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Two years ago after Nate Diaz came into stardom and vanished, can he rise again?


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NATE Diaz was half of the biggest MMA fight of all time.

When I say biggest, I’m not talking about relevance to the sport as a whole, or the highest level exhibition of skill, or the most important, I’m just talking about the biggest.

The biggest in terms of eyeballs watching, cultural impact, sporting transcendence. When you add up all those factors, Nate Diaz’s second fight with Conor McGregor, two years ago this week, take the cake.

Most of that is due to McGregor. He’s the biggest star in MMA by the length of the straight and one of the most famous athletes in the world. But there’s a reason his fights with Diaz are his biggest hits in MMA. Diaz brings something to the table no other McGregor opponent really has.

Ever since Diaz stepped in for Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 196 in March of 2016, his fighting life has never been the same. But after two years on the shelf it’s hard to imagine him ever hitting those heights again.

For someone who had been on the scene for so long, Diaz’s rise was truly meteoric. He proved to be the perfect opponent for McGregor in every respect. The Irishman’s sledging and flair for the dramatic, a crucial part in his stardom, appeared manufactured and overdone when put up next to Diaz’s snarl.

Not long after UFC president Dana White had claimed Diaz “wasn’t a needle-mover”, hordes of sports fans without an idea of the wars the lightweight staple had already fought were latching onto him, his blunt-force responses to McGregor and thuggish preening translating into an earthy charisma. And that was before a punch was thrown.

In Diaz, McGregor had the ideal foil outside the cage. Chad Mendes was outwitted at every turn by McGregor, poor Jose Also was infuriated and confused by the disrespect.

Diaz, however, operates at a constant level of hostility. He thinks everyone, always, forever, is coming at him and this makes him impossible to rattle verbally.

McGregor’s jibes about Diaz’s persona being fake or his lower earnings didn’t hit the mark and Diaz’s nonsensical comeback about McGregor being on steroids remains the only time McGregor has truly seemed shook by an opponent’s talk.

There were several memorable press events that had the two going back and forth, each of them eagre to prove who gave less of a f**k.

All this was before the fight even began.

The bout itself was a classic. McGregor started faster, tagging Diaz seemingly at will with long uppercuts. He jolted the American, who’s face soon became covered in blood. Diaz landed a few shots of his own, but the first round was clearly one for McGregor.

The second started much the same way, but Diaz began to find his timing. A lightning fast one-two, the Nate Diaz special, changed the parameters of the bout. It wobbled McGregor, and Diaz knew it. As soon as the second punch landed, Diaz pointed at him, laughed at him, and then did what he does when there’s an opening — he poured it right on.

With weaponized cardio, Diaz brought a barrage of punches on McGregor, who looked totally bewildered. Eventually, a dazed McGregor shot for a take-down. It was a desperate move by a desperate man. Diaz asserted top position immediately, seemed to have a guillotined locked in, smashed McGregor with more punches and went for the rear-naked choke.

Diaz landed one more punch for good measure then latched it on and squeezed.

Blood streaming from his face, melding with his scowl, Diaz had him. There was no escape. McGregor tapped and Diaz, the UFC’s unlikeliest hero, rose in triumph. Arms raised, he sauntered around the ring, asking the world what the f**k was up now.

Diaz faced into a camera and let fly, as he is wont to do, head reared back and chest puffed out like a frill-necked lizard. The camera rose and panned away, almost like the UFC itself couldn’t bear to see what just happened.

Diaz was the older world of the UFC, a veteran of The Ultimate Fighter who’d fought on cards in places the UFC wouldn’t dream of sending a star like McGregor.

Until this night he wasn’t even the most famous fighter in his own family. Now he was the sport’s lizard king.

McGregor was everything the UFC was hoping to be, shiny and chrome and bankable, the kind of fighter that takes a company into billionaire territory. Everything about the night had been set up to boost McGregor’s stardom. Diaz, with blood on his face, tore it down. Afterwards, following his famous line about not being surprised, he told the world “there’s a new king of this motherf****r and it’s right here.”

For a longtime MMA fan, the following months were rather surreal. Nate Diaz in the mainstream. Nate Diaz headlining UFC 200 in a rematch with McGregor. Nate Diaz being a star, a real star, when the fight was rescheduled for UFC 202 due to McGregor’s run-ins with the brass. Nate Diaz on Conan O’Brien. Nate Diaz getting wrapped up in a beef with Justin Bieber. Nate Diaz with a mural in Stockton painted in his honour. Nate Diaz, who had been grinding away for so many years, was one of the biggest names in the sport.

The fight was projected onto the side of buildings. It’s the biggest selling pay-per-view in UFC history, in part because of Nate Diaz. The fight wasn’t for a title, but that didn’t matter. Two days before the fight McGregor, Diaz and their respective crews nearly instigated a full-blown brawl at a media event.

