” Diaz said. “He can’t go play in the NBA if he wants to because he feels like making a change. For a publicity thing? They wouldn’t pay him no money, and they wouldn’t even let him play. It’s ridiculous.
“I don’t think you should just let some millionaire WWE guy just come on over and play a little game, like have fun with his career. I’m over here busting my ass, fighting for 10 years and doing my thing and having a serious job that I have to do for this. And this guy is going to come over and probably get paid more than everyone in the room.”
We made Nick Diaz #4 on our list of 10 guys we’d like to see Punk take on in UFC. Maybe we should slide Nate up to #1?
