{"id":322181,"date":"2019-08-12T10:32:03","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T17:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=322181"},"modified":"2019-08-12T10:32:03","modified_gmt":"2019-08-12T17:32:03","slug":"nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Nate Diaz believes he&#8217;s still one of the top-3 fighters in the world"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nate Diaz has not fought since an August, 2016 majority decision loss to Conor McGregor, but as his UFC 241 fight with Anthony Pettis draws closer, he still considers himself one of the world&#8217;s best fighters. In fact, he believes he&#8217;s one of the three best fighters on the planet \u2014although he admits he&#8217;s probably behind reigning UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Nate Diaz exclusive interview on return, Conor McGregor rivalry | UFC 241 | ESPN MMA\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RgjGuWrtKb8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m a top-two fighter in the whole game right now, still \u2014 top-three, maybe [behind] Jon Jones,&#8221; Diaz told <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/RgjGuWrtKb8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ESPN&#8217;s Brett Okamoto<\/a> in a recent interview. &#8220;And that&#8217;s [after] not fighting for three years. I don&#8217;t need to fight. I sneeze a lot and everybody hears about it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s very rare for a fighter to sit out so long, but with plenty of money piled up after his wars with McGregor, Diaz has been content to hold off and wait for the right opportunity. Despite his layoff, he says he&#8217;s stayed in phenomenal shape, and claims he&#8217;s been training harder than most fighters do when they&#8217;re preparing for a fight.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been training these past three years more than anybody fighting,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If I&#8217;m going to be training with all my fighters for their fights, and training for a lifestyle \u2014 it&#8217;s my hobby&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been in living in a fight camp with no fights, so something needed to happen.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, something did happen. After a prolonged period of negotiation, Nate Diaz and the UFC agreed to this UFC 241 fight with Pettis.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Part of not fighting was, the fight wasn&#8217;t even with the fighters no more, they&#8217;re not on my level,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The fight was with the whole organization, the whole thing. And I was like &#8216;ok, I&#8217;m losing this fight if I&#8217;m just going to sit here and die off in this little town.&#8217; I could go out to concerts and do all the cool s**t that&#8217;s offered to me all the time, but I wanted to get back to what I knew.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At UFC 241, Nate Diaz will finally get back to what he knows, and with a little luck, reassert himself as the world-class fighter he believes he is. Learn how to watch his fight <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/how-to-watch-ufc\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPENN.COM<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 8\/12\/2019. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nate Diaz has not fought since an August, 2016 majority decision loss to Conor McGregor, but as his UFC 241 fight with Anthony Pettis draws closer, he still considers himself one of the world&#8217;s best fighters. In fact, he believes he&#8217;s one of the three best fighters on the planet \u2014although he admits he&#8217;s probably [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":322183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10123,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Nate Diaz believes he&#039;s still one of the top-3 fighters in the world | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Despite his three-year layoff, Nate Diaz believes he is still one of the top three fighters in the world \u2014 though he admits he&#039;s behind Jon Jones.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nate Diaz believes he&#039;s still one of the top-3 fighters in the world | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Despite his three-year layoff, Nate Diaz believes he is still one of the top three fighters in the world \u2014 though he admits he&#039;s behind Jon Jones.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-08-12T17:32:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Nate-Diaz-10.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"405\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Nate Diaz believes he&#8217;s still one of the top-3 fighters in the world\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-08-12T17:32:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-08-12T17:32:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/\"},\"wordCount\":386,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Nate Diaz\",\"UFC\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2019\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/\",\"name\":\"Nate Diaz believes he's still one of the top-3 fighters in the world | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-08-12T17:32:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-08-12T17:32:03+00:00\",\"description\":\"Despite his three-year layoff, Nate Diaz believes he is still one of the top three fighters in the world \u2014 though he admits he's behind Jon Jones.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"UFC\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Nate Diaz believes he&#8217;s still one of the top-3 fighters in the world\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; UFC News, Results &amp; Fight Videos\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":148,\"caption\":\"| BJPenn.com\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\",\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"description\":\"Tom Taylor is a globetrotting writer currently based in Ottawa, Canada. He is a staff writer for BJPenn.com, and also covers mixed martial arts for Fightland and Vice Sports. Follow him on Twitter @TomTayMMA.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/tom-taylor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nate Diaz believes he's still one of the top-3 fighters in the world | BJPenn.com","description":"Despite his three-year layoff, Nate Diaz believes he is still one of the top three fighters in the world \u2014 though he admits he's behind Jon Jones.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nate Diaz believes he's still one of the top-3 fighters in the world | BJPenn.com","og_description":"Despite his three-year layoff, Nate Diaz believes he is still one of the top three fighters in the world \u2014 though he admits he's behind Jon Jones.","og_url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/","og_site_name":"| BJPenn.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","article_published_time":"2019-08-12T17:32:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":696,"height":405,"url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Nate-Diaz-10.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Tom Taylor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_site":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tom Taylor","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/"},"author":{"name":"Tom Taylor","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87"},"headline":"Nate Diaz believes he&#8217;s still one of the top-3 fighters in the world","datePublished":"2019-08-12T17:32:03+00:00","dateModified":"2019-08-12T17:32:03+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/"},"wordCount":386,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Nate Diaz","UFC"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2019","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/","name":"Nate Diaz believes he's still one of the top-3 fighters in the world | BJPenn.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-08-12T17:32:03+00:00","dateModified":"2019-08-12T17:32:03+00:00","description":"Despite his three-year layoff, Nate Diaz believes he is still one of the top three fighters in the world \u2014 though he admits he's behind Jon Jones.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/nate-diaz-believes-hes-still-one-of-the-top-3-fighters-in-the-world\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MMA News","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"UFC","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Nate Diaz believes he&#8217;s still one of the top-3 fighters in the world"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","name":"| BJPenn.com","description":"MMA &amp; UFC News, Results &amp; Fight Videos","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization","name":"| BJPenn.com","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","width":600,"height":148,"caption":"| BJPenn.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87","name":"Tom Taylor","description":"Tom Taylor is a globetrotting writer currently based in Ottawa, Canada. He is a staff writer for BJPenn.com, and also covers mixed martial arts for Fightland and Vice Sports. Follow him on Twitter @TomTayMMA.","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/tom-taylor\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322181"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54430"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}