Jack Shore explains why he admires the Diaz brothers: ‘I kind of see a lot of them in myself’

While Jack Shore admits that very few people would compare him to Nick and Nate Diaz, the talented Welsh fighter believes there is some comparison in his own eyes.

Shore is set to face Makwan Amirkhani on Saturday in the featured preliminary bout of UFC 286, which takes place at The 02 in London. “Tank” makes his first promotional appearance in the featherweight division after going 5-1 as a bantamweight inside the octagon.

Asked about whether or not the Diaz brothers are his favorite fighters, Shore didn’t hesitate to say yes.

“I grew up watching Nick and Nate as a kid, and they always play the bad boy image as they were in the sport. But as you get older, and although I’m not as brash out there and as outspoken as them, I kind of see a lot of them in myself,” Shore said on The MMA Hour.

“Nate is probably one of the top-five biggest names ever in the sport and has never changed, never changed the guys around him, never changed his team, he doesn’t change for the camera, doesn’t pretend he’s something he’s not. He doesn’t pretend to be the good guy, doesn’t pretend to be the bad guy, he’s just unapologetically who he is.”

While the Diaz brothers have found a ton of success in the sport and have become superstars, Shore understands what has made them so special as relatable athletes. The popular brotherly duo may have gotten over because of things they say on the microphone, and while Shore loves and respects that, it’s their fighting styles that won him over.

“I always get people even saying to me now, ‘You need to do more of this and you need to trash talk more.’ I’m like, I am me,” Shore said. “If that doesn’t sell the people and people don’t like it, then on your bike, I couldn’t give a s***.

“So I see a lot of myself in them in certain ways. I know people probably wouldn’t make that comparison, but just their style of fighting — they remind me of the old UFC 1 guys. If you chuck them into a no-time-limit, no-round matchup, I don’t think they’d lose too many fights.

“I’ll forever be a Diaz fanboy. No matter who they’re fighting, when they’re fighting, or what rules they’re fighting under, I’ll always ride for Nick and Nate.”