UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev and Nate Diaz had a minor incident in Las Vegas where Makhachev had a press conference for the UFC 311 battle against rising contender Arman Tsarukyan.
The two fighters met in 2019, but Makhachev emerged victorious with a unanimous decision win. Since then, Tsarukyan has been eager for a rematch, but it seems others in attendance at the press conference have a bigger beef with Makhachev.
During the conference, UFC veteran Nate Diaz almost got into it with the champ after throwing a water bottle at Makhachev, which prompted retaliation from the champ’s team. Diaz was in the conference to support Kron Gracie who faced Bryce Mitchell at UFC 310. The whole incident shocked Makhachev as he had never had any prior beef with Dia besides a rivalry with Khabib Nurmagomedov–Makhachev’s coach.
The incident started when Diaz came in and gave a finger to Makhachev’s team. The champ believes Diaz may have thought Nurmagomedov was also on the team, but Makhachev revealed that the former UFC champ was not in the country.
“We sat, before fight day, I had a press conference, fighters had official weigh-ins. We sat and Diaz started to show [gestures his middle finger] for what? Maybe for someone, it’s good, no problem, but that’s not our style.”
“One of the guys wore a mask,” Makhachev said. “He was sick a little bit and wore the mask, and maybe Diaz thinking it’s Khabib and showed him, you know? But that day Khabib was not in Vegas, he was in some other country.”
“You know what’s interesting, maybe five, six months ago, I meet Diaz in the elevator in the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas,” Makhachev said. “He goes to me and says, ‘Respect, respect, respect.’ But what changed now? A lot of cameras come and always people change.
“We don’t have something. If I have something with him, I can fix it in the Wynn Hotel. But he came to me and said ‘Respect’ and then he go. But when camera comes, he’s changing. And people think I started this!
“I’m not starting this. Security comes, and they want to send my team from the arena, and I’m like, ‘Hey, it’s not the guys’ fault!’ … ‘Sorry, you guys have to leave. You have to stay and do an interview, and your team has to leave.’ I said, no, it’s not working like this. If they leave, I leave with them, and they cancelled all interviews [laughs].”
Makhachev defends his lightweight title against Arman Tsarukyan in the main event of UFC 311 on Jan. 18 at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif.
Luckily, security broke up the fight, and Makhachev left the building with his team. He says Diaz may have staged the display because he had a prior encounter with the fighter, and things seemed fine between them.
