Nate Diaz's 5 most memorable UFC fights

#3 vs. Michael Johnson – UFC on Fox 17 – 12/19/2015

Diaz was back to his best against Michael Johnson in 2015

Diaz made it all the way to a title shot at the end of 2012, but after losing in that fight to then-champ Benson Henderson, the years that followed saw Nate largely in the wilderness. Late 2013 saw him defeat Gray Maynard, but a contract dispute then kept him out for a whole year and when he returned, he barely resembled his old self and was thrashed handily by Rafael Dos Anjos.

Another year – and another contract dispute with the UFC – then passed by, and when Diaz was signed to fight Michael Johnson at UFC on Fox 17 in December 2015, it didn’t sound like a good idea.

Johnson was coming off a loss to Beneil Dariush, but that’d been a poor judges’ decision and prior to that he hadn’t tasted defeat since early 2013, winning four straight fights in impressive fashion. And more importantly, he promised he wouldn’t let Diaz draw him into a brawl, and would instead pick him off with his fleet-footed striking style.

The first round saw Diaz – despite being in excellent shape – look as rusty as many observers had expected, and he struggled to find his range as Johnson worked him over with a series of low kicks. But the second round was a different story.

Suddenly, Diaz found his range and began to keep Johnson at the end of his punches, particularly a ramrod jab. Johnson couldn’t fire back and unbelievably, the fight began to resemble exactly what he’d promised it wouldn’t be – classic Diaz fare, with the opponent responding to the myriad of taunts and being drawn into a brawl.

By the third round, it was clear that Diaz was in Johnson’s head, and his confidence skyrocketed, as he simply lit ‘The Menace’ up over and over with crisp combinations, even ending the fight in impudent fashion by going for a kneebar after the buzzer.

The fight went the distance but there was no question of the winner, and Diaz took a clear-cut unanimous decision. And if his performance in the fight wasn’t enough to convince people that the real Nate Diaz was back, a fired-up, sweary promo calling out Conor McGregor certainly did the trick. It was a fine precursor of the mayhem that was to follow in 2016.