Nate Diaz hasn’t had a fight since a year ago where he lost to now-champion Rafael dos Anjos via decision. The reason for his absence? A suspension like his brother? Nah. He was just sick of the fight game and decided to take a long break. That’s a classic Diaz brothers move right there, but there’s no move more Diaz than what went down at the UFC fighter hotel leading up to Nate’s fight with Michael Johnson at UFC on FOX 17.
The video, shared by UFC fighter Tamdan McCrory (who fights Josh Samman on the same card), shows Diaz shoving Johnson before their respective camps pull them apart. Sources told MMA Fighting the scuffle went down after the two passed each other in the hallway a couple of times while dealing with pre-fight medical checks.
This is not the first time Nate has gotten into things outside the cage by a long shot. In August, the Diaz brothers got into several altercations with lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov at a World Series of Fighting event in Las Vegas. There was a shoving match at ringside which then escalated to a full on brawl on the floor of a Vegas casino. Watch a compilation of both incidents here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9TydSjurMo
And then there was the infamous 2010 Strikeforce brawl in Nashville between Nate’s ‘Skrap Pack’ and Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller. That fight went down in the cage immediately following the show’s main-event and cost the promotion their broadcast deal with CBS. Again, here’s the footage of that debacle:
So, the lesson to be learned here? Don’t wander too close to the Diaz brothers before or after a fight because they’ll do more than just mean mug you. No word on if this incident will result in some sort of punishment … the UFC has been known to be lenient when it comes to the Diaz brothers, but you know they won’t be happy with something like this happening right under their noses.
The Florida commission may have something to say about this, as well. I doubt Nate’s fight will be cancelled, but he could be looking at a significant fine. When Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier threw down during a press event in Vegas, Jones ended up being fined $50,000, while Cormier took a $9,000 hit to his paycheck.
