The finish may not have been what anyone wanted, but the outcome of the main event was never in doubt. Now, amid calls for a rematch, it’s time for cooler heads to prevail.
At UFC 244, Jorge Masvidal beat Nate Diaz by third-round TKO via cut stoppage. The ringside physician inspected the cut before the start of the fourth round and Diaz maintained that he was fine but ultimately, the doctor called an end to the bout. Afterwards, of course, Diaz was furious, calling for the rematch and saying that Masvidal isn’t a true bad motherf*cker if he accepts a win like that. Masvidal, for his part, said he’s willing to rematch Diaz but also alluded to being interested in other fights as well. Then UFC President Dana White chimed in, saying that he isn’t interested in doing an immediate rematch. And I rarely say this, but Dana White is 100 percent correct.
Masvidal worked Diaz over. Make no mistake, the stoppage was bad, the kind of overly protective decision made by a New York commission that is still finding its footing as an MMA commission. But though the ending was anticlimactic, the result was never in question. Masvidal beat Diaz pillar to post, with scores of 30-27, 30-26, and 30-26 on the judge’s scorecards before the stoppage. Diaz is a tough as any fighter ever put in the cage, he offered little in the way of genuine threat to Masvidal and had the fight gone on, it’s far more likely Masvidal would’ve stopped Diaz outright than that Diaz would’ve pulled off the comeback. It was a dominant performance from Masvidal and one that raises the genuine quest of whether Masvidal might actually be the best welterweight in the world, a question we all deserve to see answered.
The world tuned in for the “BMF” title fight because of the personalities involved. But while the world saw this as a fight between two guys cut from the same cloth, that is a fundamental misinterpretation of both men. Masvidal is a bad motherf*cker, no doubt about it; but Diaz is one of a kind. The younger Diaz brother is perhaps the only person in the sport who truly does not care about belts. And though Masvidal may not give a f*ck, he does care a great deal about fighting and his legacy, and as a result, belts.
Before UFC 244, Masvidal was open about wanting to fight for the real title and it’s easy to see why. “Gamebred” has been one of the very best fighters in the world for nearly a decade but circumstances have coalesced to keep that fact hidden from all but the most hardcore MMA fans. For Masvidal, winning the title not only means more money, it also is an announcement to the entire world: “I told you. I’m that dude. I’ve been that dude. Give me my respect.” Masvidal does not necessarily need the belt, but he damn sure wants it.
Meanwhile, Nate Diaz neither needs the belt nor wants it, in large part because Diaz has realized something fundamental about fighting that no one else seems to understand: prize fighting is about making the most amount of money and while more money traditionally comes with belts, belts are just promotional tools and, in the case of the UFC, another way for the company to control you. Why would Nate want to fight the top contenders if no one cared about them? What does he gain by fighting the Leon Edwards’ of the world? Nothing. That’s why Nate created his own title entirely from ego and imagination. And though UFC then coopted that title for money and marketing, the reality is no matter what happened at UFC 244, Diaz was always going to remain the baddest motherf*cker because he alone is the commissioner of the title and he knows that he’s the baddest motherf*cker and no amount of factual evidence will ever convince him otherwise.
And so the cut stoppage might end up being a good thing for all parties concerned. Fans who watched the fight know full well what happened. Diaz got worked over in a fashion we’ve never really seen before. Sure, others have controlled him or beaten him, but no one has beaten him down (aside from Josh Thomson half a lifetime ago). But the cut stoppage, bad as it was, provides Diaz with an easy explanation for why this loss is yet another example of the game being rigged against him. He can go on calling himself the true baddest motherf*cker and Masvidal can go on to try and prove he is actually the baddest motherf*cker in the welterweight division.
“I was getting ready to get started.” - Nate Diaz immediately after being beat down for 15 minutes.
“You sneeze on me, I bleed. Blood don’t hurt, it’s just there. Just so you know.” - Nate Diaz on the cut.
“I would love to run it back. That’s the only thing I want to do. That’s my full attention now. But I can already see the f*ckery coming. I know how this game works.” - Nate Diaz on a rematch.
“I’m just here to get the biggest checks possible but Nate is in the future for a fact. We’re doing it next year or the year after that but it’s going to happen.” - Jorge Masvidal on the rematch.
“It was hard. It was really hard. To tell you the utmost truth, I didn’t even want to go out there tonight. I was thinking of ways to fake an injury. . . I was so terrified. I was terrified. Not scared of fighting, I like getting hit, I enjoy it. I was just scared. I don’t know. . . I wasn’t even bothered about the win, I was just glad I overcame what I overcame.” - Darren Till being incredibly vulnerable after his big win.
