"This would have been the big f*** you" - John McCarthy says Nate Diaz could have "walked away" with UFC 279 show money after Khamzat Chimaev missed weight

Former UFC octagon referee 'Big' John McCarthy believes that Nate Diaz would have been well within his rights to decline the new fight on UFC 279's card and could have walked away with the money instead.

Diaz and Khamzat Chimaev were set to fight in the UFC 279 main event this weekend. The pair weighed in on Friday with Diaz hitting the scales at 171lbs. 'Borz', however, shocked fans by being 7.5 lbs over the limit. The entire card has since been reshuffled, with the Stockton fighter now facing former interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson in the main event instead.

Many fans and much of the UFC brass have been left frustrated by the events and the subsequent scramble to reschedule the card. While the Chechen-born Swede remains on the card, he now faces Kevin Holland.

Discussing the chaos of UFC 279 on the WEIGHING IN podcast, John McCarthy has stated that Dana White and the UFC are lucky that Nate Diaz has integrity. McCarthy believes that Diaz was well within his rights to "walk away" from the card:

"Nate Diaz could have walked away from the UFC. If you wanna talk about the big f*ck you, this is the big f*ck you!... You gotta give him all the credit in the world for taking a fight he hasn't trained for. You've also gotta give Tony Ferguson all the credit in the world for a guy he hasn't trained for either. All these guys deserve credit."

Catch the full podcast episode here:

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Nate Diaz gives his thoughts on the UFC 279 "mess"

Never one to shy away from sharing his thoughts, Nate Diaz has given a brutal assessment of the chaos leading up to UFC 279.

In an interview with UFC's Megan Olivi, the Stockton-fighter gave his thoughts on his upcoming fight against 'El Cucuy' and stated that he's now 1-0 in a head-to-head with 'Borz':

"At least I don't have to deal with this [Khamzat Chimaev situation]. So, that's 1-0 on him [Chimaev]. So, if I could get through this dude [Tony Ferguson] tomorrow, then that's 2-0 for the weekend. So, this is two for one."

The 37-year-old added:

"It's all a mess. It's f**king irritating. I trained for Khamzat. I don't even know how to fight this guy [Ferguson] here. I'm gonna watch some video tonight. But it don't matter anyway because I train for everybody, always, anyway. I don't train for fights anymore. I just train to fight everybody, always; ready for war."

Check out Nate Diaz's interview here: