Diaz Mocks Ngannou For UFC Pay Plaint

UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou is upset that a YouTube star like Logan Paul can waltz into combat sports and leverage his popularity for a multimillion dollar payday, while hard-working fighters like “The Predator” settle for … well, whatever the promotion deems appropriate.

But longtime welterweight veteran Nate Diaz, who previously did work at 155 pounds, believes “rookies” like Ngannou should have followed his lead and raised all sorts of hell much earlier in the game — just like their “daddy” did.

“What is Francis Ngannou doing wrong? I’ve been doing more right than all these motherfuckers for years and years,” Diaz told Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole (transcribed by Milan Ordonez). “They should’ve been spitting all that ‘I need money’ shit a long time ago like I was. I was never no champion, and I was saying ‘fuck you, drop me, let me get some fucking money cracking.’ And what happened? My stock just raised, anyway, and nobody was jumping on it. Now, they’re like, ‘What are we doing wrong?’ I’m like, ‘You should’ve listened to your daddy years ago, motherfuckers.’ All of you. The whole roster.”

Diaz, 36, was one of the most outspoken voices when it came to fighter pay, insisting the promotion conned him with a lengthy (and cut-rate) contract. His persistent barking led to a main event showdown against UFC cash cow Conor McGregor and what is arguably the biggest win of his career.

The Stockton slapper returns to the Octagon this Sat. night (June 12) for a welterweight showdown against No. 3-ranked Leon Edwards, a fight that makes no sense on paper when you consider that Diaz isn’t even ranked at 170 pounds.

I guess that’s the difference between a rookie and a pro.

“Everybody’s rookies, though, so that’s what you got going,” Diaz continued. “Probably you’re not getting no bag because of how bad you’ve been slacking it.”