Nate Diaz doesn’t have a lot to gain by lying about what he weighed come fight time at UFC 202.
It seems odd then that he and Dana White are so far apart in their estimations of Diaz’s fight weight when the Octagon door slammed shut for the Stockton fighter’s rematch with Conor McGregor in August.
Diaz, the fourth-ranked lightweight in the world, was taking on McGregor, the UFC featherweight champion, at welterweight for the second time in five months.
While Diaz might have had to cut a little weight to make 170lbs, it’s hard to believe that it was a significant cut given the fact that he typically competes at 155lbs.
But the UFC president has insisted that Diaz rehydrated to a mammoth 190lbs in the 24 hours between weigh-ins and fight night.
“Conor has to try to weigh 168lbs when they’re weighing in at 170. The night of the fight, Diaz comes in at 190,” White told Hot 97 in New York, via FanSided. “Now Conor McGregor is a 145, 155lbs guy and if you look at the wars he’s had with Diaz, you can only have so many of those wars in your career.”
Diaz has repeatedly refuted White’s claims regarding his weight, arguing that White is embellishing Diaz’s size to make the task that McGregor faced seem even more difficult.
“Tell Dana I said get off Conor’s nuts,” Diaz recently told MMA Fighting. “I left my room to that fight at 176lbs, so when I fought I was probably 173. Quit telling people I was a monster to make him look good. I’ve been a lightweight my whole career.”
White, as well as the UFC in general, have come in for criticism for their arguably preferential treatment of ‘The Notorious.’
Contenders at both featherweight and lightweight, namely Jose Aldo and Khabib Nurmagomedov, were made to wait while McGregor’s wish to compete for the 155lbs title was granted.
And White has admitted that he is indeed more lenient when it comes to dealing with the Irishman who is the organisation’s undisputed biggest draw.
“That’s why I give this guy way more rope than I give anybody else,” White said. “Conor can say whatever the hell he wants to, the guy steps up on four days notice, he can say whatever he wants. We’re in the fight game, who really wants to fight? That dude wants to fight.”
