Nate Diaz defended by flyweight star who witnessed Islam Makhachev water bottle fight ahead of UFC 310
Yesterday at 01:08 PM
Brandon Royval came to the defense of former UFC superstar Nate Diaz after a backstage altercation with Islam Makhachev and his team.
Nate Diaz has been central to many brawls and altercations during his illustrious combat sports career. But after an incident with UFC lightweight champ Islam Makhachev and his team went viral at UFC 310, a top flyweight says Diaz wasn’t the instigator this time.
Diaz was in Las Vegas for UFC 310 to corner his teammate, Kron Gracie, for the featherweight’s scheduled bout with Bryce Mitchell. Diaz hasn’t appeared in the UFC Octagon since his finale at UFC 279, although he’s appeared Octagonside at several high-profile events this year.
Just minutes before the UFC 310 ceremonial weigh-in, Diaz and Makhachev’s teams nearly came to blows backstage but resorted to throwing bottles at each other instead. UFC security was able to eventually separate the two parties and cooler heads prevailed.
After footage of the bottle-throwing went viral on social media, many blamed Diaz for starting the incident. Nate and Nick Diaz infamously sparked bottle warfare at a UFC 202 pre-fight press conference ahead of Nate’s rematch with Conor McGregor.
But according to UFC flyweight contender Brandon Royval, the Diaz/Makhachev footage didn’t tell the whole story.
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Brandon Royval exonerates Nate Diaz after UFC 310 bottle throws
In a recent interview with MMA Fighting‘s Damon Martin, Royval gave his version of events as he witnessed the Diaz/Makhachev backstage incident unfold.
“Diaz is walking by me, and a water bottle zooms past my head,” Royval said. “That’s what people didn’t see! Diaz didn’t throw that first water bottle, the first one was thrown at him…Diaz turned around and they were going after him. I knew exactly who threw the water bottle! It was [Tagir Ulanbekov], I turned around and saw it…
“It was just a bad throw! I swear to god, Nate did not start that s***. The video shows Nate throwing the first water bottle, but somebody didn’t record it because someone threw it at him first.”
This is far from the first time that Diaz has gotten into it with Team Khabib fighters. During his UFC Hall of Fame career, Khabib Nurmagomedov got into several altercations with Diaz inside and outside UFC events.
Diaz could potentially return to the UFC but will likely be kept far away from Makhachev and Team Khabib moving forward. He defeated Tony Ferguson at UFC 279 before parting ways with the promotion in 2022.
Nate Diaz interested in a UFC return in 2025
Since being granted his UFC release, Diaz has teased an eventual return to the Octagon, potentially for a trilogy bout with McGregor. Diaz and McGregor headlined two of the highest-earning events in UFC history, and despite McGregor’s ongoing hiatus, a trilogy could lure him back to the cage.
Diaz earned his first professional boxing win earlier this year by defeating former UFC foe Jorge Masvidal by majority decision in July. Before that, he lost to Jake Paul in his boxing debut but is interested in potentially running it back with the polarizing Paul.
Royval defeated the previously unbeaten Tatsuro Taira in his most recent UFC outing earlier this year. He’ll face Manel Kape in his reported return to the cage on March 1st, although nothing is confirmed as of this writing by the promotion.
Makhachev will make his next UFC lightweight title defense against Arman Tsarukyan in the UFC 311 headliner next month. He successfully defended the belt against Dustin Poirier at UFC 302 in his last appearance.
Without additional footage to back Royval’s claims, it’s hard to substantiate the notion that Diaz didn’t start the altercation with Makhachev’s team at UFC 310. While Diaz has a history of sparking scuffles, Royval wants the world to know he took the opposite approach this time around.
