By: Stephen Hardy-Delaney
In a night that consisted of devastating knockouts, huge upsets, and rising stars making their mark amongst the elite, UFC 244 at Madison Square Garden delivered. The stars were out, the President of the United States was in, and if you smelled something familiar it was something that “The Rock” was cooking.
All eyes were on this event and with great reason. Former champions, title challengers, knockout artists, and highly ranked fighters had their names written all over this event and thanks to them we had one heck of a night, but no other fight was as highly anticipated as was the main event of the evening. The fight we’ve all been waiting for. Jorge Masvidal vs Nate Diaz for the “BMF” title, the baddest m—– f—– belt. A belt made specially for these two great warriors. Men who lay it all on the line, come to fight and throw everything with sheer violence and who actually mean harm.
Jorge “Gamebred” Masvidal and the “Stockton Bad Boy” Nate Diaz went to battle and the reason why I say “battle” is because the war is not over. Rounds were left on the table and boy oh boy did us fans want more.
Masvidal and Diaz put on a show, a show dominated by the more elite striker and more well-rounded fighter in Masvidal, but nonetheless, Nate Diaz’s toughness and durability can never be questioned. From head to toe, from start to finish, from the get-go this fight entertained and delivered, but all of us were cheated from seeing two more possible rounds and I’ll explain why.
Nate Diaz would make his walk to the Octagon coming out to his mix of songs being “Used To” by Lil’ Wayne and Drake/”Trained to Go” by E40/”Out on Bail” by Tupac”/The Way I Am” by Eminem and Jorge Masvidal would make his walk to the famous Tony Montana theme from “Scarface” composed by Giorgio Moroder and these walkouts were just the beginning of what was to come…violence.
Once referee Dan Miragliotta signaled it was time to fight, the fighting started. Masvidal started right from the get-go with an attempt to land his famous flying knee, the one he landed on Ben Askren, but Diaz wasn’t having it with an immediate retreat, but then immediately applying the pressure with multiple combos, but Masvidal would show his pin-point striking accuracy by landing skin-slicing elbows to the face of Diaz from the clinch, then starts to charge at Diaz with a flurry of punches, and then as Diaz attempts to duck his punches, Masvidal lands a scary kick to the face that drops Diaz that makes the crowd go berserk. Diaz was clearly hurt with two huge cuts on his eyebrow and cheek with blood gushing out and Masvidal started his attempt to end it, but Diaz would recover and back to the feet they go after a good two minutes of Diaz recovering and defending on the ground.
Throughout the fight, we saw clearly that Masvidal was landing the more precise and significant strikes especially with his hard-hitting right hand and his gut-wrenching body kicks. But Diaz would not back down even after being dropped twice and getting wobbled after a huge right hand that landed straight on his jaw.
The two cuts that Diaz sustained in the first round played a huge factor in the fight as Diaz had blood pouring into his eyes most of the fight, but that wouldn’t stop him from giving it all he had. From all who know Diaz as a fighter you know that the man gets stronger as the fight goes on due to his incredible conditioning and is made for 5 round fights, but after the damage was done the ringside doctors showed concern as the fight was just about to begin its 4th round and the fighters were already standing to fight, we could see the ringside doctor talking to Nate Diaz and making mention to his cut especially the one on his eyebrow, and seconds later after we saw Diaz shaking his head and pleading to continue, the fight was stopped and the crowd was not happy.
Diaz would go on to walk towards Masvidal, both showing appreciation and disappointment and both immediately willing to run it back, a rematch for the “BMF” title. But nonetheless, Jorge Masvidal got what he deserved and that was having Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson wrap the “BMF” belt around his waist and finally be crowned a champion.
Both fighters in their post-fight octagon interviews would claim that they want to run it back with Masvidal stating after Joe Rogan asked him if he was disappointed in the way the fight ended, “For a fact. I told Nate right now I swear [we’ll] be running it back, man. You gave me the love; I’ll give it right back. UFC lets it happen, let’s run it back. I don’t like to leave the ring like this with my opponent [still] conscious. There’s only one way to do it and that’s to baptize him. I didn’t get to baptize Nate you know, so we’re gonna run it back.” Masvidal would state later with boxing legend Roberto Duran around his arm, “We’re gonna run it back New York! We gave you three good rounds don’t be booing me! Don’t be booing me. I’ll hand out these three-pieces and a soda to you too, man!”
“We’re gonna run it back, so don’t worry about it. It’s gonna happen again.” Masvidal stated.
Diaz would state after being asked by Rogan if he was shocked the way the fight ended, “Yeah, I was f—– because I had a cut my last fight three weeks ago, but yeah I didn’t think they were gonna stop it, I was getting ready to just get started.” Rogan would go on to compliment Diaz’s endurance and state how the 4th and 5th rounds are critical to him. Diaz would state that he had an issue that didn’t allow him to run as much as he usually does in training and didn’t want to push until the 4th round started, but Diaz would throw that aside and compliment Masvidal on getting the job done, but then Diaz would state, “But I’m coming back for you a–, m—– f—–.” Rogan would then ask if he would want to run it back, Diaz stated, “Right back! Right back! Let me heal up and let’s go again.”
Rogan would then state he would love to see the rematch in Vegas and now we wait for the UFC brass to make their move. UFC President Dana White would claim during the post-fight press conference that he is not interested in making a rematch and that the doctors were in the right in stopping the fight since he saw Diaz backstage about to get stitched up, White stated that he saw Diaz’s eyebrow drooping down to his eye and therefore the call to end the fight was the right one.
But without further ado, Jorge Masvidal defeated Nate Diaz to win the BMF belt in dramatic fashion by TKO via doctor stoppage and now… we wait. UFC Welterweight Champion, Kamaru Usman will defend his belt against the Interim UFC Welterweight Champion, Colby Covington in a fight-filled with bad blood, so we shall see if Masvidal gets his shot at the winner and makes his run for UFC gold or will Dana White realize that this fight needs a rematch or will Conor McGregor make his comeback against Masvidal. We shall see.
Stay tuned.
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