If you were sitting around last March wondering why Nate Diaz and his older brother Nick Diaz weren’t fighting at UFC 209, you weren’t alone.
Despite widespread fan support for the Diaz brothers to be included on the card that shared the numerals of their infamous Stockton area code, neither Diaz made an appearance at UFC 209. And according to Nate, the UFC never even asked.
“It was almost like an ego thing the UFC was playing,” Diaz said Wednesday on a special edition of The MMA Hour. “Like, no one even called. People were demanding it all over my Twitter and sh*t. People were like, ‘why aren’t Nick and Nate on 209?’ No one called. Why didn’t anyone call for that? I hear people saying they dropped the ball. They did drop the ball on that one.
“I think it would’ve made sense. Like I said, I don’t want to fight nowhere, but it’s what should’ve happened. Right? Isn’t it what should’ve happened? Shouldn’t they have done that? Everybody was expecting it already, why wouldn’t they have no tried to make that happen? They didn’t even attempt. ... They just want this to die out. They want me to die out and go away.”
Instead of a ‘209’ themed card that featured the Diaz brothers and was staged in northern California, UFC 209 ended up being an average Las Vegas event headlined by a sluggish rematch between UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson.
But for Diaz, who remains one of the UFC’s biggest stars, the situation at UFC 209 was merely emblematic of a larger problem regarding the lack of promotional support he feels from the company.
“I’m cool, whatever, but is that not what’s happening?” Diaz asked. “Why aren’t we on blast everywhere? ... Can I be marketed? Why am I not on the f*cking Wheaties box? Look at the Wheaties box right there — more people know me than him. How come when I go to UFC on FOX, all these dorks are on the wall? Can I get a picture on the wall? Can I get promoted and marketed in a positive way? Like I said, I race, I’m a vegan, I do triathlons, I f*cking teach kids. But all they want to do is (promote) middle fingers and hide me out in the dark corners still.
“Like, you want to put rumors our about me fighting? Let’s start off first by flying me out on a private jet, putting me in a suite, and talking to me respectfully, asking me to have a fight, instead of f*cking putting rumors out that I turned down fights. Because like I said, I’ll fight anybody today, but if we’re going to [do this], I need to be treated like a respectful human being. I need to be asked and treated correctly, because I’m not playing this game no more. You know what I’m saying? You guys have no stars. There’s nobody.
“They try their best to not talk about us,” Diaz continued. “It’s like, as soon as somebody says ‘who’s the stars?,’ they’ll purposely not say me and Nick. But we’re still getting invited to huge parties. They’re still calling. The only ones who ain’t calling are you. We’re not going away.”
Diaz on lack of respect from UFC: ‘Why aren’t we on blast everywhere?’
