Nate Diaz has revived an old video of him slapping UFC president Dana White after the controversial Oscars bust-up between Will Smith and Chris Rock.
Back in 2016, when Diaz and White were much more friendly than they are now, the pair filmed a brief video where the fighter hit his boss with his infamous 'Stockton slap'. The footage began recirculating after Hollywood star Smith hit comedian Rock with a similar technique after he mocked his wife Jada on stage at The Oscars on Sunday night.
Diaz reposted the video to his 5.4million Instagram followers yesterday, where it has garnered just under three million views in less than a day since being uploaded. The video shows Diaz and White outside the Turf Motel in Stockton just days after he had signed a multi-million dollar contract to fight Conor McGregor for a second time.
Prior to his first fight with McGregor, Diaz had struggled to break through as a highly-paid star in the promotion, despite being beloved by hardcore fans. But he shot to superstardom when he submitted the Irishman on just a few days notice, with their rematch becoming one of the highest selling pay-per-view events in MMA history.
White explained back in 2016 how the video came to be, telling the UFC Unfiltered podcast: "So what was happening is, we had just left and were heading back to the arena and we were on Crenshaw, and there was a place called the Turf Motel.
"It just came to me, I said pull the truck over, I want Nate to slap me. And Nate looked at me like, ‘What the f***?’ You should have seen the look on his face when I said that. And then we pulled over and he started slapping away. Trust me, if I opened that one up to other fighters they’d be lining up for days."
Would you slap Dana White if you got the chance? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below
But the relationship between the pair has since gone downhill, with Diaz publicly asking for his release from the promotion on Saturday night. He has been pushing to get a fight since losing to Leon Edwards last June, but the promotion have as yet not offered realistic options.
They want him to re-sign for an extended period before they let him fight someone like Dustin Poirier or get a trilogy with Conor McGregor. But he has indicated that he would rather fight once more and allow his contract to run out.
He tweeted out to his followers that he was publicly looking for his release, saying: "I would like to request to be released from the UFC. I apologise for asking online but you don’t give me a fight ASAP I got s*** to do."
He later added: "Motherf****** be crying cause they get dropped from the UFC [and] I can’t pay out this b****".
