On Oct. 23, Nate Diaz flipped the MMA world upside down when he announced on Twitter that he’d been flagged by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
Less than two weeks before Diaz was scheduled to take on Jorge Masvidal at UFC 244, the bout seemingly was in jeopardy. While Masvidal viewed the situation with an outsider’s lens, Diaz was in the middle of the internal conversations.
Four days before he issued his Twitter statement, Diaz was informed of USADA’s finding. He also indicated the UFC and/or USADA asked him to stay silent until further testing was done.
Clearly, Diaz didn’t take that advice. On a UFC 244 conference call Monday, he explained why.
“I wasn’t happy about any of it actually. I think that it was all a big old bunch of (expletive),” Diaz said. “I just wanted to not be a part of the big old (expletive) secret. I think the thing about people on steroids is people on steroids don’t talk about steroids out loud.”
Diaz never was going to hold off from getting ahead of the issue. Even though he could have risked millions by saying he’d walk away from perhaps the most anticipated bout of the year, Diaz believes his legacy is most important.
“I don’t care if it ruins your show,” Diaz said. “You ain’t ruining my whole legacy. All I believe in the whole game is that I’m all natural. If we were cavemen, I’d be the hardest caveman out there.”
On Friday night, the UFC held an impromptu news conference at their Las Vegas headquarters and informed MMA Junkie, among others, of its findings. Diaz had tested positive for LGD-4033, or Ligandrol – the result of a tainted supplement. Once the positive test was proved unintentional, Diaz (20-11 MMA, 15-9 UFC) was cleared, and the fight with Masvidal (34-13 MMA, 11-6 UFC) was officially ruled to continue on.
Throughout Monday’s call, Diaz implied he believed his flagged test was a concerted effort by the powers that be to undermine his popularity and leverage going forward.
“I shouldn’t even get into details, but every time after a fight relationships change with the whole company,” Diaz said. “… They can’t have a real (expletive) like me owning the whole (shit), being the hardest, because too many people are going to hear it.
“I ain’t trying to bust anyone out, but I feel like they need some type of leverage over me to keep me from being the king of the whole (expletive). They have been the whole time. … I don’t feel like anybody’s ever been on my side in this (expletive).”
Diaz indicated he doesn’t expect his relationships to improve now that the fight is carrying out as planned. The former UFC title challenger said he finds humor in the whole situation.
“I think that whole ‘keeping it a secret’ talk is fight (expletive) just for everybody to make money, and it’s (expletive) cheating. So I’m not going to be a part of that,” Diaz said. “I was just out of the game for three years for the reason being we ain’t on the same page or the same team. So why am I going to be on the same page or same team about making the cheat try to go down?
“… I think it’s funny that they all got busted for tripping,” Diaz added. “I don’t give a (expletive). It’s all good. It is what it is. You know what I’m saying? I’d expect nothing less.”
While Diaz’s situation was getting figured out, Masvidal was left in limbo. During a 48-hour period, “Gambred” didn’t have a clear idea of what the situation meant for his upcoming fight. When he first saw the tweet, Masvidal didn’t think it was real.
“That was (expletive) nuts, you know?” Masvidal said. “I was like, ‘What the (expletive)? Nah, that’s Photoshopped.’ I digged a little harder, and it wasn’t Photoshopped.
“A little bit of anxiety came. Not anixety in the sense I thought Nate was a cheater, because I never thought he was a cheater. Just the uncertainty like, ‘They might pull my fight because of some lab screw-up? Because of some weirdass (expletive)?’ I don’t want to diss on USADA, either, because I think they’ve cleaned up a lot of the sport, but it’s not 100 percent right yet.”
From there, anxiety set in and so did the binge-eating. Masvidal credits his coaches and his father for taking his mind off of food and back to the task at hand.
“By Day No. 2, anxiety hit,” Masvidal said. “About two pizzas later and hot fries and other things I shouldn’t have put in my body, the coaching staff got a hold of me to calm the anxiety down. We went about business. When I get anxiety and depression and things like that, I take to eating.”
Not to worry, though. With the fight still on, Masvidal insists there’s no reason to worry about him making weight.
Diaz and Masvidal will square off in the main event of UFC 244 at Madison Square Garden in New York. The five-round headliner will mark the first ever “BMF” title fight in UFC history.
Nate Diaz, Jorge Masvidal explain very different experiences after 'BMF' fight cancellation scare
