Nate Diaz caps off weird fight week in victorious fashion

UFC 279 is now in the books, and it will go down as one of the weirdest fight weeks in the history of the sport. The fight that had been promoted for months as the main event featuring future hall of famer Nate Diaz and rising prodigy Khamzat Chimanev was nixed. During the weigh-in Chimaev was unable to make weight, weighing in eight pounds over the welterweight limit. That weirdness was just the tip of the iceberg. UFC President Dana White canceled the press conferences due to a backstage melee between fighters Khamzat Chimaev, Kevin Holland and Nate Diaz as well as their entourages. On late Friday the UFC had to rearrange most of the card, which led to the two new main events Nate Diaz vs Tony Ferguson as well as Khamzat Chimaev vs Kevin Holland.

The controversy of this card didn’t end as the big narrative loomed in the background: what is next for Nate Diaz? Saturday was the final fight on Diaz's UFC contract, and he has indicated that he will not return to the promotion at this point. Earlier this week, Diaz's team announced he would be starting his own combat sports promotion, Real Fight Inc. Diaz has been in the UFC since 2007 and is an 18-year pro in mixed martial arts.

In what could have been Diaz’s last fight it ended the way fans of Diaz would want it a war, a blood fest against fellow veteran Tony Ferguson. Diaz moved into the top five of all time submissions under the UFC banner with ten. He will leave the promotion as a winner, courtesy of a guillotine choke submission at 2 minutes, 52 seconds of the fourth round.

"I want to get out of the UFC for a minute and show all these UFC fighters how to take over and own another sport how you're supposed to do it," Diaz said, adding he meant boxing, kickboxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. "Conor McGregor didn't know how to do it. None of these other fighters know how to do it. I'm going to take over another profession and become the best at that." Diaz earned a $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus for the submission win. He has 16 of those in his UFC career, tied for the second-most in history, behind Donald Cerrone and Charles Oliveira, who each have 18.

Speaking of submission, the co-main event which was scheduled for five rounds barely went a minute with Nate Diaz initial opponent Khamzat Chimaev running through challenger Kevin Holland as he rushed him from the early onset of the fight securing a choke and submitting Holland. It was his fourth UFC win where he didn’t take a single punch from his opponent. The Vegas crowd wasn’t kind to Chimaev at all, tearing him a new one. Chimaev went full on WWE heel the entire fight week and it culminated after the fight.

“You care about that s***? I don’t care,” he said. “I care about my family, I care about my career, I care about my money, so what now? One day, they’re with me, one day they’re not with me. I’m a real guy, so I like the people that are real, not fake people, going one way, then the other way.”

The UFC may have its next star in Chimaev. What is next for him? That will be the question. He failed to make weight and showed a careless attitude the entire week and nearly put the entire card in jeopardy with himself and his crew starting fights. Despite everything that happened this fight week it went through and the fight gods gave Nate Diaz the potential send off he deserved and it built Chimaev as the next heel the sport hasn’t seen since Connor McGregor or Jon Jones.