Islam
Makhachev and Nate Diaz
allegedly had a cordial interaction months before nearly getting
into a brawl last December.
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Makhachev defends his lightweight title against Arman
Tsarukyan in the main event at UFC 311
on Jan. 18 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, California. Makhachev
was in Las Vegas for a promotional presser in December when he
almost got into an altercation with Diaz, who was in town to corner
teammate Kron Gracie
the following weekend at UFC 310.
Diaz and Makhachev’s teams threw water bottles at each other before
security broke them up without letting it escalate further.
Nate Diaz and Team Makhachev threw water
bottles at each other backstage 😳
#UFC310 pic.twitter.com/gr3TDd5abt— ESPN MMA (@espnmma)
December 7, 2024
While Makhachev didn’t have any animosity with Diaz, he believes
Khabib
Nurmagomedov might have had something to do with the incident.
According to Makhachev, Diaz flipped the bird at one of his
teammates who was wearing a mask, possibly mistaking him to be “The
Eagle.” Diaz and Nurmagomedov have history from their active years,
even engaging in a near-brawl at a World Series of Fighting in
2015.
“We sit in before the fight day, I have press conference, the
fighters have official weigh-in. We sit and Diaz start to show them
[the bird], for what?” Makhachev recently told Demetrious
Johnson. “Maybe for someone it’s good, it’s no problem, but
it’s not our style. Because one of the guys, he wear the mask.
Maybe he’s sick a little bit, he wear the mask and maybe Diaz is
thinking, ‚Oh, it’s Khabib and show him… but that day Khabib not in
Vegas, he’s in some other country.”
Makhachev further revealed that he came across Diaz in an elevator
at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas months ago. According to the
lightweight champ, Diaz maintained a two feet distance, raised his
hands and just paid his respects. Makhachev says Diaz should have
sorted his differences with him, if any, inside the elevator,
instead of acting tough when cameras are around.
“Interesting, maybe five, six months ago, I meet Diaz in the
elevator in Wynn hotel,” Makhachev said. “He go to cross to me and
say, ‚respect, respect‘, he just walk, but what change now? They
love when a lot of cameras come, always people change. We don’t
have something… If I have something with him, I can fix it in the
Wynn hotel, but he come to me like two meters [distance]. He say, ‚respect, respect‘ and he go.”