Islam Makhachev tells his side of Nate Diaz water bottle incident backstage at UFC 311 press conference

UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev was recently involved in an altercation with Nate Diaz, but assures he did not instigate the incident. He doesn’t even know what set Diaz off.

Makhachev (26-1 MMA, 15-1 UFC) and Diaz were under the same roof at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas; Makhachev for the UFC 311 on-sale press conference for his fight against Arman Tsarukyan and Diaz for the UFC 310 ceremonial weigh-ins to support his teammate Kron Gracie.

Suddenly, things popped off when Diaz began spewing expletives and threw a bottle in the direction of Makhachev and his team. Makhachev’s teammate Magomed Zaynukov responded by launching an object toward Diaz as security quickly intervened to de-escalate.

Looking back, Makhachev has no idea what caused things to spark and said he had to tell UFC CEO Dana White he wasn’t responsible.

“Next day they put me close to the cage,” Makhachev told Demetrious Johnson in an interview on his YouTube channel. “I sit with Dana, and Dana come to me and said, ‘You are troublemaker.’ I said, ‘Hey Dana, it’s not my fault.’

“We sit before the fight day, I had press conference, fighters have official weigh-in, We sit and Diaz started to show them (a middle finger). For what? Maybe for someone it’s good, no problem, but it’s not our style.”

Makhachev explained one of his teammates was wearing a mask and perhaps Diaz thought it was Khabib Nurmagomedov covering his face, but it was not him.

The situation quickly fizzled, but Makhachev didn’t fully understand why Diaz would do something like that, even if it was Nurmagomedov.

“You know what’s interesting, maybe five, six months ago, I meet Diaz in the elevator in the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas,” Makachev said. “He goes to cross to me and says, ‘Respect, respect, respect,’ and just walked. But what changed now? When a lot of cameras come, they always people change.

“We don’t have something, I don’t know. If I have something with him, I can fix it in the Wynn Hotel, but he come to me, like two meters, and said, ‘Respect, respect,’ and then he go. But when camera come, things change, you know. … And people think I start this. I’m not starting this.”

Makhachev then explained how security wanted to remove his team from the arena before his interview were complete, but the UFC champ said his team wouldn’t be separated. Instead, all of his remaining interviews were scrapped and everyone left together.

On Jan. 18, Makhachev returns to action to face Tsarukyan (22-3 MMA, 9-2 UFC) in the main event of UFC 311 at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. The title fight is a rematch from their first meeting in April 2019, but with much higher stakes.