Den frispråkige Stocktonsonen deltog i Chael Sonnens podcast i veckan och delade mig sig av minst sagt okonventionella åsikter.
Att lättviktaren Nate Diaz (17-9) och UFCs vd Dana White inte alltid håller med varandra är ingen hemlighet. De har ett flertal gånger varit öppet kritiska mot varandra, Diaz på grund av UFCs lönestruktur och White på grund av hur fightern ibland kan vara extremt ovillig att samarbeta.
Sedan dess har Diaz blivit mer samarbetsvillig och har bokats för en match mot Rafael Dos Anjos på UFC on FOX 13, men det hindrade inte honom från at uttrycka sitt missnöje i samtal med Chael Sonnen på den sistnämndes podcast.
I samtal med Sonnen var Diaz åter igen kritisk mot hur UFC betalar ut deras löner. Något han varit tydligt kritisk mot tidigare.
“Hector Lombard and Eddie Alvarez were with Bellator at the time and were offered hella money to come over. Eddie Alvarez, I know who he is, but nobody else does, and he was going to get paid like 20 times more money than I was going to get to fight for a world title. So I was going to sign to fight for a world title for not even a tenth of what this guy was getting? I don’t think I could sign that contract, so I went in there, and they said, ‘We’re not paying him that much. That’s rumored.’ And I was like, ‘I know you’re paying him this much, and you can’t even double or triple or just change things a little bit to make me happy? What if I became the champion?’ They’re like, ‘Get the championship, and you’ll get this and you’ll get that.’”
Det är få fighters som kommit undan med sådana uttalanden medan de fortfarande varit under kontrakt med UFC. Ett antal fighters har varit kritiska mot hur organisationen kompenserar sina atleter efter att de lämnat UFC, men Diaz är ingen vanlig fighter med de konventionella uttalandena som man är vad vid att höra.
Diaz beskrev ämnet tydligare i podcasten, men i slutändan så anser han att han inte fått rätt behandling av UFC, oavsett vad White säger.
“I feel like I’ve been taken advantage of for a lot of years with the whole situation,” Diaz said. “More so because I kind of grew up in this, and I didn’t understand or know what was what with money and contracts, and what was happening, until one morning I woke and for some reason I was like, ‘Hold up. I’ve been really underappreciated, underpaid, under-all-kinds-of-shit.’
“I wanted to try to get my situation fixed. I was trying to get a fight going on, but at the same time I didn’t want – it was a whole mess going on. But everything got cleared, up and I’m ready to get back to work and do my thing.”
Har Diaz en poäng i vad han säger eller tror ni han överdriver?
