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Nate Diaz recalls the moment he realized he wasn’t rich

Nate Diaz
Nate Diaz recently reflected on his early MMA fighting days. (Getty Images)

As UFC 202 draws near and Nate Diaz gears up for his highly anticipated rematch with Conor McGregor, the Stockton, Calif., fighter has been busy doing his media rounds. And for those familiar with Diaz, you never quite know what may come out of his mouth.

For over a decade Diaz has fought in relative obscurity, except to hardcore MMA fans. Often in the shadow of his brother Nick, Nate has never dealt with the spotlight shining so brightly on him. It took a long time to get to this point and Diaz reflected on his early MMA fighting days during an interview with Fox Sports’ Andy Nesbitt.

Once upon a time, a 22-year-old Nate Diaz thought his future was going to be paved with gold after coming out victorious on the fifth season of “The Ultimate Fighter.” The winner of a six-figure contract, Diaz believed that he was rich and the fighter acted as if he was swimming in money … until he realized he wasn’t.

“If you watch ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ when I won, I look at [UFC president] Dana White and go, ‘I’m rich,’ ” Diaz said. “And I really, actually believed that.”

The fighter had immediate plans to purchase his mother a new home and buy himself a new car. In true Nate Diaz fashion, the entire thing didn’t play out as he had planned.

First he attempted to buy a Cadillac at a Chevy dealership and it all went downhill from there.

“[The car salesman] takes me to this old lady’s Cadillac, and I’m like, ‘I don’t want that Cadillac.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, how much money are you looking to spend?’ I was like, ‘Well, I’ve got $16,000, and I want to spend like, probably [$10,000].’ And he was like, ‘Alright, come over here.’ And we looked at this little Honda Civic,” Diaz reflected.

After some back and forth, Diaz settled on the Civic but soon came to the realization that he was far from rich.

“So I came back a couple days later, and we had this dorky looking Honda just turned out with tinted windows and 12 [inch speakers] – it thumped hard – and rims on it, and I left with the car,” Diaz said. “I was like, ‘Yeah. This is tight. How much is the house?’ I looked at the house, and I had like $4,000 left. I was like, ‘Wait a minute, this isn’t working out like I planned.’”

Diaz would come to realize that the six-figure contract he had won would be spread across multiple fights and not come in one lump sum. For the next nine years, Diaz fought to make ends meet. Perhaps a bit jaded by the initial jolt that he was rich, Diaz and the UFC have never quite seen eye to eye. There was a dispute with the UFC back in 2014 over compensation that led to Diaz taking a self-imposed hiatus away from the sport. In the midst of this, Dana White made his infamous comment that “Nate Diaz is not a needle mover,” suggesting that he wasn’t a draw.

But things have changed since then even though Diaz’s relationship with the UFC appears to still be on shaky ground after he cut loose a cryptic tweet early Wednesday:

Nevertheless, Diaz was thrust into the spotlight when he shocked the world by defeating McGregor on short notice in a welterweight bout. And now he stands to make more money than he has ever made when the two meet again at UFC 202.

A lot of his newfound stardom can be attributed to his approach to the sport. He has no filter when it comes to speaking his mind and has won over fans with his willingness to fight anyone at anytime. His mentality heading into his first fight with McGregor – and, for that matter, every fight – may raise a few eyebrows.

“I write it off from the beginning like, ‘I’m probably gonna get knocked out,'” Diaz said during an appearance on “Conan.” “Just take that and accept it. And then go in there and make it happen. When it doesn’t happen, when you come out with a win, that’s pretty exciting.”

For what it’s worth, Diaz is once again an underdog (+115) in the Aug. 20 rematch, according to SportsBook Review and the odds that McGregor wins by knockout are hugely in the Irishman’s favor (6/5).

But that expectation just might work in Diaz’s favor again.