Dana White On Nate Diaz: Get Your Head In The Game Or Retire
UFC on FOX 13 went down last night (December 13, 2014) from the U.S Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Stockton bad boy Nate Diaz looked to make a triumphant return against the surging Rafael Dos Anjos in the co-main event, but it was far from triumphant.
It has been a wild week for Diaz leading up to the fight, a week consisting of constant complaining from Diaz, missing open workouts, and of course failing to make weight.
Come fight night, things didn’t improve for the Gracie jiu-jitsu black belt. He was absolutely dominated for 15 minutes by dos Anjos, who repeatedly brutalized Diaz with leg kicks. After the fight, UFC president Dana White spoke up about Diaz’s problems as well as the beating he took from RDA:
“There’s a laundry list of issues [with Diaz]. Like I’ve said, I’ve always liked Nate, but he’s his own worst enemy. He says he wants to make more money, then he comes in four pounds over weight, which now you lose 20 percent of your purse. Did a ton of other stuff — got fined $10,000. But, I’ll give him this: He’s tough as hell. Those leg kicks he ate … Dos Anjos should have come back here and been arrested for attempted murder with that fight. He absolutely destroyed him. It was a one-sided beating. Diaz needs to either get serious about this sport, get his head together or retire. But, we’re in business with him right now. You accept a certain amount of “whatever” when you are in business with the Diaz brothers — and we have other guys where lots of things happen behind the scenes and we try our best to be fair — but these guys are just over the top. He needs to get his head together, get back in the game or retire.”
Diaz also gave his thoughts after the fight, claiming he had an injury that disrupted his training camp and ultimately influenced his performance. However, he failed to disclose exactly what the injury was, so we do not know how true that is. The Stockton native said he showed up because he needed to be paid:
It looks as if Diaz has some thinking to do. Do you think he can still compete in the ultra-tough UFC lightweight division?
As White said, retirement may be something to think about. Check out the president’s full post fight interview below:
