"I Don't Have a Checkout Time." Nate Diaz Breaks Silence 11 Days After Perry Loss

Eleven days of silence. That's how long it took for Nate Diaz to say anything publicly after Mike Perry beat him up on Netflix in front of 17 million people. No tweets or Instagram posts. No interviews. Just quiet from a man who is literally never quiet.

Then today he posted on Instagram and said exactly what you'd expect Nate Diaz to say.

"I wasn't happy with my inactivity, but a lack of opponents will do that. It was easy to get up for me in this fight. Now I think it'll be even easier to get up for him. Either way, shoutout to Mike on the win and for getting me off my ass. Now I've got a target. Hunting season. Take the motherf***er out."

15 staples, 20 stitches, a broken finger. Broken nose. Lost his vision from blood pouring into his right eye. 180 day suspension from the California State Athletic Commission. And his first public statement is that he wants the rematch.

Insane bro.

What Perry Actually Did to Him

The fight was bad for Nate. Not competitive bad, just bad.

Perry came out swinging from the first bell and never slowed down. He was stronger and he was faster. He was more aggressive than anything Diaz had dealt with in years and it showed immediately. Perry battered him around the cage, opened cuts everywhere, and just kept coming forward with power shots that Nate couldn't answer.

By the end of the second round Nate's face was a mess. Blood everywhere. Cuts that wouldn't stop opening. His right eye was basically useless because the blood was running into it and he couldn't see out of that side. Then his finger broke during one of the exchanges and he told his corner "man, I can't do nothing."

That's when Stitch Duran made the call.

Stitch Stopped It

Jacob "Stitch" Duran is 74 years old and has been cutting and wrapping hands in combat sports longer than most active fighters have been alive. He was working Nate's corner that night. And between rounds two and three, he looked at Nate's face and decided it was over.

"He ended up with 15 staples, 20 stitches all together," Duran told MMA Junkie Radio. "He was beat up. Mike was too strong for him. I always look at it as a judge, and at that point, he was getting his a** whooped. Mike was just too strong, too aggressive and he was working him."

Duran said the biggest cut on Nate's head "kept pulsating." Just opening and closing. Bleeding and stopping and bleeding again. Plus the broken nose, plus the broken finger, plus the blood in the eye.

"I told Nate, 'I'm gonna have the doctor stop the fight, man.'"

Stitch didn't ask. He told him. And the fight was over.

The Post Fight

Right after the stoppage, while Nate was still sitting on his stool getting cleaned up, Diaz said something that made me laugh even though the whole situation was brutal.

"Maybe next time I'll run a little harder and I'll get the job done. Maybe I don't fight the most violent guy, maybe I fight the second most violent guy."

Bro got 15 staples in his head and his first reaction is a joke about picking an easier opponent next time lol. That's the thing about Diaz. Even when he loses badly he's still the most honest person in the room. No excuses. No "I wasn't ready." Just "he was better tonight and maybe I should fight someone less insane next time."

Then somebody asked him about retirement and he shut it down immediately.

"I don't have a checkout time, you know what I'm saying? That's forever. And when I do check out, I don't need to be crying about it to the media and put my gloves down in the ring."

No ceremony. No farewell. If Nate retires it'll happen without an announcement because that's how he operates. He doesn't perform retirement. He just stops showing up one day.

But today's Instagram post makes it pretty clear that day isn't coming anytime soon.

What "Real" Actually Looks Like

Here's the thing that connects all of this back to what Diaz said before the fight.

We wrote about Nate calling Strickland and Chimaev "fake f***ing puppets" for manufacturing their beef and then hugging after the fight. He separated himself from that. Said he'd never put "artificial beef" out there. Said he "came here to fight" and that he wouldn't be able to sleep at night if he was faking it.

Then he fought for real against Mike Perry, a man they literally nicknamed "The King of Violence" in bare knuckle boxing. And he got beaten up. 15 staples a broken nose. Corner stoppage.

That's what "keeping it real" costs sometimes. Strickland and Chimaev faked their beef, hugged after the fight, and walked away without a scratch on their reputations. Nate kept it real, fought a man who was genuinely trying to take his head off, and left with his face held together by staples and stitches.

And his response 11 days later isn't regret. It's not "maybe I shouldn't have talked all that trash about manufactured beefs." It's "hunting season. Take the motherf***er out."

He wants the rematch. The man who got 35 stitches and staples combined, who broke his finger, who lost vision in one eye, who is 41 years old and suspended for 180 days, wants to run it back.

Is He Done?

Honestly? Probably not. The Instagram post reads like a man who's already thinking about the next one. "Now I've got a target" doesn't sound like retirement. "Hunting season" doesn't sound like a farewell tour. And the way he casually shouted out Perry for "getting me off my a**" tells you he's processing the loss as motivation, not defeat.

Nate Diaz is 41. He hasn't won an MMA fight since the Tony Ferguson submission in September 2022. He just got stopped for only the third time in his entire career. The damage was significant. The suspension is six months. And Perry was so much stronger and more active that Stitch didn't even hesitate to call it.

All of that is true. And none of it matters to Nate because that's not how his brain works. He got beat. He knows it. He said so. But getting beat doesn't mean it's over. Getting beat means you go back to the gym, run a little harder, and figure out how to win the next one.

"I don't have a checkout time."

That's the whole thing. That's Nate Diaz in one sentence. He'll fight until his body physically won't let him anymore and even then he'll probably try one more time just to be sure. The man doesn't know how to stop and based on today's post, he's not interested in learning.

Hunting season. At 41 years old. With staples still in his head. You gotta respect it even if you think he should hang it up. Because at least you know it's real.

Thanks for riding with CageLore. Stay locked in!

Frequently Asked Questions

What injuries did Nate Diaz suffer against Mike Perry?

Diaz required 15 staples and 20 stitches after the fight. He also broke his finger during the bout, had a broken nose, and lost vision in his right eye from blood pouring into it. He was suspended for 180 days by the California State Athletic Commission.

Who stopped the Diaz vs Perry fight?

Legendary cutman Jacob "Stitch" Duran, who was working in Diaz's corner, made the call to stop the fight after the second round. He told MMA Junkie Radio that Diaz's cuts "kept pulsating" and that Perry was "too strong, too aggressive."

What did Nate Diaz say about the loss?

Immediately after the fight, Diaz joked "maybe next time I'll run a little harder. Maybe I don't fight the most violent guy, maybe I fight the second most violent guy." Eleven days later he posted on Instagram: "Now I've got a target. Hunting season. Take the motherf***er out."

Is Nate Diaz retiring?

Diaz said post fight "I don't have a checkout time. That's forever." His Instagram post 11 days later calls for "hunting season" and says he has "a target" which strongly suggests he wants a rematch with Perry rather than retirement.

How old is Nate Diaz?

Diaz is 41 years old. The Perry fight was his first MMA bout since submitting Tony Ferguson in September 2022, nearly four years earlier.

What was the Diaz vs Perry result?

Perry won by TKO (corner stoppage) after the second round at MVP MMA 1 on Netflix on May 16, 2026. It was only the third stoppage loss of Diaz's entire career.