Nate Diaz gives surprising answer when asked about his toughest UFC fight
Nate Diaz has named little-known former UFC star Josh Neer as the toughest opponent of his octagon career, ahead of some legendary names that he faced over the years.
Diaz has had iconic battles with the likes of Conor McGregor, Jorge Masvidal and Leon Edwards during his time as one of the promotion's biggest stars, but faced tough opponents on his way through the ranks. And after watching Neer fight his brother Nick up at welterweight, the California native was surprised to face his old rival.
The pair have since become friends, but Diaz admitted that he was concerned about facing the "crazy" Iowa native during his early career. He had already pushed the elder brother to his limits on route to a third-round defeat and ended up going to a split decision with the younger Diaz.
“There’s a guy I fought named Josh Neer,” Diaz replied when asked about his toughest fight by Bradley Martyn on his podcast Raw Talk. “He’s my boy now. We’re homies, but Josh Neer fought my brother. My brother’s the dopest fighter you ever met in your whole life, better than anyone and I seen Nick do the craziest stuff in my whole life.
"He fought Josh Neer and Nick was merking everybody. Like, whooping a** all over, and Josh Neer popped up like, ‘What’s up?’ And they fought. This fool fought him for three rounds hard and Nick’s doing his thing, hitting him a lot. I was like, this f***ing guy is crazy. Nick ended up finishing him in the third round though.
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"Most of the people Nick finished were in the first round, maybe the second round, and then he fought Josh Neer. And I was like, this dude’s crazy. Anyway, time went by and he went down to 155lb where I was fighting at, and I asked for a better opponent. That’s when I first got to the UFC.
"I was beating people and I was like; 'yo, I need some contenders - I need some top guys because I ain’t trying to play around in here'. And so they gave me Josh Neer who was one of the top five guys right when I started to fight top people. And it was my hardest fight.”
Nate Diaz has named Josh Neer his toughest opponent (Zuffa LLC)What was your favourite Nate Diaz fight? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
Fans will be surprised to hear the answer from Diaz, who was knocked out by Josh Thomson and had bloody wars with world champions like Edwards and McGregor. But he was concerned about Neer's ability to come forward despite taking severe punishment and feels their bout was one of his more entertaining.
“I watched him fight hundreds of times, and I’m like, f***, this dude’s not playing or anything,” Diaz continued. “Angry white dude just sits there, don’t say nothing. He just sits there hella mad and fights people, just like Nick. Nick already beat him once so he wants to whoop my a**. Most people were just like, ‘Yeah, whatever. I’m just here to do my thing. Good luck.’
"This guy was p***ed. We ended up fighting and I watched his fights so much. I trained so perfectly for him that everything… He’d throw punches, I slipped right under it, and grabbed him, but he countered everything. If you watch that fight with me and Josh Neer, it was 100 miles an hour. It’s a good fight.”
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