Nate Diaz is an American mixed martial artist who is also popularly known as the winner of the The Ultimate Fighter 5. In addition, he is also known as the younger brother of Nick Diaz, who is also the former Strikeforce Welterweight Champion and WEC Welterweight Champion.
Nate, age 33, also holds a record as the highest UFC Pay Per View to buy with UFC 202. Let’s get to know more about Nate’s net worth, girlfriend, and career.
Nate Diaz: early life, career, and nationality
Nate Diaz was born on April 16, 1985, in Stockton, California which makes his nationality an American. Diaz belongs to a mixed descent of English and Mexican. Nate went to Tokay High School while learning martial arts at the age of 11. He did not receive any University education.
Diaz, began his career competing for World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC). Later in the year 2006, he fought for WEC Lightweight Championship against Hermes, Franca. Diaz then participated in the Ultimate Fighting Championship as a contestant featuring on The Ultimate Fighter 5, for lightweights. He defeated Rob Emerson and other players ultimately winning the competition at last. After that Nate has won several more titles and competitions under UFC. To summarize his overall gaming career, we can trace it out to better understand his gaming career. The player in total has played 30 games, among which he has won around 19 of them while losing 11 of the games. Among his wins, he has won 4 of them by knockout, 12 of them by submission while 3 of them by decision.
Ultimate Fighting Career in brief
Nate Diaz after his career in WEC became a contestant on The Ultimate Fighter 5 fighting for Jens Pulver’s group which included lightweights. In the quarterfinals, Diaz defeated kindred Team Pulver colleague Corey Hill through his triangle choke submission in the first round. Leading to the semifinals when Diaz further won against team Penn part Gray Maynard by submission. This led him towards finals where he had to compete against his colleague Manvel Gamburyan.
He lost the first round but ultimately won by submitting against Gamburyan who had to bail out in the second round because of the dislocation of his right shoulder. This caused the victory of Nate Diaz, he officially won the title of The Ultimate Fighter 5.
With wins against Alvin Robinson and Junior Assunção, Diaz had a match against Kurt Pellegrino at UFC Fight Night 13. He lost the first round but ultimately won the match too after his triangle-choke submission in the second round. Similarly, the player also defeated veteran Josh Neer by split decision in the main event of UFC Fight Night 15.
Series of Losses
With numerous victories, Nate Diaz was surely conquering the UFC championship. Diaz then fought against the former Strikeforce Lightweight Champion named Clay Guida at UFC 94, this is where he lost through the split decision. After which he was let down by Guida several times through his wrestling. Despite using several techniques like judo-Esque switches while Guida had his back, Diaz couldn’t defeat the player. This finally led to Diaz’s first official loss in UFC.
The series of losses continued for Diaz as he met the Ultimate Fighter victor and previous King of the Cage Welterweight Champion Joe Stevenson at the Ultimate championship 9 Finale. This led Diaz to be defeated by the champion of the matches once again. Due to Stevenson’s superior wrestling skills, Nate Diaz was controlled on the ground. Furthermore, Stevenson held advantageous positions against the player on the ground all throughout the 3 rounds. As Nate wasn’t really able to deliver any significant submission or stay on his feet for long to outstrike the ferocious player Stevenson, he lost the championship.
Comeback on UFC Fight Night 19
After two consecutive losses, Diaz became on top of the headline in the UFC Fight Night 19 opposite Melvin Guillard. Diaz was first knocked around for few seconds into the fight but was able to make a comeback after two trip takedowns. Diaz did not, however, give up and continued showing a great level of determination all through the game. He maintained composure while showing his boxing skills during the second round of the fight.
Guillard used a hand jab combo while taking his rival down to a point he went to the side of the cage, missing a swing while aiming to bring Diaz down. Only this time, Guillard’s opponent, Diaz used his right leg to keep him in position and locked in a guillotine choke winning the round 2.
UFC Fight Night 20
On January 11, 2010, Diaz fought against Gray Maynard during the main event at UFC fight night. Gray and Nate had previously competed in the TUF 5 lightweight competition. During the game, Diaz lost a split decision to Maynard. This loss became a bit controversial to Nate and he decided on doing a permanent climb in weight to the 170 lb.
Welterweight
On March 27, 2010, Diaz made debut against Rory Markham at UFC 111. He won the first round of the game. After that, he competed against professional boxer Marcus Davis at UFC 118. Diaz used severe punches against Davis, choked him unconscious with a guillotine choke submission in the last round however it won him Fight of the Night honors.
His Welterweight journey continued. On January 1, 2011, Diaz was controlled and defeated by the South Korean fighter Dong Hyun Kim at UFC 125 for the first two rounds. Though Diaz won the last round, Diaz lost the fight by 29– 28 on the judges’ scorecards.
Return to lightweight
On the day of April 30, 2011, at UFC 129, Diaz stood against Rory MacDonald. MacDonald slammed Diaz 3 times in the third round while also controlling Diaz on the ground which ultimately led to Diaz’s loss. This led Diaz to make a decision to move down to lightweight division. On September 24, 2011, Diaz won the fight against former PRIDE Lightweight Champion Takanori Gomi in the first round through armbar submission.
Jiu-Jitsu
Several years of practice finally paid off when Diaz finally got his Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt from Cesar Gracie. After which, he faced a fight against kindred Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Jim Miller. On May 5, 2012, at UFC on Fox 3, Diaz defeated Jim Miller. Later, on December 8, 2012, at UFC on Fox 5 during the main event for the UFC Lightweight Championship, Diaz fought against Benson Henderson but he lost via unanimous decision.
