There is no love lost between Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor - but the former's win over Jorge Masvidal in the boxing ring netted the latter a cool $1.6m.
McGregor and Diaz fought it out in the Octagon with two memorable encounters in 2016 at UFC 196 and then again at UFC 202.
In the first bout, Diaz emerged victorious after forcing McGregor to submit with a rear naked chokehold, in what was the Notorious' welterweight debut.
But at UFC 202, McGregor got his own back on Diaz with a majority decision and earn a victory of his own.
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There was a great deal of animosity between the two men during their time in the Octagon.
McGregor had been due to return to the Octagon at UFC 303 with a fight against Michael Chandler, which was set to take place at the end of June and would have been his first MMA bout since 2021.
However, McGregor was forced to withdraw from the contest due to an injury.
It means McGregor's UFC record continues to stand at 22 wins from 28 matches, 19 of which have been by knockout, one by submission and two by decision, with six losses overall.
Diaz meanwhile has 21 wins from 34 MMA bouts and 13 losses, but has recently embarked upon a professional boxing career.
Diaz lost to YouTuber Jake Paul in August 2023 via a unanimous decision.
But Diaz had his second boxing bout last night against fellow MMA athlete Masvidal, who he too was taking part in only his second professional encounter.
And Diaz beat Masvidal with a majority decision, after the fight went 10 rounds.
The fight not only earned Diaz his first boxing victory, but also netted his old rival McGregor a cool $1.6 million.
The Notorious took to social media before the fight to reveal he opted to bet $500,000 on Diaz to win the fight against Masvidal and gave he reasoning for doing so.
He wrote: "I’ve decided to put $500,000 on Diaz to win tonight’s boxing match. Range, form, experience, solely hands being used, I can’t see Masvidal causing any problems to Nate in a boxing ring whatsoever.
"They are both little play around d******s in a fight, play around b*****, but I feel Nate does him in EASY here for real. $500k gets me back $1,625,000 all in."
And with Diaz winning, McGregor did indeed win a total of $1.625m, which is not a bad day's earnings at all.
After the win for Diaz, a clearly happy McGregor wrote: "THE RICH GET RICHER!!! Well done Nate, congrats!"
He later labelled his winnings as 'yacht fuel', before Diaz reacted to his victory being a big pay day for McGregor.
And Diaz gave a brief response in his post-fight press conference, simply saying: "That’s cool, good job for us!"
Topics: Conor McGregor, Jorge Masvidal, Nate Diaz, MMA, UFC, Boxing
John McDougall