It may have taken him almost 10 years, but Nate Diaz finally understands the business of MMA.

In March, Diaz stepped in on 10 days' notice to fight the UFC's biggest star, featherweight champion Conor McGregor. That night Diaz, a fighter already with a sizable fan base, stopped McGregor in the second round, gave the world a now famous soundbite ("I'm not surprised motherf**kers!") and became a mainstream star. It was an unexpected turn of events for a fighter who had been voicing displeasure over his pay and booking for years.

In an interview with Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports, Diaz spoke about how he got wise to the business side of MMA, how that has affected him, and what that means going forward.

"People will say, ‘I'll fight anybody, I love to fight.' You love to fight? [Expletive] that. People say that. And, yeah, I said that. And I woke up. It takes a lot of fighting to wake up. ‘I'll fight anybody for free? I'll fight anybody?' That's what [the UFC] wants. That's what pads their bottom line. Then I realized, ‘[Expletive] you [expletive], you're playing me.'

"I'd look at my following [on social media] and other peoples' followings and I'd look at the numbers for the Fox shows they were putting me on and I was like, ‘Damn, a lot of people are tuning into these shows.' I was headlining a lot of them back-to-back. I was like, ‘I am bringing in bigger numbers than anybody and I'm not getting the deals. ‘Fox card,' they always said. ‘Free TV, free TV.' I was like, ‘No, it's not free, they have million-dollar deals to put this many shows on Fox and I'm headlining three shows a year? ... Then they are trying to shut me down, shut me up, [saying], ‘He doesn't move the needle.' They are just trying to put that out in the mainstream because then people start saying that and it's true."

Back in 2014, UFC President Dana White declared that Nate Diaz has no reason to be unhappy with his contract because he was "not a needle mover." At the time, Diaz had been turning down fights because of his unhappiness with the UFC and White was content to let him sit for as long as he chose to despite the fact that Diaz had headlined three of his last four fights and all of them drew well on television. Whether or not Diaz really wasn't a "needle mover," he certainly didn't have any leverage over the UFC and that created an environment that he was unhappy in. Then came the call to fight McGregor and everything changed.

"I [expletive] up everyone's plan by winning that fight. I was like, ‘Ha, ha, you [expletives], call me for the next one, you better come with something good.' I don't give a [expletive]. You didn't give me enough money but I come from a place with no money and you give me too much money. I don't give a [expletive] about making more. I am doing better than I was ever supposed to do."

And come with something good they did. After his win over McGregor, Diaz demanded a new contract of substantially larger value. Then, after McGregor no showed the UFC 200 press conference in his own spat of promotional hardball, Diaz demanded even more money and more guarantees. Eventually, the UFC acquiesced and got the rematch set up for UFC 202, which will likely be one of the biggest pay-per-view events in the promotion's history.

And should Diaz win the rematch, the UFC may have to do it all over again.

"[The UFC] better hope I don't win this fight because it's going to be a lot of trouble for everybody, in terms of the business. This one coming up, they better hope I don't win this one because the game is going to change."

I can't imagine the UFC will be surprised.

Nate Diaz fights Conor McGregor at UFC 202 on Aug. 20, in Las Vegas, Nev.

5 MUST-READ STORIES

Beast mode. Derrick Lewis wants to fight the winner of Brock Lesnar vs. Mark Hunt.

Diabetes. Jon Jones gives an update on his mother's battle with diabetes.

Heavy editing. Conor McGregor was accused of editing a sparring video with a former boxing champion to make himself look better.

Bully. Joanna Jedrzejczyk apologizes for her "bullying" on TUF.

Michael Bisping. Yoel Romero is seeking the same fight everyone else in the middleweight division is.

EXTRA CREDIT READING

Tactics. Jack Slack of Fightland did a tactical breakdown of the Aldo-Edgar rematch. None better at this type of stuff in MMA media.

MEDIA STEW

Conor got naked for ESPN and then said some standard issue Conor things.

Frankie Edgar and Chris Weidman's kids just got signed to Bellator developmental contracts.

I like Mark Hunt's game plan. Simple, easy to remember. And Brock's hands are too big for 4x gloves. Jesus.

More Facebook Live stuff from Marc and Shaun. Doing these every day this week. Peep it.

JJ did a Fan Q and A. Love that she just for real decided her name was gonna be Joanna Champion and stuck with it.

LISTEN UP

Heavy Hands talking about the Sprawl and Brawling of Aldo and Joanna Jedrzejczyk

Wonderboy Thompson interview.

