UFC lightweight Nate Diaz beat UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor at light weight on March 5, at UFC 196. UFC president Dana White reported that the fighter made “millions.”
It was a change.
Diaz signed an 8-fight contract in 2012, prior to a presumably lucrative title shot at Benson Henderson. His next fight, vs. Josh Thompson, he lost and earned a disclosed salary of just $15,000. While this was absolutely not his entire income from the fight, on paper, it is not a lot of paper.
His brother Nick has incurred fines calculated as a percentage of the contracted money, for consuming the demon week marijuana. Thus it would be wise for the brothers to keep their declared salaries to a minimum. Still, 15/15 is not a lot to show.
In keeping with UFC contracts that escalate only on a win, his next fight, a win over Gray Maynard, Diaz made a disclosed salary of $30,000 (15/15). Then the UFC signed his teammate Gil Melendez after a bidding war with Bellator. Gil’s contract guaranteed 75% of his fights would be on PPV, and with a threshhold lower than any fighter in league history. And El Nino’s show money his very first fight was $175,000. Melendez won only one of his four fights since; it was a decision over Diego Sanchez.
Apparently learning what contract his teammate had signed, Diaz asked to be released, and was pulled from the rankings at one point for inactivity.
Diaz’s next fight, the show money escalated from 15k to 20k. But he lost to Rafael Dos Anjos, and was fined $4,000 for missing weight, so made $16,000, disclosed. His next fight was a Fight of the Night win over Michael Johnson. Since he lost vs. RDA, he stayed at 20/20 (plus 50k for the fight of the night).
And then he fought Conor McGregor on 11 days notice. A huge favorite among the hardcore fanbase, the world is now finally catching up to Nate Diaz. But Diaz has not forgotten the past several years.
“I feel like, honest, I feel like the UFC wants to weed me the f*** out of this position,” said Diaz to Brett Okamoto to ESPN.com. “I don’t know if I’m supposed to say that. Sorry. I feel like a lot of people are coming at me now. I see them making a lot of excuses for him, and I think it’s kind of ridiculous.
“I don’t think it’s just the UFC. It’s everybody. People are saying, ‘Oh, he is great, he’s accepted the loss so well.’ If I would have lost, people would be saying, ‘piece of s*** shouldn’t have accepted the fight.’ I don’t mean to be bitter, but there are a lot of excuses being made for this guy. He’s talking about winning the first round. There are five rounds in a fight. Who gives a s*** if you won a round? You lost.”
“I made a good amount of money. I think they’re overexaggerating how much – I don’t feel like anybody did me any favors, I’ll tell you that much — but I made a good chunk of change and I’m grateful. I’ve been demanding that.
“I was screwed for a long time. My problem was I was a soldier for a long time. I never even considered money, it was more about not getting my ass whooped. Once I thought about it for two minutes, I realized I was getting f***ed. It was stupid not to pay attention to that the whole time. If I had been thinking business since I was 21, I’d be a rich man right now.”
Diaz now faces rich possibilities for his next fight, including a title shot at current champion Rafael Dos Anjos. There are even rumors of a fight with a returning GSP. However, complicating matters, Nick Diaz returns from an 18 month suspension in August, and Nate does not want to take a fight that could have gone to Nick, who fights at welterweight.
“I’m thinking probably the lightweight title fight, whatever is biggest,” said Diaz. “The biggest thing with Lawler and GSP — I would have been all about those fights and I am, but at the same time, my brother [Nick] is coming back and those are his fights. Those are Nick Diaz fights. I’m not trying to step on his shoes. We’ll see how things play out. As far as rematches go, I lost close decisions and never got a rematch.
“I’m not asking for anything. I’m demanding more than everybody. I want more than everybody, straight up. Money talks. I want the biggest fight. Whoever I’ve got to fight – the biggest show, biggest payday – that’s what I want.”
‘Ridiculous’ is a favorite term for the Diaz brothers to direct at McGregor. Here older brother Nick uses it to describe Conor’s lack of BJJ black belts in his camp, and abundance of pool noodles.
