Nate Diaz teases as he leaves, while Khamzat Chimaev must wrestle with the UFC and his future

What can we take away from a unique main event at UFC 279 and victories from Nate Diaz and Khamzat Chimaev? Jeff Wagenheim, Marc Raimondi and Brett Okamoto offer up their thoughts from a highlight-packed event in Las Vegas.

The implication behind the term “Plan B” is that it’s a lesser option than the course originally plotted out. But UFC 279 ended up better off for the musical chairs that one day before fight night, rearranged the top three fights on Saturday’s main card.

Nate Diaz was unquestionably the Las Vegas event’s top star, but with him poised to exit the UFC after this bout, the promotion did him dirty — a “punishment,” in Diaz’s words — by booking him in a fight whose transparent purpose was to, at Diaz’s expense, brighten the star power of undefeated wrecking machine Khamzat Chimaev.

But when Chimaev shrunk under the heat of his biggest career spotlight — triggering a backstage brawl on Thursday, then missing weight on Friday — the UFC reshuffled the deck and ended up with a main event pitting Diaz against Tony Ferguson.

It was a matchup of two fighters at essentially the same point in their careers. Diaz, 37, came in having lost three of his last four fights, with just a single victory since 2016. Ferguson, 38, had lost four straight. This was more appropriate matchmaking than sticking Diaz in the cage with an at-his-peak Chimaev, who ended up mauling Kevin…