In a long-awaited battle between longtime rivals and combat sports superstars, Nate Diaz took home a majority decision victory over Jorge “Gamebred” Masvidal Saturday night in a 10-round light heavyweight showdown that headlined a Fanmio PPV from Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
"Mission accomplished,” said Diaz (1-1). “I feel the love here in Cali every time. He showed up and came to fight and so did I.”
"I thought I won,” said Masvidal (1-1). “I landed the harder shots. Win or lose, we're gonna do it again. We're 1-1, so we'll run it back.”
After fighting for the inaugural UFC BMF title in their first clash won by Masvidal, the two MMA superstars reignited their rivalry with months of heated back and forth trash talk leading up to Saturday night’s event in front of a sold out crowd of 18,040.
The contest turned into a matchup of Diaz’s activity and punch output against Masvidal’s accuracy and power. Diaz landed 148 of 730 punches thrown, while Masvidal connected on 176 shots out of 637 thrown.
"I definitely felt that I landed the more meaningful shots,” said Masvidal. “When the judges see the videos, they'll see they were misguided."
After the bell rang to begin the 10th and final round, both men engaged in a tense three minutes of toe-to-toe action, with each fighter looking to gain an edge on the inside. With the crowd on their feet, each fighter landed clean blows until the final bell, with Diaz earning the nod by scores of 98-92, 97-93 and 95-95.
"We just went in there to figure him out,” said Diaz. “I'm down to fight the highest rated boxer I can find. My main objective is to be the best fighter in the world."
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