Nate Diaz’s infamous moment with Leon Edwards could have ended differently.Diaz was down four rounds in his June 2021 main event against Edwards, but almost rallied to finish him with a minute remaining in the fight. Diaz wobbled Edwards with a left hand, and instead of jumping for the finish, he pointed at him and laughed.
That gave Edwards enough time to recover before the sound of the horn and win the decision. But the question on everyone’s mind was, why didn’t Diaz capitalize after he hurt him? Well, the Stockton superstar has his own explanation.
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“I did go after him – let’s clear it up,” Diaz said on “This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von.” “People don’t understand. They just like to make that the narrative of what happened. But don’t forget, let’s take into consideration real quick that this is 23 minutes of fighting in, and let me tell you beforehand, 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’t see his eyes.
“So, when he (wobbled), I thought he was playing with me because I couldn’t see his eyes. If I could see his eyes, I could see he’s really f*cked. When I cracked him, when I pointed at him, I’m like, ‘Ha ha b*tch, shut up,’ because I thought he was playing with me. I was like, ‘Oh sh*t, he is f*cked up.’ Watch from that point how many punches I throw and how much I really attack him. But I was slow on it at first for sure. I could see perfect, but I couldn’t see his eyes and I thought he was f*cking with me like, ‘Oh, I’m knocked out.'”
Diaz is confident he would have finished Edwards if he had more time, but denies the notion that he didn’t want to capitalize.
“Of course I look at it and think what I could have done,” Diaz said. “Would have, could have, should have. I was trying to get his ass, but initially when I socked his ass, I couldn’t see his eyes. I was like, ‘He is f*cked up,’ and I started chasing him down. Everyone’s like, ‘You took a picture.’ It wasn’t even like that. Hey everybody, go fight for 24 minutes then try to get a motherf*cker.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Nate Diaz’s unusual reason for not finishing Leon Edwards at UFC 263
