The day after Dustin Poirier turned the world of MMA upside down by knocking down Conor McGregor at UFC 257, Nate Diaz posted one thing on Instagram.
It was a picture of him sitting down and lying on a mat, looking up and straightening up on something or someone. The caption, as is usually the case with Diaz, was a bold statement.
The last of true martial arts in the game
Diaz, who turns 36 in just a month or two, has been here for a fada period – October 21, 2004 when he made his professional debut at WEC 12. He is “very real,” as they say.
But there are a handful of MMA fans – perhaps the ones who started tuning in because of Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor – who just don’t understand Diaz and what he (and his brother, Nick) stand for as it relates to the fighting game. When they see Diaz talking about himself as he is, they joke that he’s coming from someone with a 15-10 UFC record.
So what does Diaz mean when he calls himself “the last of true martial arts”? He answered that question when asked in his recent interview with Ariel Helwani at ESPN. Here is what Diaz had to say:
“How are all these people ready? It is part of a war, the main goal of war is: Get out there and return home. And all of those people are ready. And it makes me angry too. … When these people are ready, people always talk sh * t, too. They’ll be like, ‘Nate sucks. He is a .500 hero. He is a traveler. ‘They say sh * t like that about me. You guys hate.
For one, I was here before all of you even got here. I was here first, fighting, putting on ‘Fight of the Nights.’ You guys I grew up with – just up. For two, all this time and all the records you talk about, I have a sh * tty record. Guess what? All your boys will be ready in front of you – choked, knocked down, all over the place. I’ll take a hundred of my losses before I take one of those losses – just up. So that’s what I mean when I talk about real martial artists. You can’t even make it your family home, dog. How can you be the best and greatest? ”
Love it or hate it, Diaz is as real as he gets in this sport. We hope to see him back in the octagon sooner rather than later.
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