MMA

Khamzat Chimaev didn't come close to making weight for his originally scheduled fight against Nate Diaz, but he apparently wanted to go head-to-head anyway.

Chimaev told UFC interviewer Megan Olivi that he offered to give Diaz his purse to have the UFC 279 main event to go on as scheduled.

“I could make that weight, so the doctor stopped that s--t. So yeah, what I could do now? I was waiting what UFC said to me. I said I wanna fight, so I gave all my money to [Diaz]. It was almost two million. So I said, 'Give all my money to that guy, let him fight.' If he is that gangster, he should fight for money. But he didn’t wanna fight me, you know? So, who’s the gangster now?”

Chimaev weighed in Friday at 178.5 pounds, seven pounds over the limit for his bout against Diaz. The Russian's inability—or unwillingness—to cut weight sent UFC 279 into a state of chaos, with Dana White shuffling three matches on the card to make things work. Chimaev wound up fighting Kevin Holland, while Diaz took on Tony Ferguson.

“You care about that s--t? I don’t care,” Chimaev told reporters when asked about criticism over his weight. “I care about my family. I care about my career. I care about my money. … One day they’re with me, one day they’re not with me.

“So, I’m real, guys. So, I like the people that are real. Not fake people going one way or going the other way.”

Both Diaz and Chimaev were victorious in their make-up fights.

Nate Diaz is exiting the UFC, but not before taking home one last performance bonus.

The veteran fighter won the Performance of the Night bonus for his fourth-round submission of Tony Ferguson in the main event of Saturday night's UFC 279, per Alexander K. Lee of MMA Fighting. That earned him $50,000 in bonus money.

It was the 16th bonus Diaz has earned for his performance in the Octagon. Only Donald Cerrone and Charles Oliveira, with 18 each, have earned more.

It concluded a wild week after Diaz's original opponent, Khamzat Chimaev, missed weight by 7.5 pounds. That left the UFC scrambling to salvage the card, eventually pairing Diaz with Ferguson and Chimaev with Kevin Holland, who he submitted in the first round

As for Diaz's next steps, his team said this week he was starting his own MMA promotion, Real Fight Inc.

"I wanna get out of the UFC for a minute, and show all of these UFC fighters how to take over, and own up another sport how you're supposed to do it," Diaz said in his post-fight interview. "Because Conor McGregor didn't know how to do it, and none of these other fighters know how to do it. So I'm gonna go out there, take over another profession and become the best at that, show everybody I'm the best at that. And then I'm gonna be right the f--k back here to get a motherf--king UFC title, the best title in the world."

The 37-year-old Diaz is one of the UFC's most popular fighters and has beaten some of the promotion's biggest names, including Donald Cerrone, McGregor—they split their two meetings—and Anthony Pettis. He also went into the Octagon against big names like Jorge Masvidal and Leon Edwards, though he lost those matchups.

As for UFC fighters who took their talents elsewhere, McGregor flirted with boxing, losing to Floyd Mayweather, while Brock Lesnar had his on-again, off-again relationship with the WWE. It remains to be seen what Diaz's next chapter holds, but his time in the UFC may not be completely over just yet.

Nate Diaz said after Saturday's win over Tony Ferguson he wants to conquer another sport before returning to UFC, via ESPN's Ariel Helwani.

The 37-year-old explained his plans to Joe Rogan in the post-fight interview, via Damon Martin of MMA Fighting:

I want to get out of the UFC for a minute and show all these UFC fighters how to take over and own up another sport how you're supposed to do it. Cause Conor McGregor didn't know how to do it. None of these other fighters know how to do it. So I'm going to go out there and I'm going take over another profession and become the best at that.

The win at UFC 279 was the first for Diaz since 2019, having lost to Jorge Masvidal and Leon Edwards in this span.

Diaz was initially supposed to face Khamzat Chimaev on Saturday, but the opponent missed weight and UFC was forced to reshuffle the card. The original match was considered "punishment" by Diaz, who admitted he didn't want the bout, via ESPN's Marc Raimondi.

"I've gotta just go in there and fight him for you real quick," Diaz said. "I'm unmotivated for that."

The veteran can now be released from his contract, providing a chance to potentially move into boxing.

Jake Paul indicated Diaz could be his next opponent in a tweet after Saturday's fight:

Paul is set to fight former MMA star Anderson Silva after already beating Tyron Woodley and Ben Askren.

Conor McGregor also attempted a transition to boxing but lost to Floyd Mayweather.

Diaz believes he can do better than the others in a new sport.

Not surprised, motherf--kers? Admit it: you were at least a little surprised.

