Saturday, Stockton, California fighter Nate Diaz took a loss by TKO at the hands of Jorge Masvidal in the headlining match of UFC 244.
The two athletes went on for three full rounds before a cage-side doctor called off the fight, ruling Diaz unfit to continue due to a pair of lacerations on his eyebrow and in his cheek.
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According to Diaz, his less-than-stellar performance could be attributed to a number of factors including a knee injury that kept him out of the final three weeks of his fight camp and his recent UFC 241 win over Anthony Pettis.
“I knew they were going to throw me back in immediately, also,” Diaz said at the UFC 244 post-fight news conference, per USA Today. “Like why couldn’t after the Pettis fight it be six months? They want me under the most f-cked up circumstances. If I’m going in under the most f-cked up circumstances, a little more time would have been nice.”
He would add that the cuts were blown out of proportion by UFC and that he was still fit to continue to fight for a win. It is with such circumstances in mind that Diaz believes he is due a rematch with Masvidal, challenging the Miami-born fighter's credibility.
"If you’re the baddest motherf-cker, you’re going to take that win?” Diaz added. “It’s just like Conor [McGregor]. When I fought Conor, it was a win; fair game. But I wasn’t finished. He knows I wasn’t finished. I was ready to rock. That’s my plan. That’s my next move. I would love to run it back. That’s the only thing I want to do. That’s my full intentions now.”