UFC legend Nate Diaz explained his choice to taunt Leon Edwards instead of potentially finishing him with seconds left in their fight.<\/p>\n
Before UFC superstar Nate Diaz parted ways with the promotion, one of his legendary bouts came against former UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards at UFC 263. However, the Stockton standout ended up losing on the scorecards despite a last-second comeback threat.<\/p>\n
Diaz will return to Mixed Martial Arts next month against fellow UFC alum Mike Perry<\/a> in a highly anticipated showdown on the Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano card. This will mark Diaz\u2019s first MMA fight since UFC 279, when Diaz defeated Tony Ferguson by submission.<\/p>\n Weeks away from his return to fighting, Diaz is making the rounds on some podcasts to promote the Perry fight and discuss his career. Diaz already provided clarity on why a return to the UFC didn\u2019t happen before accepting the Rousey vs. Carano undercard offer.<\/p>\n Diaz went down memory lane in a rare podcast appearance<\/a>, discussing why his once-scheduled showdown with Dustin Poirier didn\u2019t come to fruition, in addition to other topics. With seconds left against Edwards at UFC 263, Diaz rocked Edwards with one punch, before pointing and taunting him and allowing him to recover from the near-knockout blow.<\/p>\n Nate Diaz: \u2018Sweat in my eyes\u2019 prevented me from last-second KO vs. Leon Edwards<\/p>\n In a recent appearance on comedian Theo Von\u2019s podcast This Past Weekend<\/a>, Diaz was asked why he didn\u2019t push forward against Edwards late when he had the former UFC welterweight champion on the verge of a miraculous loss.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cI did go after him, let\u2019s clear it up,\u201d Diaz began.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople don\u2019t understand, they just like to make that the narrative of what happened, but don\u2019t forget that this is 23 minutes of fighting in and let me tell you, my eyes, after a certain amount of time, I had sweat in my eyes. So I could see him all completely clear, but my eyes were all sweated out and I couldn\u2019t see his eyes so when he (wobbled), I thought he was playing with me because I couldn\u2019t see his eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I cracked him, when I pointed at him and said \u2018Ha ha b\u2014-, shut up\u2019 because I thought he was playing with me,\u201d Diaz continued. \u201cI could see perfect but I couldn\u2019t see his eyes and I thought he was f\u2014\u2014 with me like, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m knocked out\u2019.\u201d (h\/t Bloody Elbow<\/a>)<\/p>\n Diaz wrapped up his explanation with a message to his ongoing detractors.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course I look at it and think what I could\u2019ve done,\u201d Diaz admitted. \u201cI was trying to get his a\u2013, but initially when I socked his a\u2013, I couldn\u2019t see his eyes. Hey everybody, go fight for 24 minutes then try to get a m\u2014\u2014\u2014-.\u201d<\/p>\n What is your prediction for Nate Diaz vs. Mike Perry? Let us know in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC legend Nate Diaz explained his choice to taunt Leon Edwards instead of potentially finishing him with seconds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,156590,638,24584,82,640],"class_list":{"0":"post-576058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-leon-edwards","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-nate-diaz","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-ufc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}