Nate Diaz avenged a 2019 TKO loss to Jorge Masvidal last night in Anaheim, California with a win on the scorecards, though this time the battle was fought in the boxing ring.
The two former UFC stars clearly took the fight seriously as this was a high-paced, competitive fight from start to finish over 10 round – no mean feat given that they are both now 39-years-old.
There was a clear contrast in styles from the two though, with Diaz generally pressing the action and offering up the higher output, though without much in the way of power. Meanwhile Masvidal preferred to soak up strikes behind his guard and then pick his shots, landing the cleaner, harder punches to the head and body, but with less frequency than his rival.
There was a few moments where Masvidal did seem to hurt Diaz, but in true zombie-like fashion Diaz would barely pause for a split-second before getting right back to business, and despite lacking the power to do the same in return to ‘Gamebred’, his volume of punches did have Masvidal backed up against the ropes at times.
In the end, given by how close it was it’s no surprise to see that the judges didn’t come to a unanimous verdict here. Instead a majority decision was announced, with Diaz emerging with his hand raised, though it’s perhaps surprising how convincingly the two judges scoring in favor of the Stockton native had the fight (95-95, 97-93, 98-92).
Regardless of the result both fighters gave a good enough account of themselves that they can each hold their head up high afterwards, and it does always leave open the possibility of having a trilogy fight either in the Octagon or boxing ring at some stage in the future.
Main Card
Nate Diaz def. Jorge Masvidal via majority decision (95-95, 97-93, 98-92)
Shane Mosley Jr. def. Daniel Jacobs via unanimous decision (99-91 x2, 100-90)
Chris Avila def. Anthony Pettis via unanimous decision (58-56, 59-55 x2)
Curmel Moton def. Nikolai Buzolin via KO (R2, 1:39)
Amado Vargas def. Sean Garcia via KO (R6, 0:46)
Devin Cushing def. Manny Correa via unanimous decision (77-75, 78-74, 80-72)
Prelims
Louie Lopez def. Alan Sanchez via unanimous decision (77-75 x3)
Gabriel Aguilar Costa def. Steven Dunn via KO (R2, 2:50)
Bryce Logan def. Jose Aguayo via KO (R3)
Kenny Lopez Jr. def. Andres Martinez via unanimous decision (59-54 x2, 58-55)
