Despite the UFC's desire and attempts to make a Diaz vs. McGregor trilogy fight, it won't happen anytime soon. In fact, any UFC fights that involve Diaz aren't in the cards for the foreseeable future after this weekend. When he wanted to hit hard, it landed," Butcher says. "It landed. Some of those knees to the body, he was being nice because we don't have the pad on. But if he threw some of those, they would have dropped me for sure. While Diaz has never won a UFC title, he is one of the more accomplished fighters in the promotion's history. (Source: ESPN Stats & Info.) Stat Butcher did well initially but had trouble with Diaz's pace and body shots as the rounds wore on, a situation not foreign to past Diaz opponents. ESPN Daily podcast

All athletes strive to get to free agency," Reyes says. "And he's done it. It's an amazing thing, because it's very, very rare [in MMA] -- if ever -- that anybody has been able to build their brand and then be able to go, 'Now I want to be able to move the way I want to move.'" For his next fight after Chimaev, Diaz would like to compete in mixed martial arts, not boxing, under his promotional banner. But, Diaz said, if history is any indication, everything changes for him after every fight. So, nothing can be made definite until after Saturday. Marijuana is a regular presence in Nate Diaz's camp, whether at home or in the gym weeks before a main event fight against Khamzat Chimaev. Marc Raimondi/ESPN I don't want to not fight in the UFC, because that's where all the best fighters are in the world. But I do not want to fight in UFC for a while, because while I'm here I'm either doing nothing or I have to fight some f---ing lame ass and build him up for him to fight somebody, for somebody to be somebody for me to fight. Does that make sense, though, or no? It's f---ing completely logical, I believe." The second half is gonna be bigger than anything I've ever done and bigger than anything that's expected," Diaz said. "I have endless ideas."Editor's note: Khamzat Chimaev missed weight and Nate Diaz fought Tony Ferguson in the main event of UFC 279. He submitted Ferguson in the fourth round. ( Watch on ESPN+) Two weeks before UFC 279, the famously private Diaz allowed ESPN unprecedented access to his Northern California training camp. Diaz, 37, has finished McGregor, headlined Madison Square Garden in a fight for a mythical BMF title and been a part of some of the most significant pay-per-view events in UFC history. What's next, he said, will trump all of that. Diaz is fiercely loyal to his friends and teammates, whom he regularly flies out on private jets to fights, seminars and vacations. They smoke, train and party together, and have what appears to be an inseparable bond. I would like it to be MMA," Diaz said. "I'm a fighter. But I also would like to be able to participate in whatever I want. The coolest thing is a motherf---er who can do whatever the f--- he wants."

Any of [the body shots], if he would have put more on it, would have dropped me, I would imagine. A couple of the head shots wobbled me, too." None of this is lost on Diaz, who referred to the fight as something of a "punishment." Diaz initially turned down the Chimaev fight last winter, causing the UFC to extend his contract. But after Chimaev beat Gilbert Burns at UFC 273 in April, Diaz's team told the UFC that Diaz was willing to fight anyone to fulfill the final fight on his deal. The UFC again offered Chimaev, and Diaz accepted.Diaz said one of his counteroffers to the UFC was the promotion had to sign five of his teammates. Diaz is exceptionally close with his team, and with the future staked to Real Fight Inc., the name of his new promotion, he can bring them along for the ride. Diaz said his relationship with the UFC and White is still solid. There is no ill will. The one thing other fighters get wrong, Diaz said, is they don't understand that the UFC represents competition to them as much as their opponents in the cage. Diaz has always believed he was going up against the UFC to get the best possible deal for himself, in the same way the UFC would do that, too, from a business perspective. It doesn't have to be emotional or personal.

When there's a cool guy who comes in and beats all these fools up and he becomes champion, that's when I want to fight in the UFC because he's actually a cool guy," Diaz said. "And he's not there now. But when he does [get there], you'll know it. Because I'm gonna say, 'What's up now, motherf---er?' That's enough for me," Diaz said, referring to his fight with Edwards. "If you get your ass whipped, you're the loser; I'm the winner. The only thing that happened in that fight with me and him was [the big fifth-round punch]. Diaz said the UFC offered him a complex, multifight contract extension for a great deal of money -- he wouldn't say how much -- that included the McGregor trilogy bout and potentially a fourth McGregor fight. Diaz turned it down, opting to become a free agent after the Chimaev fight. It's possible, though unlikely, that none of this will come to fruition. That wouldn't bother Diaz. It's a risk he's willing to take. Diaz returned in August 2019, beating Anthony Pettis, which set up the mythical "BMF title" fight with Masvidal at New York's Madison Square Garden. The massive UFC event, attended by then-President Donald Trump, was the first time a sitting U.S. president had ever attended an MMA fight.

Nate Diaz's UFC career by the numbers

In Diaz's mind, Edwards followed what had become a pattern. For three of Diaz's past four opponents, their next fight was for a title: McGregor, Masvidal and Edwards. Diaz believes the UFC is setting Chimaev up for that very thing -- a chance at the belt -- if he can beat Diaz.

I don't want to be in the UFC Hall of Fame," Diaz said. "I just like making fun of mother f-----ers who think they're tight for being in the Hall of Fame." I've been waiting to do it for a long time, because I know he could do it," Perez says. "I'm for it all the way. He'll do really good. He'll be in the top two [in his division], I bet you. He could win a belt. When he's training just in boxing, he's tremendous. People talk about him all the time. We go to professional boxing gyms ... [and] he whips guys' butts."Before he accepted the Chimaev bout, Diaz told the UFC he wanted to fight heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou or middleweight champion Israel Adesanya because they're "cool." That "cool" factor will be something that informs Diaz's decision about a UFC return in the future. I still do the same runs I used to do when I was 15," Diaz says. "This is for sure going to be homebase forever. ... Home is where your mom is at." How can I not create my own organization?" Diaz said, who added he went into the Masvidal fight with a torn meniscus. "I created all this s---. I made the Conor fight. I made the biggest thing out of the Masvidal fight. The president was there. That was all done by me. I don't care what nobody says. The UFC and people can promote it like I'm a hater. No, no, no. I made all that happen. I'll write my own organization. I'll write my own story then."