Jorge Masvidal was victorious in the UFC 244 main event, which meant that he, not his vanquished opponent Nate Diaz, was awarded the BMF title by pro wrestling legend Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Diaz, who came up short after the cage-side doctor deemed him unfit to continue fighting due to a laceration on his brow, was not particularly pleased with the way things unfolded, and even took a shot at The Rock post-fight.
”F**k The Rock too, man,” Diaz said after losing to Masvidal at UFC 244. “That motherf**ker over here playing me. See him over here smiling with Masvidal. Should have had Mike Tyson handing out a belt if anybody. I don’t give a f**k about any belt anyway, but he can get it too.”
Speaking on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on Monday, The Rock addressed these remarks from Diaz. The wrestler turned actor doesn’t seem to bothered by what he heard, and even seems to have expected it.
“I wasn’t surprised at Nate’s comments because that’s the Nate that we all know and love,” Johnson said (via MMA News). “He is as advertised. Nate, he gets it. He knows that me and Jorge we’re boys, we’re from Miami. We have a lot of deep connections down there. A lot of the fighters we know, a lot of the coaches and trainers that we know, a lot of the gyms that we’ve been to down there. So there’s a connection, so no I was totally fine with it. He gets it.”
The Rock continued, explaining that, contrary to his connection with Masvidal, he hoped to help promote UFC 244 on a neutral basis.
“Again I went into the fight, I wanted to be as neutral as possible when I was promoting it because as we’re leading up to it and selling it on pay-per-view I didn’t want to come out and say, ‘Jorge’s my boy and he’s gonna win,’” he said. “No, I just wanted to be neutral and I thought that was the best, smartest, strategic play to get as many new eyes on this fight as possible and again help impact in my own little way the bottom line. From what I’m told, since UFC’s transition it was the biggest fight they’ve ever had, second I’m sorry, to Conor and Khabib which is quite an amazing accomplishment. I’m very proud for both those guys.”
What do you think of this response from The Rock?
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 11/11/2019.