Miesha Tate on Nate Diaz leaving UFC presser: “I would feel the same way”
Historically whenever the UFC is about to hold several blockbuster fight cards they have been known to hold a major press conference featuring all the participants that are either in the main, co-main, or high profile contender bouts of those particular cards as a marketing tool.
In the past, we’ve seen this star studded for fights like Aldo-Mcgregor, Jones-Cormier, and even Cruz-Garbrandt.
Leading up to Saturday’s UFC 227, the UFC once again held this event as it highlighted all it’s major fight cards for the next couple of months, on the big fights that was announced was the Dustin Poirier facing Nate Diaz as he makes his return to the UFC after a two-year absence.
However, what was suppose to be Diaz’s shining moment turned into dismissal quickly at the end of the night when the UFC finally made the official public announcement that Khabib Nurmagomedov would be fighting Conor Mcgregor for the UFC lightweight championship that lead to a massive irruption from the UFC audience.
Disturbed and offended being overlooked due to the announcement, an infuriated Diaz angrily stormed out of the press conference then took to his twitter later that evening and stated he’d no longer fight Poirier.
Upon seeing the tweet from Diaz, fellow UFC fighters sympathized with him over his frustration.
Among those fighters, was former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate, who talked with Sirius XM Fight Nation over the weekend, and expressed that Diaz was justified for feeling the way he did and said had it been her she would’ve had the same sentiment.
“I would feel the same way as Nate does,” Tate said. “Nate has a different personality than I do, he’s expressive in a different way, but of course [I would be mad]. I remember when I threatened retirement because I was so pissed off that they had promised that I would fight Ronda and then they ended up switching that out and having Holly [Holm] but they didn’t tell me. It’s the same thing that happened to Nate, essentially, it’s just that Nate was in front of everybody. I was pissed too, believe me.”
Tate also explained how the only retaliation Diaz has against the UFC is to not fight Poirier, but after that she says the UFC has Diaz at their mercy.
“I was mad but they don’t care,” Tate said. “They know that they have a strong arm in a lot of this and it doesn’t really matter. Or if they do care, it’s not enough. Like, ‘I’m sorry but this is what you have to do for business.’ You can’t really argue with them. They’re the ones who are gonna make the final decision, so what can you do? What can Nate do?
“For me it was a whirlwind of emotions, just trying to decide what I even wanted to do next because I felt like it was so unfair. Then it was just coming to terms with, ‘Well, life’s not fair. What do you want to do about it? Are you ready to retire now or not?’ And the truth was I wasn’t ready to retire at that time. Obviously I still went on to fight Jessica Eye after that and went on to win the title against Holly later, so I wasn’t ready to retire but it was just the frustration.”
The Diaz Brothers not fighting in the UFC lately has been a strong tactic they’ve used in hopes of getting more money or a least a contract that would satisfy them, but unfortunately for Nate Diaz, with the lightweight division growing even more with hungry, young contenders, his name value with further continue to dissolve.
Basing Diaz’s situation with uneasy past with the UFC, Tate stated, when all is said and done, Nate has to realize he is not as big a superstar as his rival Conor Mcgregor, therefore he can’t “call his own shots”, so the best thing for him to do at this point is continue building himself up to that level.
“Having a talk with Dana White helps but it still stings because he’s not the one to have a filter on,” Tate concluded. “The conversation was like, ‘Yeah, but you’re not Ronda Rousey.”
“It’s part of just recognizing that. I have a different value than Ronda and hers is what it is and mine is what it is so I have to continue to work to build mine even more. What else can I do? Get back to the grind. You just try to leverage yourself as much as you can but there’s a point where you don’t have the leverage. You don’t have the final leverage, the UFC does.”
