Joe Rogan: UFC ‘Finally Recognizing’ Nate Diaz As A Star

UFC commentator Joe Rogan believes the promotion is finally recognizing Nate Diaz as a legitimate star.

Diaz returned to the Octagon for the first time in nearly three years last month when he took on Anthony Pettis at UFC 241. It was a winning return as well as the Stockton native enjoyed an impressive unanimous decision win.

And Rogan believes the UFC is now seeing just how popular Diaz is with the fans:

“I’m just happy that the UFC is finally recognizing the love and support that guy [Diaz] has from the fans too,” Rogan said on his podcast. “Because for whatever reason, they were so high on Conor McGregor and these other people, they didn’t see — one of the reasons why the Conor fight was so big was because of Nate Diaz. Nate Diaz is a f*cking star. When they put his face on the screen for the Pettis fight, the arena erupted. It was chaos. They went nuts.”

Diaz only really exploded after his shock win over Conor McGregor at UFC 196 back in early 2016. He then fought the Irishman in a rematch at UFC 202 which at the time, was the most successful pay-per-view of all time.

Rogan thinks one factor as to why Diaz took so long to be popular was the fact that he was overshadowed by his older brother Nick:

“I think he was a little overshadowed by his brother, too,” Rogan added. “Because his brother’s a superstar. His brother, when he was fighting in Strikeforce in particular, was one of the best fighters in the world. He was just amazing. Especially during his title reign, when he was at his peak and fighting in Strikeforce but for whatever reason, Nate just flew under the radar.”

Do you agree with Rogan?