It’s difficult to forget what Dana White said about Nate Diaz at the UFC’s highly-anticipated Dublin return in 2014.
While fans packed into what was then called the 02 Arena to ask questions of guest fighters Luke Barnatt, Forrest Griffin and Cub Swanson, media were quietly ushered upstairs to a sweltering room to await the arrival of the big man in the black shirt.
Once everyone had settled on their real estate beside the modest stage, the tripods had been set up and the rumblings of yet another Khabib Nurmagomedov injury had been discussed, Dana White entered the room and took his place on the stool.
For over an hour, the UFC president fielded five years worth of questions that covered everything from how much he benched to a certain Stockton native’s ability to capture the imagination of a wider audience. He confidently faced the sea of eyes, lenses, dictaphones and phones all aimed in his direction and claimed that Nate Diaz wasn’t a ‘needle mover,’ like bigger brother Nick.
Less than two years later, the masses giggled over the ‘superstar’s little brother’ Stockton-slapping White in the face after cutting a deal to headline what would be the most successful PPV in the promotion’s history.
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Although White declared that he ‘loved’ Nate and that he was ‘one of his favourite kids,’ his assessment of his drawing power didn’t seem to support these feelings. He absolutely tore him to shreds.
“He seems like he’s popular when you’re looking on fucking Twitter and some website. But the numbers, the real numbers, tell the truth. We know who moves needles and who doesn’t move needles. If Nate Diaz was a massive needle mover, we’d have called him. He’d be on the phone, we’d be figuring it out and we’d work it out. He doesn’t move the needle.”
The basis of this argument was the poorly-rated UFC on Fox 3 card in 2012 headlined by Diaz versus Jim Miller. White correctly pointed out that it was the lowest rated Fox show the promotion had put on until that point. While this was true, he failed to mention that Diaz was also involved in their third highest-rated Fox show ever in December of that year.
Diaz’s unsuccessful lightweight title fight against then-champion Benson Henderson was edged slightly by a card featuring a title-eliminator between Chael Sonnen and Michael Bisping when ‘the American Gangster’ was at the peak of his promotional powers. The inaugural show, which had the much-hyped heavyweight title fight rematch between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos in the main event, doesn’t look like it will ever be beaten.
There was some truth in what White said in the Irish capital that day. At the time, Nick was a far more popular fighter than Nate. However, once he beat up and strangled the most mainstream superstar the sport had ever seen, his stock rose to stratospheric levels, and it continued to grow after the five-round war that tied the series.
Now, he can’t even grab a coffee without being mobbed by fans.
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Nate has graduated from younger brother to cult hero to mainstream star. He went from not being able to move the needle to moving it so much that it nearly snapped under the stress.
Conor McGregor consistently proving his doubters wrong is deservedly applauded, but Diaz has earned those plaudits too. He’s made it incredibly difficult for White to get away with underselling his star power ever again.
Although, expect him to try once negotiations for the completion of the trilogy begin. He is a businessman after all.
