Nate Diaz maintains he has never been finished in mixed martial arts.
Diaz has been known for his delusions over the years with one example being his belief that he has already defeated Khabib Nurmagomedov after allegedly slapping him during a WSOF event.
His latest is that he’s one of the last real martial artists left in the game. His reasoning? He’s not getting finished like the other lightweights.
“How come these guys are all getting finished? It’s a part of war,” Diaz told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani. “The main objective in war is go out there and come back home. And these guys all get finished off and it f*cking irritates me too. Conor McGregor just got finished, right?
“It’s a big fight, it’s a huge thing, ‘he’s the best, he’s gonna get a rematch, he’s the f*cking GOAT’ and all this funny sh*t. It’s like bro, you just got finished off.”
Diaz Defends His Record
Diaz then pointed to how fighters like to mock his 20-12 record and the number of losses that he has. However, the Stockton native would much prefer his losses than being choked out or knocked out.
“When these guys get finished, people always talk sh*t, they’d be like, ‘Nate’s not winning this thing, he’s a .500 fighter, he’s a journeyman.’ They say sh*t like that about me,” Diaz said. “I’m like, ‘You guys are haters.’ 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 all grew up on me. Straight up.
“For two, all this time, and all my records that you guys talk about, that I have a sh*t record. Guess what? You guys all got finished on your face. Choked out, knocked out, f*cked up all over the place. Well, I’ll take a hundred of my losses before I take one of those losses. Straight up. So that’s what I mean when I’m talking about real martial artists.”
Of course, that ignores the fact that Diaz has indeed been finished when he faced Josh Thomson in 2013 where he suffered a TKO defeat following a head kick.
“… And then they still try to talk about me and my sh*t record, I’m like, ‘Ain’t no one finished me off, dog. I’m still gonna be here until the end of time,'” Diaz added. “I’m telling you, I’m hard to kill. Not like the rest of these guys.”
To his credit, Diaz has been outpointed in every other defeat and has shown to be one of the most durable fighters in the sport.
However, while Diaz has rarely been finished, it doesn’t mean he hasn’t been dominated either. One just has to look to his fights with Rafael dos Anjos or Rory MacDonald to name a few.
