- Khamzat Chimaev claims Chechen dictator Ramazan Kadryov offered Nate Diaz extra $2 million but still refused to fight him
- Diaz’s camp quickly dismissed the claim and called it a “fairytale”
Nate Diaz’s team has denied Khamzat Chimaev’s bold claim about their botched showdown at UFC 279. Chimaev said Diaz was offered an extra $2 million just to agree he but still refused to fight him.
Nate was ducking Khamzat
As most of us can remember, UFC 279 was supposedly a welterweight showdown between Diaz and Chimaev, but the latter terribly missed weight and was replaced by Tony Ferguson on short notice. While that must have been pretty much it, Chimaev recently claimed that it is true that he missed weight but on the other hand, Diaz was also ducking him.
According to “Borz,” Chechen dictator Ramazan Kadyrov was eager to see him and Diaz take on each other and even offered the Stockton native an additional $2 million, but to no avail.
“Ramzan Akhmatovich called me and said he would give Nate $2 million to agree to the fight,” Chimaev told Captain Hardcore. “I told Diaz, but he still refused. He didn’t want to fight me and just found another option.”
It’s a Borz fairytale
It did not take long for Diaz’s team to make a response. In a statement from a tweet by ESPN’s Marc Raimondi, Team Diaz outright dismissed what they referred to as Chimaev’s “fairytale.”
“It is fun fiction for Khamzat,” the statement read. “Just lacks a shred of truth, including what he was supposed to make. At what point in Khamzat’s fairy tale did he ask Nate? When he tapped out of his weight cut at 2 AM? When he was being held in isolation at the UFC PI so the story wouldn’t get out? The only millions that were negotiated on Friday were the millions more we got for fighting Tony after Khamzat was not professional enough to show up for the fight we asked for.”
Nate Diaz rep Zach Rosenfield sent ESPN a statement on Khamzat Chimaev’s claims that Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov offered Diaz $2 million to take the Chimaev fight back in September after Chimaev missed weight pic.twitter.com/Xu1kF59iuh
— Marc Raimondi (@marcraimondi) February 11, 2023
In a previous statement, Diaz claimed that it was the other way around and Chimaev was the one ducking him.
I’m 3-0 in the UFC against Cumshot,Kabib,and Dustin porier do to them being scared pussys.
Sleep with that 👊🏼— Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) February 10, 2023
It can be recalled that after being replaced by Ferguson, Chimaev went on to fight under the UFC 279 card and co-headlined the event in a middleweight showdown with Kevin Holland. Diaz, meanwhile, happened to face “El Cucuy” in what turned out to be his farewell fight in the UFC.
As it stands, Chimaev is still looking for an opponent, most likely in the middleweight division. The win over Holland saw his unbeaten record improved to 12-0. On the other hand, Diaz has officially left the UFC and is now being linked to big-name non-UFC fighters such as Jake Paul and his former rival Diego Sanchez.
