Islam Makhachev addresses water bottle incident with Nate Diaz at UFC 311 press conference
Islam Makhachev doesn’t know what he did to make Nate Diaz mad.
In December, Makhachev and Diaz grabbed headlines after a small altercation backstage where the two threw water bottles at each other from across the room. Makhachev was there for the UFC 311 press conference while was there supporting his teammate Kron Gracie, who was taking part in the UFC 310 ceremonial weigh-ins, and according to Makhachev, the whole thing kicked off when Diaz shot his team the bird.
“Next day they put me close to the cage,” Makhachev told Demetrious Johnson. “I sat with Dana and Dana came to me and said, ‘You are a troublemaker.’ I said, ‘Dana, it’s not my fault!’
“We sat, before fight day, I had a press conference, fighters had official weigh-ins. We sat and Diaz started to show [gestures his middle finger] for what? Maybe for someone, it’s good, no problem, but that’s not our style.”
For Makhachev, the entire thing came out of nowhere. Diaz never fought anyone from his team before, though he did have a rivalry with Makhachev’s friend and coach Khabib Nurmagomedov that never materialized into an actual fight. Thinking on it, that’s the only thing Makhachev could come up with for why Diaz fired the two-finger salute to his team.
“One of the guys wore a mask,” Makhachev said. “He was sick a little bit and wore the mask, and maybe Diaz thinking it’s Khabib and showed him, you know? But that day Khabib was not in Vegas, he was in some other country.”
Ultimately, nothing too untoward happened. After the teams exchanged a volley of water bottles, the incident was quickly broken up by security, and Makhachev and his team left the building. And upon reflection, Makhachev believes the entire incident may have just been for show.
“You know what’s interesting, maybe five, six months ago, I meet Diaz in the elevator in the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas,” Makhachev said. “He goes to me and says, ‘Respect, respect, respect.’ But what changed now? A lot of cameras come and always people change.
“We don’t have something. If I have something with him, I can fix it in the Wynn Hotel. But he came to me and said ‘Respect’ and then he go. But when camera comes, he’s changing. And people think I started this!
“I’m not starting this. Security comes and they want to send my team from the arena and I’m like, ‘Hey, it’s not the guys’ fault!’ ... ‘Sorry, you guys have to leave. You have to stay and do interview and your team has to leave.’ I said, no, it’s not working like this. If they leave, I leave with them, and they canceled all interviews [laughs].”
Makhachev defends his lightweight title against Arman Tsarukyan in the main event of UFC 311 on Jan. 18 at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif.