Dana White praises Nate Diaz for performance against Jake Paul (Video)
By Amy Kaplan
On Saturday Nate Diaz became the third former UFC fighter to lose a boxing fight to Jake Paul. But even though he lost, UFC president Dana White had some nice things to say about him and his performance.
"At his age, against a f*cking 20-something-year-old kid, so far he's fared the best out of everybody. He looked good. I'm happy for him," he told the media during the DWCS Week 1 post-fight interview.
Nate joins the ranks of Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley (twice) to lose against Paul, though Diaz lasted 10 rounds with Paul and even won some of the exchanges.
With just seconds left in the fight, Diaz put Paul in a guillotine choke, to which White also reacted with a laugh.
"I saw it on the Internet, yeah," he said. "For a kid pushing 40 years old, fighting a guy four weight classes bigger than him in boxing and two in MMA and going the distance, you know what I mean?”
Dana White says Nate Diaz will always have a home at the UFC
After the fight Diaz expressed his love for the UFC and his desire to return eventually.
"Well, we feel the same way about Nate, always have," White said. "I've always joked around about dealing with the Diaz brothers, but these two. You see it now. I mean, they're two iconic fighters that 20 years from now, everybody will remember and talk about, and this will always be Nate's house.”
Even though there's clearly a mutual respect between the two, but that doesn't mean White is open to Diaz fighting under the UFC banner again.
"Nate grew up here," he said. "He came in on The Ultimate Fighter. He fought some of the biggest fights ever here. And we love the kid. I don't know about fighting in the future, but this is always gonna to be his house, and you know, we'll see.”
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