Daniel Cormier recently declared that he has no interest in seeing Nate Diaz headline the UFC 306 event at the Sphere in Las Vegas in September, and needless to say that provoked a less than cordial response from the Stockton native.
“This bitch is not a fighter. The complete opposite. Good talk DC,” Diaz responded on the X platform.
Cormier has since issued a lengthy response on his YouTube channel.
“First off, I have no problem with Nate Diaz,” Cormier said. “I have no issue. I don’t really know Nate. I’ve always respected Nate for what he did inside the octagon.
“I’m a lot of things, guys, but one thing I’m not is nobody’s b****. I’m not a b****. So my question is this: When did it become OK for men to start calling each other outside their name like that? When did that become OK? I don’t disrespect nobody in my assessment of them. I try my best to be as fair as I can. I don’t quite understand why people think it’s OK to attack you in that way, especially calling you outside your name like that. It’s not cool, man. You don’t get to just talk to people any way you want.”
Of course Cormier also took issue with the fact that Diaz suggested he wasn’t a fighter, and so he went on to point out that in terms of their accomplishments in the sport there just isn’t any comparison.
“To say I’m not a fighter — I don’t get it,” Cormier said. “Again, I feel like actually, I was pretty fair to this dude. Because when you really think about it, to say I’m not a fighter, when you really think about it — Nate Diaz was fun, Nate Diaz got a championship opportunity. But if I’m not a fighter, what’s that make him? What does that make him? If I did what I did and he did what he did, what’s that make him?
“One time I was talking to Khabib [Nurmagomedov] when Nate was coming at Khabib, and Khabib said something to the effect of, ‘This man has lost 12 or 13 fights in his career. Daniel, I can’t respond to this guy. I can’t take this guy serious because who loses to that many people?’ How can you call me not a fighter when you have had those instances? What did I do? I fought the best. I fought the best in the world constantly. So to say I’m not a fighter because I have an opinion on whether or not I want to see him headline The Sphere?
“The reality is, one thing we will not do is compare myself to Nate Diaz, because it’s different levels. Much different. I’m a champion. Two weight classes. I lost three times in my career. Four if you count the fight that was called a no-contest. Four times, two guys. We are on much different wave lengths, we are on much different planets. We are not in the same stratosphere in terms of fighters. We’re not. And it’s time for me to stop allowing people to attack or come at me in these ways when I’m doing my job.”
Cormier concluded by making it clear he doesn’t have any interest in becoming the latest person to get into a scuffle on the streets with Diaz, but he is willing to talk to him face-to-face in order to bury the hatchet.
“I don’t have a problem with Nate Diaz. I don’t. He clearly has a problem with me. Gilroy is an hour and a half away from Stockton. I live here. I’m not trying to fight. I’m not going to be up there fighting this man in the streets, but we can always have a conversation if you have a problem with something I said. But to call me out by name like that … I fought the best. I very rarely had opportunities to fight guys that weren’t on my level. I can only imagine what my record would be if I did.
“So to wrap it up, Nate, here’s the deal — I don’t have a problem with you. If I see you, I’ll tip my hat to you. If you want to say something to me, come up to me. Tell me. Tell me what the issue is. We can discuss it like men. But I don’t really play all that b**** and other stuff. So lay off that. Lay off that and I’ll lay off you.”
