Michael Johnson: Nate Diaz 'sucked me in' with trash talk during UFC on FOX 17 loss

Michael Johnson and Nate Diaz

Ahead of UFC on FOX 17, Michael Johnson knew there was a better than average chance Nate Diaz was going to try to get into his head in the fight.

And by “better than average,” we mean pretty much 100 percent chance. And that’s exactly what Diaz did.

In their “Fight of the Night” lightweight bout on the main card, which took place Saturday at Amway Center in Orlando, Fla., and aired on FOX, Diaz spent much of the fight taunting Johnson, trash-talking him, and otherwise just being Nate Diaz.

Diaz (18-10 MMA, 13-8 UFC), in his first fight in a year, beat Johnson (16-10 MMA, 8-6 UFC) by unanimous decision in a fairly sizable upset – Johnson was more than a 3-1 favorite.

Afterward, Johnson was perhaps comforted by the $50,000 bonus he got in a fight he and Diaz predicted would be the night’s best, even if he didn’t agree with the outcome, necessarily.

He also said he wasn’t prepared for the level of trash talking Diaz brought to the table.

“It was an incredible experience, first off. Nate’s an incredible fighter,” Johnson told MMAjunkie at the post-event news conference. “We went in there and gave you guys exactly what everybody wanted, and that was a ‘Fight of the Night’ performance. But you really don’t know how you’re going to react until he starts doing it. He sucked me in, so congrats to him.”

The loss was Johnson’s second straight after a controversial decision setback to Beneil Dariush in August at UFC Fight Night 74 – a fight no one in the major media scored in Dariush’s favor.

Prior to that, Johnson had a four-fight winning streak. But even the UFC seemed to think he got the short end of the stick from the judges against Dariush and, Johnson said, gave him his win bonus for the fight.

But now with two straight blemishes on his resume, he’s once again in a position to have to forget and move on.

“As far as unanimous (decision loss to Diaz), I really don’t think it should have been unanimous – but it was a really close fight,” Johnson said. “He really sucked me in with (the taunting). I got away from my game plan, and it is what it is.

“But we’re going to put that behind us and move (on) and look forward to another big fight, hopefully.”

For complete coverage of UFC on FOX 17, check out the UFC Events section of the site.