Suspension by UFC
Diaz fought against Josh Thomson on April 20, 2013, at UFC on Fox 7. He lost the fight through the TKO because of a head kick and punches.
Further, on May 16, 2013, things turned ugly for Diaz when he was suspended for violating the UFC’s set of principles by using a homophobic slur on his Twitter page. He got suspended for 90 days and had to pay the fine of $20,000. Later he also got expelled from the UFC’s lightweight ranking after being inactive.
Comeback on UFC on Fox 13
Diaz shortly made a comeback on December 13, 2014, at UFC on Fox 13 fighting against Rafael Dos Anjos. He was given some extra time yet he couldn’t make it further. Instead, he was fined 20 percent which went to his opponent Rafael. Diaz lost the match via unanimous decision through 26– 30, 26– 30, and 27– 30.
Diaz was later linked to the welterweight bout with Matt Brown on July 11, 2015, at UFC 189. To which Brown reported that the pairing had dropped. On December 19, 2015, at UFC on Fox 17, Diaz fought against Michael Johnson. After a succession of losses, Diaz won the fight by unanimous decision.
Fight against Connor McGregor
This became one of the major fights played by Nate Diaz. On March 5, 2016, at UFC 196, Diaz was put in substitution for Rafael dos Anjos against Conor McGregor. Diaz only had 11 days and the fight took place at welterweight and he won the second round through submission. Similarly, both of the fighters were granted Fight of the Night honors, and Diaz was also granted the Performance of the Night bonus.
On July 9, 2016, at UFC 200, a rematch was scheduled with McGregor. However, on April 19, the news came that McGregor had been pulled from the event due to his failure to fulfill media obligations in Las Vegas. Thus the fight was rescheduled and hosted the next month at welterweight, at UFC 202. However, Diaz lost the match through majority decision.
Nate Diaz wife and personal life
Though Nate is highly considered for his gaming career and has a great background which can be traced easily the same cannot be said about his personal life. Nate is currently single and not dating anyone as such. There was a recent news about a girl who made a video claiming to have married Diaz, however, Diaz is not married till date and had ridiculed the news of his marriage rumors.
Another thing to note about this talented martial arts player is that he along with his brother have been advocating cannabis for a long time. Diaz is also a vegan, he became one when she was just 18 years old.
Nate Diaz: net worth and achievements
Nate Diaz gained an international exposure and worldwide attention after he won the Ultimate Fighter 5. The player who is noted for his high-quality performance and a successful game career also earns a hefty deal of money as of now. Nate Diaz net worth is around $2 million which he gets from his UFC career. In addition, he along with his brother Nick run a Brazilian jiu-jitsu school in Lodi, California. The player wanted to get a house for his mother while planning to buy a brand new care for himself.
Prior to starting as a player, he was just a high school student. His life radically changed after following his passion for the sports and boxing career in general. Both the Diaz brothers are known for their big paychecks that they receive from their UFC career. With PPV points and large fight purse demands, the price of both the Diaz brothers has now skyrocketed. Especially after two bouts with Conor McGregor, Nate’s value have skyrocketed as of now.
The player is also a record holder for several UFC statistics, however, the top of that list is the record of being in the list of the #1 and #2 most-watched pay-per-views of all-time. The Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor fight became one of the most watched and broke the UFC’s PPV record twice.
Let’s break down the net worth of Nate Diaz. As per the records of 2016, Nate’s salary was $500,000 which he obtained from UFC 196 where he won against Conor McGregor. Similarly, he also won $100,000 as Fight of the Night and the Performance of the Night awards at UFC 196. On the other hand, his previous dealings were very low as compared to his salary in the year 2016. Prior to 2016, in the year 2015, Nate’s paycheck was only $50,000 which he received as Fight of the Night bonus at the UFC on Fox 17. The player who now deals with a million net worth first began with a salary of only $1000 as a member of the Pulver team at the Ultimate Fighter 5.
Though during the year 2015 and 2016, Nate’s career saw some massive jumps from a $50,000 to $500,000. In the year 2017-2018, Nate has been mostly inactive in the career field. This is why his net worth could get affected as of this year. There also came news stating that Diaz has turned down multiple fight offers due to his terrible defeat from Conor McGregor at UFC 202. Supporting the statement, Diaz also accepted the fact that he had been offered the opportunity to fight Tony Ferguson for the interim lightweight title. Initially, he accepted the offer, however, took a U-turn later as he felt pressurized into doing McGregor’s ‘dirty work.’
Not only that but UFC has also claimed their failed trials to bring Nate back into the fighting scene but each time Nate turned the offer down. What’s more shocking is the fact that, overall Diaz, the youngest brother has turned around 6 of such offers down. While many martial arts fanatics are guessing Diaz’s comeback bout will be a trilogy fight that involves Mc Gregor but no one knows if he is really up to that.
Nate Diaz on social media
Nate Diaz is active on social media sites like Twitter and Instagram as well. Looks like Nate is gaining millions everywhere he goes! The martial artist has around 2.1m followers on his Instagram profile while 1.12 million on his Twitter account. He is active on both social media sites where he often posts updates about his life. If you are looking forward to catching up with this fierce and talented player then here is your chance.
