On the eve of UFC 310, held on December 7, the Dana White-led promotion took the opportunity to start the promotion of the upcoming UFC 311 through a pre-fight press conference. However, backstage at the ceremony, a commotion stole the show, including a water bottle battle between team Nate Diaz and team Islam Makhachev. At the time, the American ‘bad boy’ was pointed out as the cause of the confusion. The internet exploded with outrage as netizens viciously attacked him for stirring up controversy. But the story wasn’t exactly like that. At least that’s what a UFC flyweight has now revealed.

Present at the scene at the time of the water bottle fight, Brandon Royval revealed in an interview with the website ‘MMA Fighting’ that the person responsible for throwing the first bottle of water and starting the confusion was a member of Makhachev’s entourage, exonerating Diaz of blame for what happened. Also, according to the#1 UFC flyweight, the object almost hit him by mistake, as he was close to the original target, which would be Nate Diaz.

He said, “A water bottle almost hit me when I was with [Nate] Diaz, and I’m like, ‘Alright, who the f-ck am I f—g up? I don’t care who it is. Diaz is walking in front of me. The water bottle f—g zooms by my head. That’s another thing people didn’t see. Diaz did not throw that first water bottle. The first water bottle was thrown at him.” Royval further added, “He was walking; that water bottle zoomed past, almost f—g took me out. I look up and I’m like, ‘Who the f-k was that?’ and then Diaz turned around, and I’m like, ‘Oh, they’re going after him.’ But originally I thought these motherf—s were throwing water bottles at me. I was like, What the f-k?”

So, it looks like the real culprit behind the start of the confusion would be Russian Tagir Ulanbekov, his rival in the flyweight division and a member of the team that accompanied Islam Makhachev at the press conference. Interestingly, Nate Diaz never sought to deny the rumors that he was the instigator of the fight. But why?

Brandon Royval reveals Nate Diaz’s mindset that made him take the blame

Despite being criticized by all for trying to start an all-out brawl backstage with Islam Makhachev and his team, Nate Diaz never came forward to clear his name. This is definitely not a situation where one would like to have himself. After all, we all know how MMA fans can be really brutal at times and this incident made Diaz a subject of massive heat. But what if we tell you that Diaz would love to be in that situation instead? Well, that’s the truth, according to Brandon Royval. But why? Well, it has a lot to do with Nate Diaz’s personality as the ‘bad boy’ of mixed martial arts.

He revealed, “F-k no, and he don’t give a s–t to clear his name. But that is just the truth. He ain’t the one that threw the first water bottle. I don’t know if there was something that led up to that beforehand, but I was walking in front of him for pretty much the length of that walk. I swear to God, Nate did not start that s–t.” As far as throwing water bottles, the video shows Nate throwing the first water bottle, but according to Royval, someone recorded it because the water bottle was thrown at Diaz first.

Well, Brandon Royval did hit part by clearing up the name of ‘The Stockton Slugger’ in this recent confusion. However, it would be interesting to see if Islam Makhachev comes up with an explanation of his own or if he accepts the blame for having his men start the confrontation. What do you think? Is Royval telling the truth? Let us know in the comments.