Ranking the top 10 most iconic Nate Diaz performances

Today it’s April 20th, 4/20, the unofficial stoner holiday! So there’s never been a better date to celebrate the top ten most iconic performances from MMA’s favourite cannabis aficionado: Nate Diaz!

Over the years Stocktons Diaz has gone from being a cult favourite fighter to a bonafide super star, being one of few fighters who has crossed over and achieved true mainstream appeal. With fantastic boxing, a wicked jiu jitsu game and a ”F*** you” attitude; Diaz always delivers entertaining fights but we’re here to check out the ten performances that made him the household name he is today!

Ranking the top 10 most iconic Nate Diaz performances

Honourable mention: UFC 118 vs Marcus Davis – Good night

What are two things that Nate Diaz and an ounce of purple haze have in common? They can both easily put you to sleep.

Such was the case when Diaz and ”The Irish Hand Grenade” Marcus Davis opened up the UFC 118 main card. Diaz got cut, quite unsurprisingly, but dished out far more damage on the feet than his opponent. By the second round Davis resembled Sloth from The Goonies, ended up in bottom position and was eating vicious strikes and elbows. Diaz easily found the arm in guillotine and put his opponent to sleep for an alarming amount of time as referee Yves Lavigne cluelessly played around with Davis’ arm.

Vintage Diaz.

10: UFC 279 vs Tony Ferguson – getting out with the bag

We begin with the most recent Diaz performance that encapsulates the essence of what makes him so beloved.

The Stockton son was originally scheduled to face undefeated powerhouse Khamzat Chimaev in a bout that, in hindsight, would probably have been quite lopsided. A catastrophic missing of weight and Diaz’ refusal to face Chimaev at a catch weight caused a shuffling of the fight card. Diaz knew his worth, didn’t back down and was willing to leave the UFC without a main event, standing up to his bosses in ways the rest of us could only dream of doing.

Diaz would instead face veteran Tony Ferguson, won via submission, and left the UFC with a win, his middle fingers up to Dana White, and a bag full of cash.

Was it his best performance? Hardly. Iconic? Highly. Get it? Hiiiiighly?

9: UFC 135 vs Takanori Gomi – Don’t be scared, Gomi

We all love the cinematic aspect of MMA, don’t we? In 2007 Nate Diaz’ older brother Nick Diaz defeated Japanese superstar Takanori Gomi in PRIDE’s debut in the USA. At least initially it was a win, it was later overturned to a No Contest after that Nick Diaz tested positivt for a banned substance (spoiler alert: it was the sticky icky).

Four years Gomi would face the younger Diaz brother after having made his UFC debut. While some expected Gomi to be a tough test on the feet with his powerful striking, Diaz simply styled on the Japanese fighter like he was cruising down the street in his ’64. After outclassing the striker on the feet Diaz secured the submission win.

8: UFC Fight Night 19 vs Melvin Guillard – F*** the UFC’s plans

While there’s no shortage of paranoia from Diaz some of it is definitely justified. His relationship with the UFC has been shaky for over a decade and the notion of the UFC being against him are much less crazy than the notion of a SWAT team waiting to bust down the front door after a smoke session (nobody else hears sirens, it’s just you, homie!).

Diaz found himself in the main event at a UFC Fight Night against Melvin Guillard. The thing is, Diaz was still young in his UFC career with little to no bargaining power and coming off two straight decision losses. Guillard on the other hand was coming off three straight wins, two in the UFC including an emphatic first round TKO of Dennis Siver. On the surface it seemed like the UFC wanted to use Diaz to build up Guillard.

The fight was surprising. While many expected the vicious knockout artist Guillard to have a clear advantage on the feet he was sucked into that classic Diaz rhythm and was tiring by the second round. Guillard faked being rocked, used the cage to bounce off into a takedown – right into a guillotine. Diaz knew the tap was coming and gave us a classic encouraging reaction to it.

Nate Diaz had secured a huge win in one of his, at the time, top performances, and in doing so, his future in the UFC.

7: UFC 244 vs  Jorge Masvidal – Who’s the real BMF?

Surely this is an odd one, right? It’s not a Diaz win and it’s arguably the most anticlimactic fight of his career. Well in many ways it also encapsulates that never-quit mentality of Diaz as well as the sore loser aspect (let’s be honest he doesn’t take losses that well).

After a huge win over a resurging Anthony Pettis, Diaz shot his shot and called out Jorge Masvidal – the hottest fighter on the roster at the time. Not only that, they managed to throw together one of the most unique UFC events ever. A one-time title for the Baddest Mother Fucker in the promotion would headline UFC 244.

While Masvidal undoubtedly was ahead in the fight, piecing up Diaz on the feet, the pace began to get grueling. Unfortunately a pedantic doctor would stop the fight between the third and fourth round because who knows how well Masvidals cardio would have held up in the last two rounds.

