Watch teenaged Nate Diaz win his first MMA fight
Fighters often have many unsanctioned contests that never appear on official records. The battles are no less dangerous, or real, however.
Take, for example, UFC superstar and New King Nate Diaz, for example. His first listed MMA fight came in 2004, when he was just 19.
In actuality, Diaz was fighting for years prior to that WEC fight against Alejandro Garcia, which he won by submission in the third round. Check out the below video of Diaz fighting an opponent listed as Robert Limon, in a video labeled as Nate's first MMA fight, all the way back in 2002 when he was likely just 17 years old.
Diaz is much smaller than his opponent in what appears to be a gym smoker, and appears to be many years younger as well. Still, the teenager was game even back then, and fought in a similar fashion (albeit far less polished) to the way he does, now, and did against Conor McGregor at UFC 196.
There is the lead right check-hook from Diaz in this open-palm strike bout. Diaz shot in for a takedown earlier than he usually does, these days, but it proved wise for the Gracie jiu-jitsu student.
Diaz got the takedown, was briefly caught in a front headlock, but then passed Limon's butterfly guard to the left and moved into side mount. Limon held on to his headlock for a bit.
Diaz's hips were already quite educated, as he kept them low and blocked Limon's re-guard with his own right knee as well as manually. Diaz secured head control and then moved to knee-on-belly to get his own head out of Limon's control.
From there, Diaz used another knee-on-belly moment to transition to the full mount. From there, as he did against McGregor, Diaz used strikes from the mount to set up a submission.
Diaz hit Limon from above, prompting the mounted opponent to extend his arms straight up towards the ceiling. In textbook fashion, Diaz nabbed Limon's right arm, spun around and extended the limb out in a straight armbar.
Limon tapped, and Diaz's friends in the small crowd erupted. It all took less than a minute.
Diaz shook his opponent's hand and celebrated stoically. Some things never really change all that much.
