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Nate Diaz is a fighter who has possibly been touted as the underdog the most times in the UFC. The Stockton brawler made his debut against Manvel Gamburyan in the final fight of The Ultimate Fighter season 5. After winning the fight by submission, Diaz faced big names in the UFC like Rafael Dos Anjos, Donald Cerrone, Clay Guida, and Rory McDonald. He has also collected several post-fight bonuses over his career.
What truly made Diaz a star was his short-notice win over Conor McGregor via submission at UFC 196. Diaz went on to have a second fight with McGregor at UFC 202, which the Stockton native lost via a controversial majority decision.
In his professional career, Nate Diaz has twelve losses on his record, and that is a fairly big number. As of today, Diaz's record stands at 21-12-0. Despite this, he continues to be loved by MMA fans wholehe.
Here are some reasons why Nate Diaz continues to be a fan favorite:
5) Outspoken nature
The mention of the name Nate Diaz brings to mind his casual but well-timed use of expletives mixed with a great sense of humor, volleys of middle fingers inside and outside the octagon, and his entertaining antics.
Whether it's throwing his fellow TUF fighter's mattress into a swimming pool or the bottle fight between his team and Conor McGregor's at a press conference. The Stockton native has time and again given audiences moments to look forward to.
Diaz carries forward an upfront, thug-like attitude into the octagon from the rough streets of Stockton, California. Always confrontational from his days on The Ultimate Fighter Season 5, Diaz has never failed to entertain a crowd.
In the build-up to both of his fights with Conor McGregor, a fighter known for his trash talk, McGregor tried talking Diaz down. However, the Stockton native answered with his own to make their fight all the more entertaining. That is something very few of McGregor's opponents have managed to do.
Ariel Helwani, a fight journalist whose interviewing methods have been seen as annoying by many fighters, also got the honor of getting punked by Diaz on a couple of occasions.
UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou recently tweeted regarding the disparity in UFC pay compared to YouTuber Logan Paul's purse for his recent boxing match.
Nate Diaz had this to say in response to the champion of a weight class three classes above his in an interview conducted by Kevin Iole for Yahoo! Sports:
"What is Francis Ngannou doing wrong? I've been doing more right than these m-----------s for years and years. They should have been spitting all that 'I need money' s--t long time ago like I was. I was never no champion and I was saying, 'F--k you, drop me or let me get some f-----g money cracking' and what happened? The stock just raised anyway and nobody was jumping on and now they're like 'What are we doing wrong?' I'm like 'You should have listened to your daddy years ago, m-----------s!'...It's a changing process but I think I was ahead of the changes,"
This is just one of the many examples of Diaz's 'Stockton mentality'.
4) Nate Diaz is not afraid to take risks
Diaz is known to employ some practices into his training that not many fighters are willing to experiment with. The one that stands out the most is his use of marijuana. In an interview conducted by Aaron Bronsteter, when asked about his use of marijuana, Nate Diaz had this to say:
"I never thought it (marijuana) was bad to begin with, and I thought it was all positive and productive. I don't think people should be going out and smoking weed, I don't want to put that look out or anything, but as an athlete I think you should be smoking some marijuana if you choose to do something to help you get through the day instead of sticking a bunch of steroids in your a** and taking a bunch of faulty supplements. So I like to do the whole natural way, and I believe longevity-wise that helped me. Look how long I've been in the game."
Nate Diaz was also known for going vegan for a while. Although he later admitted to consuming fish and eggs, it takes a lot of courage for someone in the fight game to even think of going on a vegan diet. This is because of the demands of strenuous training in the sport of MMA and the stigmas associated with veganism.
Nate Diaz continues to be on a plant-based diet when preparing for his fights. This has been given credit for the fact that Nate rarely gets knocked down in his fights. Of all the losses he has faced, Nate Diaz has never had a KO loss to date, even after taking plenty of powerful strikes to his head. He has been handed two TKO losses, but only one of them came from a vicious strike, the other via doctor's stoppage.
It has been speculated that it's not just Nate's granite chin that keeps him from getting knocked out, but the anti-inflammatory effects of a plant-based diet that possibly prevents his brain from shutting off when his head takes a hit.
3) Gas tank
The Stockton native has always had incredible cardio. He recently revealed that he regularly does triathlon training, which could explain his monstrous gas tank.
Nate Diaz derives an unlimited supply of cardio from this unusual way of training. His opponents can be sure that they play on his turf when he is in a five-round fight. Diaz's best performances usually come in the later rounds of a fight due to his triathlon training.
2) Octagon entertainer
Nate Diaz is a slow starter in his fights, but once he gets comfortable, you start seeing his true self come out. Ever so often, his forearms spread outwards as if to question his opponent with a poker face. He tauntingly asks them what more they have for him.
Although these taunts do not score points for Nate Diaz on the judges' scorecards, they definitely score points with the audience and help him get into the opponent's head. This move often gets complemented with the signature 'Stockton slap' or both of his middle fingers shown to the opponent.
And if Diaz's striking and submission prowess aren't enough for the crowd, he even raises his middle fingers when holding an opponent in a triangle choke. This makes Nate Diaz a total package for igniting the crowd.
1) Diaz walks 'the path of least resistance'
Many fighters in the UFC exemplify Sylvester Stallone's dialog from Rocky Balboa that says, "it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward." Nate Diaz takes this advice to the next level.
Although Diaz has had twelve defeats in his professional MMA career, his fighting spirit has not fazed one bit. He consistently brings the same level of aggression fight after fight, regardless of whether the previous one was a victory or a loss.
This is possible only because Nate Diaz follows an approach of not forcing an outcome, both inside and outside the octagon. Inside and outside the cage, Diaz takes opportunities only when they appear. He calls it the path of least resistance.
Nate Diaz does not force his way into victory inside the octagon. He capitalizes on the opportunity when it presents itself, be it through knocking the opponent out, or submitting them. Outside the cage, Diaz doesn't run after the championship belt but rather seeks out difficult fights.
It is for this reason that we have not seen Nate Diaz too often in the octagon in the past few years. The few times we did see him, it was only in big fights. He was given his first fight against Conor McGregor on just eleven days' notice. Diaz not only took the opportunity but also won that fight.
Nate Diaz will face Leon Edwards this weekend at UFC 263. There is a big chance that the winner of this fight will face Kamaru Usman for the welterweight title. Let's hope to see what the path of least resistance has in store for Nate Diaz from here on.
