Ranking the top 10 most iconic Nate Diaz performances

3: UFC Fight Night 13 vs Kurt Pellegrino – World: meet Nate Diaz

Honestly, this could easily be #1 regarding the top, most iconic Nate Diaz performances. It is the very essence of what endears him to fans. An incredibly fun fighting style that is tailor made for finishes, a take-no-shit-attitude, a healthy amount of disrespect towards authority and the establishment – what more could you ask for?

Diaz was new in the UFC after winning season three of the Ultimate Fighter and faced Kurt Pellegrino – who was coming off a nice TKO win.

Pelelgrino started off strongly, getting top position, landing punches and opening up a cut on Diaz. Back then that seemed like a win was around the corner for Pellegrino. Now we know that scoring a cut on Stocktons finest is like making The big, green Hulk angry, and Diaz has a lot of green in his bloodstream.

Pellegrino got careless in the second round, and wound up in Diaz’ guard. While there Diaz secured a slick triangle and being certain of the tap that would follow, threw up double middle fingers.

He wasn’t flipping off Pellegrino, or the UFC, it was like he was flipping off every teacher, boss and police officer who had ever told us we weren’t enough, who had tried to hold us back (or bust us for one tiny, little gram). It was like he was saying ”Fuck you” to the entire rigged system that runs our lives and forces us into the hamster wheel of corporate capitalism.

Or it was probably just a heat of the moment celebration that I am now projecting a dangerous amount of personal frustration onto. But you know what? That moment transcends MMA because we can all apply that moment and its celebration to so much of our own lives. We’ve all felt like that at some point, and it was as if Diaz gave us a visual representation of how we wish to conquer our own personal leviathans.

The win made Diaz very popular in the UFC as he would go on to headline a UFC Fight Night card in his next bout.