Morning Report: Miesha Tate: ‘I would feel the same way as Nate Diaz does’ about UFC 25th anniversary press conference

On Friday afternoon, the UFC held a 25th anniversary press conference in Los Angeles to promote a bevy a newly announced fights, including the return of Nate Diaz after a two-year absence from the cage. Unfortunately for Diaz, the show was stolen when the presser concluded with the UFC announcing the fight everyone has been waiting for, Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor. Diaz did not take kindly to his return being overshadowed, storming out of the press conferencewhen the announcement was made and later Tweeting that he would no longer be fighting Dustin Poirier as planned. And some fighters understand where Diaz is coming from.

Speaking on Sirius XM Fight Nation over the weekend, former women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate says she believes Diaz’s indignation is warranted and suggests that she would have felt exactly the same way as Stockton’s finest.

“I would feel the same way as Nate does,” Tate said. “Nate has a different personality than I do, he’s expressive in a different way, but of course [I would be mad]. I remember when I threatened retirement because I was so pissed off that they had promised that I would fight Ronda and then they ended up switching that out and having Holly [Holm] but they didn’t tell me. It’s the same thing that happened to Nate, essentially, it’s just that Nate was in front of everybody. I was pissed too, believe me.”

This is not the first time Diaz has butted heads with the UFC. Diaz and the UFC have had a tumultuous relationship over the years, and though at the press conference Diaz implied that he was in the middle of a lawsuit which kept him from fighting, the general belief is that Diaz and the UFC were unable to come to terms on a contract for Diaz who reportedly wanted at least $15 million dollars for his next fight. Now, should he opt not to fight, Diaz won’t be making any money from the UFC because his options for recourse are pretty limited. As Tate notes, the only redress Nate has is to not fight and if he’s not ready to retire yet, then the UFC effectively has him over a barrel.

“I was mad but they don’t care,” Tate said. “They know that they have a strong arm in a lot of this and it doesn’t really matter. Or if they do care, it’s not enough. Like, ‘I’m sorry but this is what you have to do for business.’ You can’t really argue with them. They’re the ones who are gonna make the final decision, so what can you do? What can Nate do?

“For me it was a whirlwind of emotions, just trying to decide what I even wanted to do next because I felt like it was so unfair. Then it was just coming to terms with, ‘Well, life’s not fair. What do you want to do about it? Are you ready to retire now or not?’ And the truth was I wasn’t ready to retire at that time. Obviously I still went on to fight Jessica Eye after that and went on to win the title against Holly later, so I wasn’t ready to retire but it was just the frustration.”

Not fighting is something the Diaz brothers have both used pretty effectively to eventually get contracts that they are happy with but as the lightweight division moves on, Diaz’s name value will continue to drop off. Likening Diaz’s situation with her own acrimonious past with the UFC, Tate says that, at the end of the day, Nate needs to recognize that he isn’t Conor McGregor and he’s not in control of the situation, so the best thing he can do is continue to keep building himself.

“Having a talk with Dana White helps but it still stings because he’s not the one to have a filter on,” Tate concluded. “The conversation was like, ‘Yeah, but you’re not Ronda Rousey.’

“It’s part of just recognizing that. I have a different value than Ronda and hers is what it is and mine is what it is so I have to continue to work to build mine even more. What else can I do? Get back to the grind. You just try to leverage yourself as much as you can but there’s a point where you don’t have the leverage. You don’t have the final leverage, the UFC does.”