MMA icon Nate Diaz has been out of action ever since his boxing match against fellow icon Jorge Masvidal. He mentioned wanting to come back to the UFC and fight Conor McGregor for a third time, which is something the Irishman has also been calling for. On the one hand, Diaz is also open to fighting YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in a boxing rematch, and why not? Both of those opponents helped the Stockton native earn a total of $3 million in payouts.

However, this time, Nate Diaz spoke about his toughest fight ever, and guess what? Neither Conor McGregor nor Jake Paul‘s names popped up, despite the Stockton native having lost to both of them. In fact, Diaz named a fighter that not many fans would have expected, and that is Josh Neer, a former UFC fighter. Known as ‘The Dentist’, Neer was in and out of Dana White‘s promotion, with multiple stints in the promotion.

Although Josh Neer’s record was a mixed bag in the UFC, he had a couple of memorable fights with the Diaz brothers, Nick and Nate. He fought the older brother first, but he lost, and then he lost to the younger brother as well. Nate Diaz, even though he won the fight, recalled an instance during the fight when a kick from Neer to his abdomen put him in big trouble in the first-ever UFC event he headlined.

“When I fought Josh Neer in Nebraska, and I was winning, and then, he kicked up at me and his heel dropped and hit me in the solar plexus, and I was like [gasping for air],” Nate Diaz told Chuck Liddell on the King of Violence YouTube channel. “All my air came out of me and he’s on the ground and I swear he knew I was like [telling him to] stay down, and he jumped up and grabbed me, threw me down and got behind me and then jumped on my back.”

Well, Nate Diaz was able to avoid embarrassment that night, as he recovered from the predicament and went on to earn a decision victory over Josh Neer. “He f—ed me up. I was like blocking [and] I’m like, ‘I can’t breathe.’ It took like a couple minutes and I got back to him. I’m like, ‘Now, you’re dead, motherf—er [laughs],” the Stockton native added.

But despite giving him a hard fight, Josh Neer is in Nate Diaz’s good books. In fact, the Stockton native claims that he’s very content with the way his fight turned out, as he defeated the opponent whom his brother defeated as well. Here’s what he had to say.

Nate Diaz claims the bout against Josh Neer was a ‘good fight’

When Nate Diaz started his UFC career, he had to go through some of the fighters to find a credible rival contender. After winning The Ultimate Fighter in 2007, the Stockton native went on a 3-fight winning streak before butting heads against Josh Neer, who was one of the top-ranked fighters in the lightweight division in 2008. Diaz revealed that he had trained really hard for this one and was happy with the way the fight went down.

“I beat a few people. And so they gave me Josh Neer, who was one of the top five guys. That’s right, when I started to fight top people. And it was my hardest fight,” Nate Diaz told Bradley Martin’s ‘Raw Talk Podcast’. “I watched him fight so much, and then trained so perfect for him… But he countered everything, and it was like if you watch that fight, me versus Josh Neer, it’s a hundred miles an hour. It’s a good fight.”

Well, Josh Neer, after sharing the Octagon with the Diaz brothers, became the Stockton duo’s friend later on. But when it comes to Nick Diaz snubbing Conor McGregor and Jake Paul, do you think the two fighters deserve to be on a list of the hardest hitters and toughest competitors? Drop your comments below.