In the age of social media it’s nearly impossible to have a heated conversation in a public setting without somebody recording it.
Former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub found that out the hard way this past weekend after getting into a spat with Nate Diaz backstage following the fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor.
The brief video posted online showed the argument brewing between Schaub and Diaz in the aftermath of Mayweather earning a 10th round TKO victory against McGregor, who was making his professional boxing debut.
According to Schaub, he actually approached Diaz to begin hyping up a possible third fight against McGregor, who will likely return to mixed martial arts following his loss to Mayweather on Saturday night.
That’s when things took a turn for the worse.
“I see Nate Diaz and he’s by himself, like no one’s really by him, he’s by himself and he’s on his phone,” Schaub described when appearing on the “Joe Rogan Podcast”. “I see him and I think same fraternity, UFC guys, there’s no UFC representatives there really. There’s Dana [White], I didn’t see him at the fight and I figured brothers in arms. But I was going towards him cause he looked busy and whether he wanted my help or not I figured I know a few things about marketing, the next fight for him is Conor. I’m assuming he’s there to sell that fight. That should be the next fight, Conor versus Nate Diaz 3, the trilogy, that’s the fight.
“So I was going to go to him cause I saw some interviews with him where he was kind of hating on Conor and I would have spun it the other way. He should have celebrated Conor and what he did winning rounds against the best of all time and saying look I beat him up worse than Floyd and now we’re going to do this trilogy, I’m going to end him faster than Floyd did. That should be the sell, I was going to go talk to him about this.”
Schaub says he approached Diaz with that mentality but the former lightweight title contender and the only person to hold a win over McGregor in the UFC quickly reacted in a way he never expected.
Schaub says Diaz launched into an attack on him after he very publicly backed McGregor going into the fight against Mayweather despite being a massive underdog going up against the 49-0 former multi-time champion.
“So I see him out of the corner of my eye and [Showtime] is like ‘Brendan we’ve got to go’ and I’m like let me just say what’s up to this guy. I’m like Nate, bro, how about that fight? You’re next, biggest fight in UFC history, brother, and he starts laughing. He’s like hell no, how f–king stupid do you look now? I’m like caught off guard, I’m like what? He’s like how stupid do you look talking all this s–t and I’m like whoa, what are you doing right now? What the hell are you doing right now?” Schaub said.
“He keeps talking. Then I go, Nate he doesn’t look that stupid. He won rounds against the best boxer of all time and then Nate’s like ‘he didn’t win rounds’, he gave him one round. I’m like all right, he won rounds though, what are you doing? He just keeps talking s–t and then he starts talking about my career and I’m like what is going on right now. I go Nate, I have no issues with you. You’re pointing your gun at the wrong guy. What are you doing right now? You should be selling this fight against Conor not me. I’m not the guy. I’m in skinny jeans and Gucci boots for God’s sake, what are you doing right now? And then Showtime was like come on, let’s go boys.”
Schaub believes it was another comment he made when speaking towards Diaz that caused the veteran fighter to erupt in what started as a friendly conversation and ended with expletives and obscene gestures being thrown backstage at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“I was just embarrassed by the situation cause he kept talking s–t. He kept doing this [putting up his middle finger]. This is the part I left out, this is what triggered him. He was talking, I literally couldn’t hear him cause they were like Schaub let’s go, cause they didn’t want a fight. He keeps talking and I’m like Nate, use your words. I can’t understand a word you’re saying. Use your words and he probably has that lisp or whatever and that probably set him off. But I have no issues with Nate,” Schaub said.
“Then he kept talking s–t and I’m like what are we going to do, what are we doing here? What the f–k is happening? I was so embarrassed cause the Showtime guys are like ‘oh my god, who is that guy?’ and I’m like that’s the guy that’s supposed to fight Conor next, they fought before, and they’re like what’s wrong with him? I was so embarrassed. I have no issues with him.”
As embarrassing as the situation may have been for Schaub, his original idea was probably on the right track. McGregor has already mentioned a third fight against Diaz as his next fight upon his return to the UFC, especially considering the first pair of events they headlined ultimately played out as two of the most lucrative cards in UFC history.
