Nate Diaz is one of the realest, toughest fighters to ever have stepped foot in the Octagon. And this past Saturday at UFC 244 may have been the last time fans will ever have gotten to see him fight.
Just days after losing to Jorge Masvidal in a fight for the fictional "baddest motherf---er" title, Nate Diaz has taken to social media to announce that he is stepping away from the fight game -- possibly retiring for good.
"F--- a rematch," Nate Diaz wrote on Instagram.
"This s--- was over before it started."
"I'm goin on out on tour," he added.
"Peace out fight game."
Nate Diaz has always been one to wear his emotions on his sleeve, so his outburst isn't too surprising. And neither is his decision to walk away from professional fighting. After all, he did sit out for three years before returning to fight Nate Diaz in August. And
he even threatened to sit out of his fight against Masvidal after an adverse drug-test finding (
which he was cleared of).
Diaz's decisive win over Pettis in August led him to calling out Jorge Masvidal, who has had his own string of impressive wins in 2019. However, following the Diaz-Masvidal fight, Nate complained during the post-fight news conference about before forced to fight again too soon after UFC 241.
“I knew they were going to throw me back in immediately, also. Like why couldn’t after the Pettis fight it be six months? They want me under the most [expletive] up circumstances. If I’m going in under the most [expletive] up circumstances, a little more time would have been nice.”
Clearly Diaz is frustrated with how things have been handled since his return to the UFC, but some of that is undoubtedly on him. After all, he was the one to call out Masvidal and did agree to the fight, likely because of the payday (despite saying money doesn't matter to him).
So is Nate Diaz retiring from professional MMA for good? It's hard to say with him, but you can bet the UFC is willing to take him back whenever. Both Diaz and the UFC stand to make a ton of money on potential rematches against Conor McGregor and Jorge Masvidal.