- Hollywood icon Dwayne Johnson says 'that's the Nate we all know and love'
- 'Nate, he gets it. He knows me and Jorge are boys, we're from Miami'
Not many people would have the guts to call out hulking Hollywood icon Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. And it seems the WWE legend saw the funny side in Nate Diaz taking aim at him after UFC 244,
Johnson of course was on hand to wrap the "BMF" belt around the waist of the main event winner at Madison Square Garden, where Jorge Masvidal was victorious by medical stoppage.
"F*** The Rock too, man," Diaz jokingly said at the post-event press conference after his defeat. "That (expletive) over here playing me. See him over here smiling with Masvidal. Should have had Mike Tyson handing out a belt if anybody. I don't give a f*** about any belt anyway, but he can get it too."
But in an appearance on Ariel Helwani's MMA Show, The Rock showed he had no ill will towards Diaz.
"I wasn't surprised at Nate's comments because that's the Nate that we all know and love," Johnson said. "He is as advertised. Nate, he gets it. He knows that me and Jorge we're boys, we're from Miami. We have a lot of deep connections down there.
"A lot of the fighters we know, a lot of the coaches and trainers that we know, a lot of the gyms that we've been to down there. So there's a connection, so no I was totally fine with it. He gets it."
Johnson said he went into the fight trying to be as neutral as possible when he was promoting it.
"As we're leading up to it and selling it on pay-per-view I didn't want to come out and say, 'Jorge's my boy and he's gonna win,'" Johnson added.
"No, I just wanted to be neutral and I thought that was the best, smartest, strategic play to get as many new eyes on this fight as possible and again help impact in my own little way the bottom line.
"From what I'm told, since UFC's transition it was the biggest fight they've ever had, second, I'm sorry, to Conor (McGregor) and Khabib (Nurmagomedov) which is quite an amazing accomplishment. I'm very proud for both those guys."
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