The Diaz brothers have been well-known in the MMA world for years, but Nate Diaz — the younger of the two — really burst onto the national scene in 2016. Last year, he emerged as a viable rival for UFC lightning rod Conor McGregor.
Diaz and McGregor split a pair of hotly-contested, hyped-up, big-money fights. With Ronda Rousey and Jon Jones having fallen off, their fights were the epicenter of UFC action last year.
Now, following Diaz’s breakout year, his former agents are suing the 32-year-old fighter and saying they didn’t get a fair shake.
A month before the second of the two marquee McGregor-Diaz fights — UFC 202, which took place in Aug. 2016 — Diaz fired his agents at the Ballengee Group. They say they negotiated his big payday (Diaz reportedly received over $2 million) and then he fired them, according to TMZ.
Diaz had worked with the Ballengee Group since 2014. The group had represented Diaz and negotiated the biggest deals of his career, including his payouts for fighting Rafael Dos Anjos and Michael Johnson (as well as the first McGregor fight at UFC 196).
According to the lawsuit, the relationship between Diaz and Ballengee soured right after they inked the deal for UFC 202. The group says the firing came “unexpectedly,” and they never received their payout for UFC 202, which reportedly broke the pay-per-view record with 1.65 million purchases.
Attorney Jason Friedman filed the suit on behalf of Ballengee in District Court in Dallas, where the agency is headquartered. The Ballengee Group is seeking more than $1 million in damages.
