Nate Diaz has revealed he was in the sauna completing his own weight cut when he was informed Khamzat Chimaev was overweight.
Chimaev scaled 7.5lb over the welterweight limit on Friday before his fight with Diaz was scrapped. The Swede instead took on Kevin Holland while Diaz faced Tony Ferguson in the main event at UFC 279, with both men winning by submission.
Diaz had been a huge underdog ahead of his fight with Chimaev but insists his rival was scared to face him in Las Vegas. "I was in the sauna on my last pound, and I was like what the f***?" he said after beating Ferguson. "Whatever, let me finish this up and then we’ll talk about it.
"I was like whatever, let’s just get to weigh-ins, and tell me whatever is happening after I eat and rehydrate, but I figured this motherf****** is scared. He got punked, he got scared at the press conference. I knew that was going to happen."
Diaz also said he was heavily compensated for having to change opponent at 24 hours' notice. "I was like you’ve got to pay me,” he added. "If you want me to switch people on me on one f****** day, I just cut 15 pounds, you make me change my opponent, you guys got to give me more than you give any of the champions in this whole organisation. They’re like, ‘Stupid, we already give you [that]’ and I said I want more than that then. I lost count [how much they gave me]."
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Diaz was later asked to rate Chimaev's performance after his rival choked out Holland inside three minutes. "Lame, scared, boring, rookie, whack, p****, lame, d*** sucker. All those things," said Diaz. "He had the pressure off him that he didn't have to win, he wasn't ready for the five-round fight.
"Then I had the pressure in that my main goal, especially [against] Khamzat was to come out and not get any more cuts on my face. I'm done with that. It's a new mission that I've never had before. And then they switch it to this guy [Ferguson] who's the most likely in the UFC to cut. So I was like, 'Alright, I have all the pressure'."
