Only Nate Diaz could have done what he did at UFC 263

The legend of Nate Diaz only grew after UFC 263.

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UFC 263 in Arizona on Saturday closed out with two very entertaining championship fights that mostly lived up to their hype. But when the night was over those two bouts weren’t what everyone was talking about from the very fun main card.

Instead, everyone in the UFC world was talking about a guy who is used to taking things over. They were talking, of course, about Nate Diaz.

Diaz may have lost his fight Saturday night to Leon Edwards but the veteran fan favorite easily won the night by what he did in the last minute of the fifth and final round.

Edwards controlled the first 24 minutes of the fight – he chopped on Diaz’s legs with relentless and accurate kicks and bloodied his face with piercing elbows.

But Diaz controlled the 25th and final minute with some strikes that dazed Edwards and almost cost him a victory. With blood pouring down his face, Diaz somehow found a way to keep pushing forward and went on the attack. While he came up just short of knocking Edwards out before the final bell and ended up losing the fight via unanimous decision, what he did over the final 60 seconds had the arena and social media going crazy.

Only Nate Diaz could lose a fight – his second loss in a row – and still steal the spotlight from two title fights. The guy is a legend and that legend only grew Saturday night in the desert.

If you watched the fight on TV then you were able to hear how Diaz’s fight sounded different then all the others on the card. Throughout the fight the “Let’s go Diaz!” chants from the crowd were deafening. You don’t hear that for other fighters. Not many fighters, if any, are so deeply beloved by so many people that want to experience and be a part of a Nate Diaz fight night.

The Diaz show was so good Saturday night that UFC boss Dana White admitted that he doesn’t know what to do with the “unbelievable” Diaz next but that he knows that a Diaz fight will always be a show that so many people want to see.

And he’s right. Diaz is the show whenever he’s on a fight card. Doesn’t matter who else is on that card – Diaz fans will be a larger and louder contingent than all the other fanbases.

Diaz might have lost his fight on Saturday but nobody is really going to remember that. They’re going to remember seeing that bloodied legend from Stockton not giving up, pushing forward, and almost snatching a win away from an opponent who was so dominant for the majority of the evening.

The fans are going to remember jumping to their feet and yelling for Diaz to finish the job in the final minute.

And they’re going to remember hearing Diaz in his post-fight interview inviting everyone to his house for a post-fight party.

Only Nate Diaz could do all of that.

Quick hits: Jokic ejected from final game of sweep… Ump hilariously gets faked out… UFC fans rip ref… And more. 

– Nikola Jokic got ejected from Denver’s Game 4 loss to the Suns last night and NBA fans had a lot to say about it.

– A MLB umpire had a hilarious reaction to Tampa’s Brett Phillips pretending to charge the mound after getting hit by a pitch.

– UFC fans rightly ripped a ref for not stopping a fight quickly enough at UFC 263.

– The Phillie Phanatic destroyed a Yankees helmet… and Giancarlo Stanton was not thrilled about it.