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Editor's note: Khamzat Chimaev missed weight and Nate Diaz fought Tony Ferguson in the main event of UFC 279. He submitted Ferguson in the fourth round. ( Watch on ESPN+)

Marijuana is a regular presence in Nate Diaz's camp, whether at home or in the gym weeks before a main event fight against Khamzat Chimaev. Marc Raimondi/ESPN Diaz finds it ironic that McGregor took a gig that was first offered to Diaz, considering how their careers have intersected. Diaz believes he was the catalyst for McGregor achieving superstardom as the biggest money-drawing star in UFC history. Diaz choked out McGregor at UFC 196 in March 2016, raising his profile exponentially. In the rematch five months later, McGregor won by a very close majority decision, with one judge calling it a draw.While Diaz has never won a UFC title, he is one of the more accomplished fighters in the promotion's history. (Source: ESPN Stats & Info.) Stat Monday through Friday, host Pablo Torre brings you an inside look at the most interesting stories at ESPN, as told by the top reporters and insiders on the planet. Listen All athletes strive to get to free agency," Reyes says. "And he's done it. It's an amazing thing, because it's very, very rare [in MMA] -- if ever -- that anybody has been able to build their brand and then be able to go, 'Now I want to be able to move the way I want to move.'"

That's enough for me," Diaz said, referring to his fight with Edwards. "If you get your ass whipped, you're the loser; I'm the winner. The only thing that happened in that fight with me and him was [the big fifth-round punch]. White will be cageside Saturday night, watching one of the stars of his company perhaps make the final walk. He understands what a Diaz departure might mean for the UFC.The UFC's reason for making the fight is transparent: Before Diaz departs, the promotion wants to use his star power to build the profile of Chimaev. It's an old pro wrestling business strategy applied when wrestlers were on their way out of the region -- they first were made to lose to that territory's next big star. Chimaev is a -1100 betting favorite, while Diaz is a +700 underdog, per Caesars Sportsbook.

Two weeks before UFC 279, the famously private Diaz allowed ESPN unprecedented access to his Northern California training camp. Diaz, 37, has finished McGregor, headlined Madison Square Garden in a fight for a mythical BMF title and been a part of some of the most significant pay-per-view events in UFC history. What's next, he said, will trump all of that. If I fight Jake Paul, he ain't paying me, I'm paying him," Diaz says. "I don't want or need to fight Jake Paul. He needs and wants to fight me." Early in this camp, Diaz and company traveled to Belgrade, Montana, to train with Brazilian jiu-jitsu royalty Kron Gracie. About three weeks from the fight, Diaz, his brother and his teammates competed in a triathlon in Lake Tahoe. Sometimes, they all go downstate to Los Angeles to train with coach Ernie Reyes Jr., a lifelong martial artist with a bevy of Hollywood acting credits. It makes perfect sense, because they want him to have a title fight," Diaz said. "So who do they have him fight? I'm the champion. Anybody I fight gets the f---ing title fight. I'm the guy."None of this is lost on Diaz, who referred to the fight as something of a "punishment." Diaz initially turned down the Chimaev fight last winter, causing the UFC to extend his contract. But after Chimaev beat Gilbert Burns at UFC 273 in April, Diaz's team told the UFC that Diaz was willing to fight anyone to fulfill the final fight on his deal. The UFC again offered Chimaev, and Diaz accepted. Any of [the body shots], if he would have put more on it, would have dropped me, I would imagine. A couple of the head shots wobbled me, too."

For his next fight after Chimaev, Diaz would like to compete in mixed martial arts, not boxing, under his promotional banner. But, Diaz said, if history is any indication, everything changes for him after every fight. So, nothing can be made definite until after Saturday.Then, in August 2017, McGregor leveraged his stardom into a boxing match with Mayweather, which stands as the second biggest pay-per-view event of all time, just behind Mayweather's 2015 fight with Manny Pacquiao. Diaz said McGregor getting the Mayweather fight made him "f---ing hot," because it's one of the fights Diaz wanted, as someone who has been boxing since he was a kid and has sparred with the likes of boxing Hall of Famer Andre Ward.