Looking at Nate Diaz fight at UFC 241, you'd never guess he hasn't fought in the past three years. Returning to the Octagon for the first time since his loss to Conor McGregor at UFC 202 in August, 2016, Diaz faced a formidable opponent in No. 7 ranked welterweight Anthony Pettis.
Diaz showed little signs of rust as he scored an impressive three-round unanimous decision win over Pettis: 30-27 x 2 and 29-28.
Diaz applied relentless pressure from the start, though Pettis countered. However, with 1:35 to go, Diaz started to close the gap and took the fight to the mat where he controlled the rest of the round. The fight devolved into some dirty boxing with Diaz constantly in the face of Pettis, who began to slow in the second. Constantly pressuring Pettis, Diaz — who did get cut above the eye — still clearly won the round with more significant strikes.
Round three was more of the same before being breaking down into an exciting scramble on the ground. Diaz took Pettis' back twice and even came close to locking in a few submission attempts, but ultimately the fight was ended by the final horn.
Check out the highlights below.
The win puts Diaz in position to land a number of big-money fights against some high-profile names, includng a possible trilogy with Conor McGregor, whom he currently holds a 1-1 split with. However, Diaz had another name in mind when asked.
"The reason I was off was because everybody sucks and there was nobody to fight," Diaz said. "But with this belt I want to defend it against Jorge Masvidal, who had a good last fight. He had a good last fight. All respect to the man but there ain't no gangsters in this game. I know my man is a gangster but he ain't no west coast gangster."
Masvidal was present in the crowd and flashed a huge smile when his name was mentioned. A bout between the two seems almost inevitable.