Nate Diaz hasn’t forgotten who he was supposed to fight at UFC 279.
After facing Tony Ferguson, the main event opponent at UFC 279’s ceremonial weigh in faceoffs on Friday, Diaz left a message to Khamzat Chimaev.
“Tony has been around for a while, so we should have fought long ago,” Diaz stated. “Khabib [Nurmagomedov]’s ****a** was afraid just as this motherf of me was afraid yesterday. We punched his b****a** in the back here and now he doesn’t make weight.
” You guys know it already. Real Gs come from California, America motherf*****.”
Diaz and Khamzat were part of a backstage altercation at Thursday’s UFC 279 press conference, which was cancelled following the incident.
Ferguson was moved from a co-main event bout with Li Jingliang into the headliner after Chimaev missed the welterweight limit by 7. 5 pounds at Friday’s official weigh-ins. This resulted in Ferguson being promoted to the main card alongside Diaz, and Chimaev to a co-main event at catchweight against Kevin Holland. Both bouts are scheduled to be five-round contests.
For his part, Ferguson was focused solely on the new matchup.
“Grab your f****** popcorn and blue Slushees motherf****** because we’re going to have some fun!” Ferguson said.
Chimaev & Holland were in a more intense face-off because they both have bad blood. They also participated in Thursday’s backstage chaos.
“It all happened for a good reason,” Holland said after facing off with his new opponent. “All these guys claiming they’re gangsters, they’re not gangsters. They wear makeup for the HD cameras and that’s as simple as it is.”
Holland got asked whether the Chimaev bout was better. He replied, “F***n, but it’s going be a great one .”
Chimaev was met with a chorus of boos and did not apologize for his egregious weight miss, instead claiming that he was not permitted to cut more weight.
” They stopped that s ***,” Chimaev before responding to crowd. “I don’t know, I wanted more cutting that s***. This is Chechnya motherf *******, – shut up guys! I f*** your boy up, I f*** him backstage as well.”
Like Holland, Chimaev was unshaken by the lineup change.
” I don’t mind, but I want to destroy everybody,” Chimaev stated. You know what? I will take the reins .”
UFC 279 takes place Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