You were at least a little surprised when Khamzat Chimaev missed the 170-pound weight limit Friday by the size of a child’s bowling ball. The frenetic game of musical chairs it set off saw Chimaev exit the main event, only to witness the creation of a better contest by his absence—two action-fighting veterans would now square off, with Tony Ferguson stepping in to face the inimitable Nate Diaz.

And if that didn’t surprise you, how about 24 hours later, when Diaz brandished a guillotine choke of Ferguson in the fourth round? That was at least a mildly surprising outcome, if the oddsmakers are any barometer.

But here’s one thing that should never surprise you when it comes to Nate Diaz: He knows how to play this fight game, and when the lights went dim at the end of UFC 279 Saturday in Las Vegas, he was the last player standing.

Having just completed the last fight on his UFC contract, in his post-fight speech Diaz essentially declared it open bidding season for his services. That goes for a long-anticipated foray into boxing, but didn't end there either.

“I’m just gonna show everybody how to own another sport,” Diaz told longtime UFC broadcaster and podcaster Joe Rogan after the fight. “All the motherf--kers out there trying to run the other sports—boxing, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, other MMA organizations—crème de la crème right here. I’m coming for you.”

We’ll unpack that more in a second, but first his win over Ferguson. As many observers noted, it’s a little sad and downright strange that this fight didn’t happen years ago. At 37 and 38 years of age, respectively, and with plenty of bouts on each ledger, Diaz and Ferguson are still plenty frisky but no longer at the peaks of their primes. No matter, the bright lights were on and there was money to be made, and in the case of Diaz, a much better shot at winning than he had against the terrifying Chimaev. (All Chimaev did was rag-doll Kevin Holland into submission inside a round in the evening's co-main event.)

“I was here to get my job done,” Diaz told Rogan. “I had one fight left, and I told them after not letting me have fights forever to just give me anyone you’ve got. I got a worthy OG, a great representative of mixed martial arts.”

Both early rounds were close, with the first being a feel-out affair that Diaz barely took on volume: 22-19 in significant strikes, per UFC stats. The second round was also close, with Ferguson bleeding around his eye by round’s end.

The third round was all Ferguson, and it looked for a moment as if El Cucuy might carry the day. At roughly 4:10 of the round, Diaz took another in a barrage of leg kicks—42 percent of Ferguson's significant strikes went to the legs—and wobbled and visibly winced. He then walked in a slow circle around the cage. It was clear Ferguson’s leg kicks—hard things that pitted bone on bone—were having their effect, including on Ferguson, who suffered from a gash on his own left shin. The damage was piling up, and Ferguson wasn’t letting off the pressure.

The momentum was not in Diaz’s favor when the championship rounds began. There were solid exchanges, with Diaz again retaking momentum by landing flurries as he chased Ferguson around the Octagon. Ferguson, perhaps reeling a bit, went for a double-leg takedown. But Diaz was ready and caught Ferguson’s head in a choke attempt. It wasn’t long before the guillotine was locked in, and Ferguson was forced to tap.

Afterward, Diaz was surprisingly magnanimous toward the UFC, a company he has previously urinated on.

“All I know is there’s been a love-hate relationship with me and the UFC the whole time I’ve been in this f--kin’ organization,” Diaz said to Rogan in an understatement. “At the end of the day, I love the UFC. Shout out to Dana White and [UFC Chief Business Officer] Hunter Campbell for giving us the platform. I feel like I’ve had the longest career in the UFC, and I’ve had the most successful one.”

But after giving his employer their flowers, he then turned to new pastures.

“I want to get out of the UFC for a minute to show all these UFC fighters how to take over another sport, how you’re supposed to do it,” Diaz said. “Conor McGregor didn’t know how to do it. I’m going to go out to another profession and I’m going to go out there and take over that, show everybody I’m the best at that, then I’m going to get right the f--k back in here and get a UFC title.”

So, what will Diaz do now? That, as they say, is the million-dollar question.

Surely Bellator and Professional Fighters League will make overtures—that $1 million PFL championship format might be alluring—but for all its long-running and well-documented issues on fighter pay, no other MMA show will be able to offer a fighter like Diaz anywhere near the return on investment that the UFC can provide. Remember: these are shows without regular pay-per-views. It might make sense in many cases. It doesn’t with Diaz. The ceiling of MMA is still rather low.

I can’t see Diaz seriously trying kickboxing, but jiu-jitsu could be a possibility. If competitive bucket-listing is now the name of the game for team Diaz, wouldn’t it be hard to resist the narrative bookend of jiu-jitsu? After all, that’s what started it all for Nate and older brother Nick. Any grappling show would sell their grandmother's dog to get Nate Diaz under its banner. Would it surprise you to see him go this way? He’s done surprising things before.

