The day Nate Diaz realized he wasn’t rich

The stories of combat sports star who tear through a fortune are far more common that the stories of fighters who make it out with some savings. Mike Tyson burned through some $400,000,000.

In mixed martial arts, a different thing happens. You think you are rich, but you aren’t.

When Nate Diaz was 22, he won The Ultimate Fighter 5, which came with a six figure contract.

However, the contract is for multiple fights, and could take years to hit $100,000.

My first UFC contract, I believed I was rich, said Diaz to FOX Sports’ Andy Nesbitt, as transcribed by MMAjunkie.

If you watch ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ when I won, I look at Dana White and go, ‘I’m rich’. And I really, actually believed that.

I went home, and I had a plan to buy my mom a house and buy a Cadillac. I went home, and I went straight to the dealership, and when I got to the dealership, I was like, ‘Yo, I want a Cadillac, woo-woo-woo.’ I’m talking to this guy who works at the dealership who’s my friend. ‘I want to buy a Cadillac; we’re looking at houses right now.’ He’s like, ‘I’m proud of you. Cool.’ And then he’s like, ‘This is a Chevy dealership.’

He takes me to this old lady’s Cadillac, and I’m like, ‘I don’t want that Cadillac.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, how much money are you looking to spend?’ I was like, ‘Well, I’ve got $16,000, and I want to spend like, probably [$10,000].’ And he was like, ‘Alright, come over here.’ And we looked at this little Honda Civic.

I was like, dude, I want a Cadillac. I don’t want no Honda Civic. That’s not even cool to me. And then he was like, ‘Nah, we’ll tint the windows, and I’ll get you a DVD player.’ Remember when DVD players came out in cars and they were the S***? I was visualizing it. He was like, ‘We’ll put rims on it, and we’ll get you a thump in the (sound) system).’ I was like, ‘Yeah, that sounds tight. All right, let’s do that.’

So I came back a couple days later, and we had this dorky looking Honda just turned out with tinted windows and 12 (inch speakers) – it thumped hard – and rims on it, and I left with the card … and I was like, ‘Yeah. This is tight. How much is the house?’ I looked at the house, and I had like, $4,000 left. I was like, ‘Wait a minute, this isn’t working out like I planned.’

So he booked a fight. And lots more followed. When the UFC got in a tug of war with Bellator over teammate Gilbert Melendez, El Nino ended up with a tremendous contract, one that put the Diaz brothers’ deals to shame. They balked at fighting for a while, but things seem to be working out.

Diaz reportedly made $2,000,000 for defeating Conor McGregor at UFC 196. Diaz negotiated hard for his compensation for the rematch; it will undoubtedly be much more than the first one. Diaz vs. McGregor II is at UFC 202, on Aug. 20 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Diaz is not $400,000,000 Mike Tyson rich, but he’s a millionaire. If ever there was justice in this sport, it’s this – Nate Diaz is a millionaire. And for a smart man who never lost his roots in Stockton, that could go a long way.