Nate Diaz has never needed an excuse to think the world is against him.
As he headed to the cage against Conor McGregor at UFC 196, however, it was probably pretty close to the truth.
McGregor was being trumpeted as the fight company's newest, biggest star. He and the UFC were making beautiful music together, scoring sizable pay-per-view numbers on each of his last two fights as he cruised to the featherweight championship seemingly without breaking a sweat.
To say there was a lot riding on the Irishman's continued success would be a massive understatement. Just about everybody—the UFC, media and cult of traveling Irish fans who transform every city in which McGregor fights into Little Dublin—wanted to get this bout out of the way to see what he would do next.
A good deal of that McGregor mystique fell by the wayside Saturday night, as Diaz rolled in on a shade more than 10 days notice and defeated McGregor by defiant rear-naked choke in the second round.
"I'm not surprised, motherf----ers," Diaz crowed into color commentator Joe Rogan's mic when the fight was over.
Everybody else was. Along with the outcome of this makeshift welterweight bout, some of the UFC's biggest plans for 2016 may well have vanished before its very eyes.
This bout was first conceived as McGregor's chance to make history by adding Rafael dos Anjos' UFC lightweight title to his list of spoils. There was already talk that afterward he'd next challenge for Robbie Lawler's welterweight strap at UFC 200—a fight that would surely break every sales record on the promotion's books.
But Diaz? He wasn't having it.
Not having it is basically the default setting for MMA's notorious Diaz brothers. Nate and his older brother Nick have made entire careers out of pushing back against the UFC's best-laid plans.
With expletives flying and middle fingers waving, they've been railing against every authority figure in the sport since first Nick (in 2003) and then Nate (in 2007) arrived in the Octagon. Along the way, they established themselves as the UFC's consummate bad boys and captured a legion of fans who rival even McGregor's for sheer passion.
And now they finally have their most rebellious, most problematic, most wonderful career-defining moment.
"I knew I was going to beat him," Nate Diaz told a line-up of reporters after the event, via MMA Fighting.com. "I knew if I messed up he could probably beat me somehow, but I knew he's not a better fighter [than I am]. He's not going to take me out. I feel like I'm the best fighter in the world."
Diaz came in as more than a 3-to-1 underdog against McGregor, according to Odds Shark. He said he had been vacationing in Mexico prior to the fight and came home "sick off some Mexico water" when he got the call that dos Anjos was out with a broken foot.
He said he only agreed to face McGregor and on short notice because "I gotta take what I can get. [The UFC] ain't giving me nothing."
That might change in the immediate future. This victory might have a way of undoing the Diaz brothers' well-documented misgivings about MMA and might give them the upper hand in future negotiations with the UFC as well:
Keep thinking about Nick telling me in Sept that he blames himself for getting his bro in MMA & has to get him out. All worked out tonight.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) March 6, 2016
That's not to say it was easy.
Diaz walked thought McGregor's best power punches in the first round. He suffered a cut near his right eye and his face was bathed in blood as the second stanza began. Still, Diaz was the bigger fighter and though McGregor continued to counter his jab with hard left hands, he remained undeterred.
Diaz fired back with punches and trademark slaps—peppering McGregor's face with an open hand as many as half a dozen times during the bout—and he kept trash talking. His high-volume striking style seemed to begin to take its toll.
Midway through the second, Diaz threw a two-punch combo that hurt McGregor. The Irishman appeared to weather it initially, but as Diaz poured it on with more and more strikes, McGregor shot in for a desperation takedown. Diaz easily took his back and locked in the choke the elicited a prompt tap.
Conor McGregor is not a welterweight. That simple. Nate Diaz felt McGregor's power. Ate it. Then gave some of his own and finished in R2.
— Josh Gross (@yay_yee) March 6, 2016
"I thought I took him the first round," McGregor said on the mic after the fight. "I'm humble in victory or defeat. I took a chance to move up in weight and it didn't work."
With the featherweight title still around his waist, McGregor has decent options moving forward. Though he seemed reluctant to continue making the hard weight cut to 145-pounds, he can go back there and defend his championship against Frankie Edgar or rematch with Jose Aldo.
Even if he chooses to try his hand at the lightweight division, suitors will lineup to face him. He could wind up in a high profile grudge match with someone like Donald Cerrone or Eddie Alvarez and still make a nice payday as part of UFC 200.
For Diaz, this victory may stand as the ultimate payback to a company he felt had disrespected him in the past.
He and the UFC were engaged in a contentious contact dispute in May 2014 when the company removed him from its official lightweight rankings. The official reason given was that Diaz was taken out of the Top 15 for "inactivity related to his refusal to accept bouts," according to ESPN's Brett Okamoto.
It was largely assumed the company was trying to send him a message. Two months later, UFC President Dana White told MMA Fighting.com's Shaun al-Shatti that Diaz was "not a needle mover" in terms of fetching television ratings and PPV buys.
Consider that needle duly moved now. Diaz may as well have broken it off and tossed it into the front row.
He does not simply move into McGregor's position as weight-hopping UFC star, but his popularity will only grow after scoring this unlikely victory on one of the biggest cards of the year.
He just lost to dos Anjos in December 2014, so it's not a given he would fight for the 155-pound title next. Likewise, a date with Lawler seems like a bit of a stretch. Look for Diaz to get another high profile booking, however, perhaps against someone like Anthony Pettis (if Pettis beats Edson Barboza next month).
As always, he says he's only interested in taking the biggest, most lucrative possible fight.
This time, the UFC may have no choice but to give it to him.
It's Nate Diaz's world now.
Chad Dundas covers MMA for Bleacher Report. His novel Champion of the World is now available for preorder.