This gave Diaz a built in excuse for the end of the fight but that’s not the most iconic thing about it. Diaz manifested not only the fight, but the BMF title and almost the pay-per-view entire event on the strength of his star value.

That’s gangster.

6: UFC 141 vs Donald Cerrone – Yeehaw, Cowboy!

In many ways the picture above sums up the spirit of this fight perfectly.

The co-main event of UFC 141 would see lightweight division regulars Diaz and Donald ”Cowboy” Cerrone sling it out in the cage. While Cerrone started off great, landing solid leg kicks and managing distance, he would eventually fall into the vicious cloud of smoke that is Diaz’ boxing.

The longer the fight went the more the momentum swayed in favour of Diaz, who continued to style on his opponent. Heading into the third and final round the fighters’ gaze met. Diaz threw up his middle fingers while ”Cowboy” acknowledged the ass kicking that was about to continue. Diaz continued to play the part of outlaw, landing a hailstorm of strikes and sending Cerrone packing to the old West.

5: The Ultimate Fighter 18 finale vs Gray Maynard III –  Not even close

Credit: UFC/ Josh Hedges

Heading into the TUF 18 Finale Diaz and rival Gray Maynard were 1-1 with the trilogy to be the deciding factor in the rivalry. The third meeting would be anything but close, however.

From the start Diaz was landing a series of punches to a hapless Maynard – who was constantly a step behind in every exchange. Diaz would then drop his foe and followed up with a barrage of strikes akin to an angry swarm of green bees, suffocating Maynard with punches. The referee intervened as Maynard would stumble along the fence, then collapsing, like he had taken a hit of something much stronger than he could handle.

The much-needed victory broke a two fight losing streak for Diaz – who went on to bigger and better things.

4: UFC 241 vs Anthony Pettis – ”He ain’t no West Coast gangster”

Ahead of UFC 241 Diaz had lost some of his star power, not much though. He was coming off of a close decision loss in a rematch with arch rival Conor McGregor and was pitted against former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, who had moved up a division and knocked out Stephen ”Wonderboy” Thompson.

On papaer Pettis had the unorthodox, unpredictable style needed to defeat Diaz standing. That was not the case, though.

Diaz have his opponent no space to land flashy kicks, crowing the former champ like a grifter trying to smooch a hit off of you. Diaz began landing solid shots against the cage, nice knees in the clinch and by the end of the fight Pettis’ sharp striking was blunted (get it?), wrapped like a mummy, even.

Diaz had firmly re-established himself near the top of the super star totem pole. After he would make his legendary call out of Jorge Masvidal, the rest is history.

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.

2: UFC on FOX 17 vs Michael Johnson – ”You’re taking everything I worked for, motherf***er!”

Nate Diaz’ performance against Michael Johnson was slicker than an oil spill on a marble floor. It was sharper than a Michael Myers murder weapon. It was hotter than Las Vegas asfalt in the middle of august.

Johnson had won four out of his last five fights and was quickly ascending the UFC lightweight rankings. Diaz, on the other hand, had lost three out of his last four. Some had wondered if Diaz was ready for this – but he’s always ready, after all he smokes two joints in time of peace and two in time of war.

The two battled it out over the coarse of three thrilling rounds. Johnson was a game opponent who was constantly firing back and who resisted the urge to relent to his opponents taunting. However Diaz channeled his inner Snoop Dogg and smoked Johnson on the feet.

After three rounds Diaz wasted no time calling out UFC mega star Conor McGregor in a now legendary, profanity-laced rant that took place on FOX – a network that definitely doesn’t allow that kind of language on air (sticking it to the man, once again).

It’s one of Diaz’ all-time great performances as it shows almost every aspect of why fans love him. Slick boxing, a cocky demeanour, a ”F*** the establishment”-attitude; all entertainment, all the time.

1 Conor McGregor – ”I’m not surprised”

How could anything but this be the number one spot?!

While Diaz was undoubtedly a UFC star, his upset win over Conor McGregor catapulted him onto the mainstream talkshows like Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel. Few fighters have reached that status and the fight that secured that stardom was fantastic.

McGregor was heavily favoured to win and initially the fight seemed like it would go the way that oddsmakers predicted. The Irishman landed heavy shots and even dropped Diaz, but began slowing down. Slowing down in the early rounds against Diaz is like starting to sink in shark infested waters – it’s not going to end well!

In the second round Diaz began landing with his patented 1-2 strikes and Stockton slaps, forcing a sloppy takedown attempt from McGregor (Oh, you’re a wrestler now?), got on top and forced the tap off of a rear naked choke. His classic post fight speech sealed the deal and the MMA world collectively lost its mind.

While Diaz may have achieved his superstar status without this win, the odds of that are higher than the THC levels in Stockton today.

It’s not just because of fights like this that we love Nate Diaz – it’s because of fights like this that we love MMA.

Read more: Seven Swedish fighters we want to see debut during UFC Sweden 2023!

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