TWEETS

Derrick Lewis is the heavyweight champion of my heart.

Would watch.

Closest Harry is getting to any type of a championship.

Woodley just out here trying to get every single person to cheer for Robbie.

Happy Opinion Day Internet warriors & coaches. U have ur Freedom 2 speak, tweet, snap & crack on pros fighter@Ufc pic.twitter.com/q2bdfululd — Tyron T-Wood Woodley (@TWooodley) July 5, 2016

Teruto Ishihara is incredible.

今日起きて衝撃3連発。

会ってない、連絡とってない

同じ関係のBitchesたちが同じ時期に同じような行動とってんねん！季節とか空いた期間とかで脳の働きとかでそーなるんかな？



めちゃおもしろくない？

てことは他のBitchesもおったとしたら

第二回の波もあるよな！ — Teruto Ishihara (@teruto_ko) July 1, 2016

Vinny crushing it.

@ChaelSonnen was his last name "Silva"? Was the steak Medium Rare? — Vinny Magalhães (@VinnyMMA) July 5, 2016

Maybe if he keeps winning y'all can start appreciating Italian engineering.

Jim Miller having a strong social media game for 200.

Someone left a present for me at my room here in Vegas. #UFC200 #fireball pic.twitter.com/y5NjOVkDNC — Jim Miller (@JimMiller_155) July 6, 2016

This is so strange.

This is a dark day. pic.twitter.com/LG8QOQJt2D — Jeremy Botter (@jeremybotter) July 6, 2016

Sage is a freaking cartoon character.

A photo posted by Sage Northcutt (@supersagenorthcutt) on Jul 5, 2016 at 8:25pm PDT

Jon Jones sending a message to his fans.

It's almost here‼️ #UFC200 A video posted by Jon Bones Jones (@jonnybones) on Jul 5, 2016 at 11:02am PDT

Enson Inoue is dope.

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Francis Carmont (24-11-0) vs. Lukasz Klinger (7-2-0); Bellator 158, July 16.





TODAY IN MMA HISTORY 2002: Smackgirl proved itself to be miles ahead of the game by hosting a one night, women's MMA tag team tournament at Smackgirl: Strongest Tag Tournament 2002. Mari Kaneko and Miwako Ishihara won the tournament. 2013: Chris Weidman knocked out Anderson Silva to become the UFC middleweight champion at UFC 162. 2014: The saddest day in MMA history occurred when Frankie Edgar mauled an upright BJ Penn in the main event of The Ultimate Fighter 19 Finale. There has never been a more depressing MMA moment.

FINAL THOUGHTS

In life, we sometimes pour so much of our soul into one thing that it becomes a totem of our own self worth. Our identity becomes so intertwined with the goal that failure isn't just a loss in that area but an indictment of ourselves entire. There is a reason that Ronda Rousey had suicidal thoughts after her loss to Holly Holm. It wasn't because she is mentally weak or any of that other disparaging bullsh*t that gets spouted off, it was because the idea of her losing was so anathema to her very being that she couldn't handle it (and also possibly because of a family history with this issue).

I say all this because as Saturday rapidly approaches, I am genuinely concerned for Daniel Cormier. Cormier has spent his entire life perfecting various levels of combat. For the last year, he's been training obsessively for this rematch. He has put more of himself into this than you or I will put into anything we ever do in our lives. You can see it in the way he talks and hear it in his voice. This isn't just a fight to him, it's a moral imperative. He must beat Jon Jones. He wants this so very badly and he has clearly done everything in his power to make it happen. And it still isn't going to be enough.

Jon Jones is one of the five best fighters ever already and he is only 28 years old. He is younger, faster, stronger, more dynamic, and has an enormous size advantage over Cormier not to mention being German U-Boat deep in Cormier's head. I fear Cormier is about to get beat in brutal fashion.

All of this is to say that I hope Cormier wins on Saturday, not because I dislike Jones (I don't - Jon Jones is an amazing fighter and now that he is embracing being his heel self he's just an all-around delight) but because Cormier clearly needs this more than Jon Jones does. I don't know the man personally and have never met him but he seems like a genuinely good dude, and I would hate to see his everything derailed or his retirement from the sport.

Oh, and also the rubber match would be headlining the Madison Square Garden in November, which would be the dopest UFC of all-time.

That's it for today M.Rmy. Until tomorrow.

If you find something you'd like to see in the Morning Report, just hit me up on Twitter @JedKMeshew and let me know about it. Also follow MMAFighting on Instagram and add us on Snapchat at MMA-Fighting.