Cormier Fires Back at Diaz's Criticism: "The Reality Is, You've Always Been Mediocre"

Pulse Sports Team 11:11 - 02 April 2026

Daniel Cormier insists he has no beef with Nate Diaz, but when verbally attacked, he can't help but respond.

During an appearance on Theo Von's podcast, Diaz took aim at Cormier's work as a commentator and analyst. He claimed the UFC Hall of Famer was likely jealous he hadn't earned as much money in his career, calling him a "f***ing bitter b**** who analyzes fights." On Wednesday, Cormier fired back, reminding Diaz that he earned his commentary position through championship achievements, having won titles in two different UFC divisions.

"I think Nate Diaz is reacting to what I said about his fight with Mike Perry, which is that I'm excited because I know exactly what it is," Cormier stated on his YouTube channel. "He said we pretend to know everything when we don't. I don't know everything. I don't know everything about fighting, but my job is to try and educate people who might not be as close to the sport as I am about what things look like in the Octagon. We all think we're watching and know what's happening, but in reality, there are details in fights that are understood on a completely different level. That's it. That's my job. Nate obviously doesn't like it when we do our job. I'm talking about me, Dominick Cruz, Michael Bisping, Paul Felder, all these different people," he added.

Cormier didn't stop there, however, reminding Diaz of the vast difference in their careers.

"Let's make a comparison," Cormier addressed Diaz. "Jon Jones. Stipe Miocic. That's it. Koji Oishi, Hermes Franca, Clay Guida, Joe Stevenson, Gray Maynard, Rory MacDonald, Benson Henderson, Josh Thomson, Rafael dos Anjos, Conor McGregor, Jorge Masvidal, Leon Edwards. That's 13 times. 13 losses to 13 different people. And here are mine. Here's who I've lost to – two people. It's hard for me to imagine losing to 13 people in the sport you chose. When I lost those fights, I was in my mid-to-late 30s, and only two managed to beat me. You've lost to 13 people. You've lost matches when you were 20 years old. You were in your absolute athletic prime, in the sport you chose, and you were beaten repeatedly by all these people. I remained respectful. But you've lost to 13 people. In the sport you chose! To me, that's crazy! Yesterday I said it was impossible. Someone corrected me and said, no, it's not impossible. You can lose that many times."

Of course, Diaz is entitled to his opinion, but Cormier simply doesn't understand how he can launch such tirades without seriously looking in the mirror and at the career he's built.

"You act like you're mad because someone says you're mediocre," Cormier said. "The reality is, you are mediocre. You always have been. But you've made a lot of money. That's good! But you're mediocre. You can say whatever you want, but that will never change the fact that we can't go back in time and make you better than you were. You attack Khabib Nurmagomedov. You're not on the same level. Khabib never had to pay attention to you. You would never have reached him. You attack Justin Gaethje. You attack my guy Dustin Poirier. You're aiming too high. All those guys had titles. Leave it alone."

"Nate, maybe you should have cried more, and then we would have thought you cared about wins and losses," Cormier said. "Maybe if you cried, Nathan, you wouldn't take losses so calmly. I cried because for me, losing was like death. That's why I cried. You don't cry. You go to an after-party, you hang out with friends. On Saturday, you get beaten, and on Monday, you're talking again like you're the best in the world. Maybe if you cried, we'd think you cared and that winning and losing really mattered, because, I'm telling you, with you, it doesn't seem that way."

Regarding a potential future encounter with Diaz, Cormier promises he would gladly clear things up with him personally, but he's not trying to turn this war of words into an ugly street fight.

"I hate when I have to do this," the American said. "I don't have animosity towards Nate Diaz, but these are my true feelings. That's how I feel about Nate, and I would tell him the same thing to his face. And you know what? I'm not going to jump around and pretend I'm going to fight him in the street, surrounded by an entourage of people yelling and throwing things. I'm not going to do all that. But if you ask me to my face what I think about him and his career, I'll tell him he's mediocre. Because that's exactly what he was. You've won 21 fights and lost 13. For someone like me, that seems impossible. Maybe it's not, but to me, it seems impossible"

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