Nate Diaz watched the Khamzat Chimaev and Sean Strickland rivalry play out for weeks, saw the post-fight hugs, and came away with one clear conclusion: he wants no part of that approach with Mike Perry.
Speaking during a Face 2 Face sitdown with Perry ahead of their MVP MMA 1 matchup on Saturday, Diaz was direct about what bothered him when he caught the UFC 328 highlights.
“They were faking the funk. And they were fing acting like crazy and talking all this sh*t to each other and then hugging and showing love the whole fight like some btches. Fake fing puppets. I’m f**ing cool off that sh*t.”
He elaborated on what specifically felt like a betrayal once the post-fight goodwill emerged.
“I saw highlights of them hugging and fing shaking hands right off the bat, and the whole time, it’s fing like you bullshtted me. I didn’t bullsht nobody. I keep it real all the way through. That’s what I got out of that fight. I didn’t watch it, but I saw the highlights and the feedback on it, and I saw the war that was f**ing bullshtted to us. I’m like, you don’t gotta bullsh*t me.”
You can watch the original clip on X here.
Diaz’s position is not that fighters should not show respect after competing. His objection is the gap between weeks of selling genuine hatred and the immediate goodwill that followed once the final bell sounded. He wants his build with Perry to reflect what the fight actually is rather than manufacturing a narrative around it.
“I got a fight with this dude, he’s the most violent motherfer. He knocked out fing middleweight Luke Rockhold, and f**ing Jeremy Stephens, and beat a lot of good people, doing boss sh*t on the outside.”
He was equally clear about the nature of his relationship with Perry going into the fight.
“I was already OK with him. We’re not fing friends or anything like that, but I’m not gonna fing play around and make no fake, artificial beef with you. I think you’re great. I think what you’re doing is great. I think you’re violent as f**k, and mean and all that sh*t. I came here to fight, train hard, win and fk your sh*t up, just like I know you’re planning on f**jing my sht up, and I’m not gonna put no artificial beef out there.”
Diaz and Perry meet on the MVP MMA 1 card on May 16 at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood on Netflix. Diaz had a long-standing scheduling history with Chimaev as well, having been booked against him at UFC 279 before the card was reshuffled, with Diaz instead submitting Tony Ferguson in his final UFC appearance.