Nate Diaz has announced he will fight Jorge Masvidal after being cleared to compete in UFC 244. This comes on the heels of Diaz announcing he wouldn’t compete in UFC 244 because a drug test he took showed he had “elevated levels.” He spoke to the media on Monday and he was not happy with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, a group that has worked with the UFC for a very long time.
“Oh, I’m good now?” Diaz said when asked about the USDA exonerating him on Friday via ESPN. “This is all just made up. They had it out for my brother for a long time. They had it out for me for a long time. As soon as they could get me out, they could. As soon as they could get him out, they could. I do not believe a second of any of it.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
The UFC released a statement saying Diaz didn’t violate any anti-doping rules which made him cleared to compete.
“Mr. Diaz has not committed an anti-doping policy violation, has not been provisionally suspended and is not subject to any sanctions,” a UFC statement said. “Additionally, UFC has been informed by independent experts who have determined that there is unequivocally no appreciable performance-enhancing or therapeutic benefit from the significantly limited amount of LGD-4033 that may be present in his system, which is roughly 10,000 times lower than one LGD-4033 therapeutic dose.”
One of the reasons Diaz went to Twitter to call off the fight as first was to let everyone know he wasn’t a cheater. Diaz could have competed in UFC 244 with elevated levels from the drug test and worry about the consequences later.
“It’s only cheating if you jump in under the influence of that s—, right?” Diaz said. “So let’s just say I did accidentally take some s—, which I didn’t. Let’s just say I did, though. Well then let’s just f—ing fight in a couple of months when the s— wears off. I have no problem with that. I don’t care if it ruins the show. You ain’t ruining my whole legacy.”
Diaz’s last fight was back in August when he defeated Anthony Pettis in UFC 241. Before that, Diaz took three years off from the octagon after losing to Conor McGregor in UFC 202.
