"Nate Diaz gets paid a lot of money to fight" - Michael Bisping rubbishes notion that UFC did the Stockton native dirty by booking him against Khamzat Chimaev
Michael Bisping has rubbished the notion that the UFC is treating Nate Diaz unfairly by booking him against Khamzat Chimaev. In the final fight of his current UFC contract, Diaz is set to face undefeated welterweight phenom Chimaev. Their bout will headline UFC 279 on September 10th.
Certain sections of the MMA community have claimed that the UFC intentionally matched up Diaz against wrestling savant Chimaev, as the MMA legend has historically struggled against elite wrestlers.
Several MMA analysts, including former UFC fighter Dan Hardy, have alleged that the UFC wants to dent the outgoing Diaz's brand value by having him lose in his final octagon appearance. They believe that Diaz, who's fought for the UFC since 2007, should've been given a better farewell by being booked against an easier opponent.
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Taking to his YouTube channel, UFC commentator Michael Bisping disagreed with Hardy and several others' aforementioned hypothesis. 'The Count' suggested that Nate Diaz is more than capable of holding his own against Khamzat Chimaev.
Additionally, featuring a video clip of Diaz from his recent conversation with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Michael Bisping highlighted that the Stockton slugger self-admittedly gets paid well by the UFC. Bisping stated:
"I don't get it. Dan Hardy was even talking, saying that there could be potential for criminal charges, assault charges, because this fight should have never been made. First of all, right, that's crazy because this is the UFC. Nate Diaz gets paid a lot of money to fight, and he's a very capable fighter. But secondly, Diaz gets paid a tremendous amount of money; he complains all the time, but you never hear him complaining about how much he gets paid."
Watch Bisping discuss the topic at 2:06 in the video below:
Nate Diaz reveals the one condition that'll make him return to the UFC
In a "Special Nate Diaz edition" of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Diaz asserted that the UFC progressively offered him more money over the past several months. Diaz added, however, that the money isn't his primary concern and that he simply wants to leave the UFC.
That said, Nate Diaz revealed that he could return to the UFC in the future when the promotion has a fresh batch of lightweights and welterweights who are worthy of fighting him. Diaz said:
“I feel like there’s nobody worthy. There’s no worthy opponent for me at the moment. So, I wanna step out and recover from this whole sh**. And when the time is right, when there’s a whole new batch of guys in here doing something good, that’s when I’ll be back.”
Watch Diaz address the topic at 13:30 in the video below: