Diaz: They can’t deny I move the needle
Nate Diaz: “Now they can’t deny it, the whole needle-moving thing. … They know. Everyone knows now.”
In 2014, Nate Diaz and UFC management were at odds over Diaz’s contract. The UFC had matched a Bellator contract with Diaz teammate Gil Melendez for $175,000 to show, plus points on a PPV at the lowest threshold in league history. Diaz was fighting at that time for a contracted 20/20 or so, although that was not his entire compensation.
White was adamant that although Diaz was one of the favorite fighters on The UnderGround and among the hardcore fanbase, that popularity did not extend to bringing in outsized revenue to the company.
He seems popular when you’re looking on f***imng Twitter and some website, said White at the time. But the numbers, the real numbers, tell the truth. We know who moves needles and who doesn’t move needles. If Nate Diaz was a massive needle-mover, we’d have called him. He’d be on the phone, we’d be figuring it out and we’d work it out. He doesn’t move the needle.
Things have changed. Diaz vs. Conor McGregor at UFC 196 was apparently the biggest PPV in league history. And while McGregor is a massive draw, Diaz too proved to be a highly compelling figure in a series of media events, coining for example a disparaging term for Movement Training – Touch Butt in the Park.
And Nate Diaz won.
I knew that I brought the numbers, said Diaz to Mike Bohn for MMAjunkie. When I fought on FOX it was like 3, 4, 5 million viewers every time I fight and headline these FOX shows. That’s where my argument was in the first place. I was like, ‘I see what’s going on here.’ So when I said they were trying to hold me back and trying to say that I wasn’t moving the needles or whatever, I already knew that. I knew the pay-per-view numbers were going to be huge.
My point was proven. He brings a big following and he’s got good numbers, too, but that’s why I was saying after my fight with Johnson, I was like, ‘You want to see a fight?’ No one pays attention. That’s why I had to demand that s*** and express it and come off the way I did, so I could try to get a fight. Now they can’t deny it, the whole needle-moving thing.
They know. Everyone knows now.
Who knows (if I’ll get the push)? They’re promoting him already more off this fight than they are with me. It just happened, so we’ll see what happens in the next fight.
