The first time Michael Bisping bumped into Nate Diaz, the atmosphere was unusually calm.
Anyone who’s even seen a snippet of an interview from either UFC star will know that these two being in the same room and keeping their emotions in check would have been somewhat odd. However, neither of them dropping an expletive while in each other’s presence would have been downright bizarre.
Bisping loves a good f-bomb, and the Stockton native likes to use every expletive under the sun. If they managed to keep their tongues civil, we would have been very surprised.
Very surprised, motherfuckers.
“I’m not a white boy with blue eyes.” https://t.co/zujumETRH6
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) March 7, 2017
When Bisping told the world of his first meeting with Diaz on his Believe You Me podcast, there was a genuine worry that it ended up being free of any incident worth noting. Judging by his side of the story, the chance meeting happened during fight week for UFC 135 in 2011, where Diaz submitted Takanori Gomi via first-round armbar.
“The first time I met Nate Diaz, I was in Denver. There was a UFC event there and I was in for fight week doing some stuff. I was scheduled to fight Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller, we were in Denver promoting the fight. I was in the elevator and Nick Diaz – sorry, Nate Diaz – walks in. I’m like ‘Hey Nate, how you doing’ and we shake hands briefly.”
“No conversation, it was just one of those elevator rides, there was a few other people in there so everyone is standing there, kind of looking at the ceiling or whatever, waiting for the ride to pass.”
At this point, you must be thinking, ‘What the hell? A handshake, an exchange of pleasantries and that’s it?’ Particularly when they had a common enemy in Miller at that point following the infamous brawl that went down at Strikeforce Nashville in 2010 that began when ‘Mayhem’ grabbed hold of the mic after Diaz’s teammate Jake Shields defeated Dan Henderson.
Fortunately, at the very last moment, just when you thought all hope was lost, Diaz saved the exchange.
“And then the doors open. Nate gets out, and just as the doors are shutting, he leans back in and goes ‘Oh, I forgot man. Fuck Miller!’ and puts the two fingers up and walks off. And I just thought that was hilarious, it was great. I just thought ‘Okay, I like this guy. He’s cool.'”
All is well.