It felt bigger than any title the UFC has ever owned.

Diaz is a strong stylistic matchup for McGregor. His reach, cardio, iron chin and slick grappling make him a difficult puzzle for McGregor to solve.

But the book on how to beat him is out there. Leg kicks and discipline are the key — whatever you do, don’t engage him in a firefight. That’s easier said than done, but that’s how it’s done.

The fight itself was less spectacular than the first but remains a true classic in it’s own right. A more back-and-forth affair, McGregor was again on top early before Diaz rebounded with a barrage at the end of the second round and a dominant third.

It remains the only time McGregor has gone the distance in a five-round fight and just the second time in his professional career one of his fights went to the scorecards. McGregor got the win by majority decision. It was as close as these things can be.

To this author’s eye, McGregor deserved the win 48-47. The way he rebounded in the fourth round after losing the third handily may be the toughest thing he does in his fighting career. And if Diaz had won, if he’d come out on top of those cards, then everything changes for McGregor. The Mayweather fight, championships in two divisions, that all would have vanished.

Since then, McGregor’s star has continued to rise. He was propelled into a lightweight title tilt with Eddie Alvarez, a fight which made no sense but plenty of dollars, and won to become the UFC’s first simultaneous two-division champion.

He made an outrageous amount of money in a glorified sparring session with Floyd Mayweather he had no hope of winning, an event which made a mockery of the very concept of sport. He’s jumped into Bellator cages and thrown trollies at buses, he’s been stripped of two titles. His star has continued to rise.

Diaz has done nothing. Not a thing. There’s been one or two rumours of his return, including a truly bizarre welterweight title bout with Tyrone Woodley that reportedly was in the works, but apart from that Diaz has been off the scene.

In doing so, both the UFC and Diaz have wasted the goodwill and momentum generated by Diaz’s two bouts with McGregor. Diaz has refused to go back to the comparatively meagre purses he enjoyed before the first McGregor fight.

The UFC has refused to meet him in the middle and set up a fight with another top lightweight contender. Both sides must shoulder some of the responsibility and both have allowed several lucrative chance to slip by.

The UFC has been crying out for bankable stars in recent years. They can say Diaz doesn’t draw without McGregor, but how would they know given they’ve never really tried? Diaz managed to steal some of McGregor’s shine and was one of the few fighters with a name and reputation outside of the usual MMA and combat sport landscape.

Instead of using that to then reflect the spotlight on top contenders like Tony Ferguson, the UFC let it wither on the vine. There will still be anticipation and hype for Diaz’s return against Dustin Poirer, but this is the sort of bout that should have happened months ago.

Likewise, Diaz has become impenetrable and distant since he made his millions. He failed to strike while the iron was hot and make the most of his new-found notoriety.

He’s still a draw and will always have appeal with a certain subsection of fans, but his chance to become the kind of star that transcends the sport has passed him by.

Even a third fight with McGregor might not do the job. Diaz had an opportunity that few MMA fighters beyond McGregor, Ronda Rousey and Brock Lesnar have been offered and he’s fumbled the ball.

A fight with Tony Ferguson last year would have been perfect. The cresting Ferguson brings his own weird vibe to promotion and would have combined well with Diaz’s bluntness. A fight between the two would be close to a guaranteed barnburner.

The winner could have been crowned the interim lightweight champion while McGregor was off pretending to be a boxer. Even if the UFC didn’t want to slap a belt on the victor it would have been easy to sell the fight as a number one contender bout.

Instead, Diaz is pitched into a three-rounder with Dustin Poirer. It will serve as the co-main event at Madison Square Garden. Poirier has won nine from 10 since he faced McGregor four years ago and boasts an imposing 24-5 record.

His last three fights have all been rippers, and they’ve all ended with Poirer knockouts. He is dangerous for Diaz, who will slip beyond the horizon of his third bout with McGregor if he loses.

But there is still a shine for Nate Diaz. Most fans are excited by the prospect of his return, not because it could set up a trilogy fight but because Poirer and Diaz are both guaranteed to let it all hang out. Regardless of result, it promises to be a stellar display of violence.

But entertaining fights has never been a problem for Diaz.

The winner of the fight will be in the box seat to take on the victor of the McGregor-Nurmagomedov fight a month prior.

That fight, which will begin gearing up in the next few weeks, will likely take the Biggest MMA Fight Ever from Diaz-McGregor 2.

If Nurmagomedov wins, Diaz may take on McGregor regardless of the result. There’s nothing wrong with letting the decider breathe a little bit.

When stardom called for Nate Diaz the first time he almost let it pass him by.

Rarely is a second chance presented for this sort of thing.

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