“So he came in here very angry this week. All these conspiracy theories, we hate him, we this, that and everything else, all this crybaby bullsh*t. We’re trying to get him beat. We can’t get you beat. You can either win or you can’t. We like Walker better or whatever the stuff he was saying. No, some guys move faster than others, you’re telling us what you deserve. Show us what you deserve. Tonight you showed us. Got it. Message received. Now we know.” - Dana White on Corey Anderson.
Up: Jorge Masvidal. For all the reasons listed above. On the biggest stage of his career, Masvidal once again turned in a sensational performance and put himself in line for a title fight that will also be big business.
Hold steady. Nate Diaz. Yes Nate lost but he’s lost 11 other times and it doesn’t really matter for him. He’s a star of the first order, just headlined the biggest event of the year, and his next fight, whenever it is, will be an event.
Down: Kelvin Gastelum. Kelvin was coming off the Fight of the Year and right in the title conversation. His listless performance against Till is a major setback.
Up: Darren Till. Till took a huge gamble moving up and facing a top-5 middleweight and now he looks like a genius. After two KO losses, another might have permanently ruined his career. Now he’s immediately back in the thick of things.
Up: Stephen Thompson. Questions had started to swirl about whether “Wonderboy” was past it, and then he turned in a vintage performance. Thompson is still a legit welterweight contender.
Up: Kevin Lee. Like Till, Lee took a big risk and came out smelling like roses, knocking out Gillespie in devastating fashion. Lee now looks like he might be ready to fulfill all his immense potential.
Down: Gregor Gillespie. In some corners of the internet, Gillespie was being discussed as the dark horse contender of the lightweight division. At 32 years old, that KO loss is devastating to his title aspirations.
Up: Corey Anderson. Anderson has been calling for a title shot but no one was taking him too seriously. Now, we all are.
Up: Jairzinho Rozenstruik. There’s still much to learn about Jairzinho but so far he’s done everything asked of him, and knocking out a former champion is a big feather in any prospect’s cap.
It seems that every time the UFC comes to New York, something absurd happens and this weekend was no different.
Before the event even started, the NYSAC allowed Kelvin Gastelum to blatantly violate weigh-in procedures and then of course there was the complete snafu that was the main event doctor stoppage. But while the doctor stoppage will garner the bulk of the headlines—and rightfully so—let’s not forget that judge Dave Tirelli turned in what may well be the worst scorecard of the entire year: 30-27 for Kelvin Gastelum.
While the fight was close and scoring the bout for Gastelum is not ridiculous, there is no reasonable way to give him all three rounds. For reference, no member of the MMA media scored the bout for Gastelum, and many of them gave Till a clean sweep. There are other, more impactful errors that occurred last night, but Tirelli’s scorecard is the kind of thing that should warrant repercussions.
Jorge Masvidal vs. the winner of Kamaru Usman/Colby Covington. A rematch with Nate Diaz can wait. It’s time for Gamebred to get his due.
Nate Diaz vs. Robbie Lawler. Since the rematch isn’t going to happen, Nate will continue to call himself the BMF and Lawler is pretty clearly the next guy in line for a BMF title shot. Plus, it’s not like Nate is going to care about fighting Ben Askren or Tyron Woodley. It’s either this or the Conor threematch.
Darren Till vs. Derek Brunson. Jared Cannonier would also be acceptable. Till is right in the middleweight title hunt and so either of these guys would make sense. Brunson feels like he might be a more marketable fight as Cannonier has only just started coming on.
Kelvin Gastelum vs. Robert Whittaker. Whittaker reportedly has a fight lined up but if so, they should scrap that. These two were supposed to fight for the belt before Bobby Knuckles got hurt. Time to settle that business.
Stephen Thompson vs. Tyron Woodley III. Just kidding. No one wants to see that. Fights with either Rafael dos Anjos or Demian Maia would make sense both from a ranking standpoint and from a “I can’t believe these guys haven’t fought already” standpoint.
Derrick Lewis vs. Alistair Overeem. Walt Harris pulled out of his fight with Overeem due to the disappearance of his daughter. It’s a short turnaround for Lewis but he’s been happy to do that before. If he’s not this time though, a rematch with Francis Ngannou would also suffice.
Kevin Lee vs. Islam Makhachev. Lee has been vocal about believing he’s the guy who can derail Khabib. What better way to test that theory than to have him fight Khabib the lesser?
Corey Anderson vs. Jon Jones. If a performance like that doesn’t get you a title shot, I’m not sure what does. Yes, Jon will thump him, but the man has earned that right.