And though he doesn’t need the money, boxing is where the money is, and it’s where he’s talked about going for quite a while now. In fact, recently he’s been flirting with celebrity-boxing luminary Jake Paul. In the business world, they call that a license to print money. No surprise in the world if he takes this. (Though I'd be less surprised to see Paul find a reason not to move forward.)

Further, Diaz and the aforementioned McGregor still have unfinished business, and they both know this. There's nothing saying their trilogy fight has to a) happen in the UFC or b) be an MMA fight.

If that wasn’t enough, he also purportedly has a promotion of his own, Real Fight, Inc., in the works. Diaz has previously said this could focus on combat sports outside of MMA, so his post-fight callouts could be in relation to this. It's not just a fly-by-night thing either. Not only has he applied for a promotor's license, there are also hats.

This is a man with irons in the fire. This is also a man with a golden horseshoe lodged somewhere inside that triathlon-sharpened personage. If Chimaev hadn’t missed weight by such an egregious amount, Diaz would almost certainly have been on the business end of a one-sided beating Saturday night. Instead, he won a two-way action fight that ended with his open pitch to the entire freaking world of combat sports.

Sometimes, it’s good to be Nate Diaz. But that shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Khamzat Chimaev finished a turbulent weekend on a positive note with a first-round submission win over Kevin Holland in the co-main event of UFC 279 from Las Vegas.

The action was fast and furious from the start, as Chimaev immediately jumped on a takedown attempt at the opening bell, and Holland was forced to scramble just to survive.

While he was successful for a bit, the inevitability of Chimaev was too much. He latched on to a D'Arce choke, and while it had to be reapplied a few times, he locked it in and drew the tap from Holland.

The win keeps Chimaev from a disastrous weekend, but it's hard to consider him a winner all things considered. Chimaev was given a golden opportunity to show off his skills against a relatively big draw in Nate Diaz as the headliner.

Instead, he was relegated to fighting Holland after weighing 7.5 pounds over the 171-pound allowance in the welterweight division.

UFC President Dana White shed some light on why Chimaev missed weight so badly.

"He was very, very lean already, and he should have come in on weight," White told reporters. "He started to cut weight, and he started locking up and cramping and all the things that happen from a bad cut."

Regardless, Chimaev kept his winning streak alive despite the last-minute opponent change.

It does open up questions about what happens next for the 28-year-old. Chimaev seemed like a lock for a title shot with a win at UFC 279, but now there's the question of whether he can continue making the cut down to 170 pounds.

This is the first time he has missed weight in the UFC, but at 6'2", he's a big welterweight.

As long as he can prove this was a one-time fluke, he's likely to continue his ascent as a UFC star.

Conor McGregor declared Saturday morning that a third fight between himself and Nate Diaz will happen at some point.

McGregor made the statement as part of a tweet in which he congratulated Diaz on having the final fight of his UFC contract at UFC 279 on Saturday night:

Diaz was originally supposed to face Khamzat Chimaev, but when the latter missed weight on Friday, Tony Ferguson was installed as Diaz's opponent. At the conclusion of the main event of UFC 279, Diaz will have fulfilled his contractual obligations to UFC.

There is seemingly no imminent end in sight to McGregor's UFC deal, meaning Diaz would either have to sign a new contract with UFC or McGregor would have to wait for his UFC contract to expire in order for them to fight for a third time.

McGregor, 34, is widely regarded as one of the greatest fighters and biggest draws in UFC history. He was once viewed as perhaps the best pound-for-pound fighter as well, but it was Diaz who put a stop to that.

Entering UFC 196 in 2016, McGregor owned a career professional record of 19-2 and hadn't lost since 2010. Shockingly, Diaz beat him by submission with a rear-naked choke in the second round.

McGregor got revenge in somewhat controversial fashion at UFC 202, beating Diaz by majority decision.

Since that win, McGregor is just 2-3, including losing back-to-back losses against Dustin Poirier at UFC 257 and 264. He broke his leg at UFC 264 in July 2021 and hasn't fought since.

The 37-year-old Diaz has struggled since beating McGregor, losing three of his past four bouts. He was away for three years after losing to McGregor before returning to beat Anthony Pettis at UFC 241.

Diaz followed that up with losses to Jorge Masvidal and Leon Edwards at UFC 244 and 263, respectively, but he is looking to end his UFC tenure on a high note Saturday.

While Diaz's future in MMA is very much in question, there would likely be plenty of interest in a Diaz vs. McGregor trilogy fight given how entertaining their first two encounters were.