Sit back and get ready to hear some shocking news: Nate Diaz is not happy with the UFC.
Okay, maybe that’s not very shocking. Maybe the status quo has been intermittent for months, if not years, and Diaz is pushing again for the UFC to give him the fight he wants or let him find that fight for himself.
Diaz began his last public dispute with the promotion on Monday when he tweeted a public demand to fight in July or August or to release him from his contract. In particular, he attached a video of Jake Paul eliminating former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, the likely subject of his “shit to do.”
Diaz is currently in a contract-pending deal with ESPN, and turned down an offer to face rising star Khamzat Chimaev, instead of expressing interest in one of Dustin Poirier, Vicente Luque and Tony Ferguson. He lost his most recent fight to Leon Edwards by unanimous decision in UFC 263 earlier this month.
A day later, UFC President Dana White spoke of Diaz’s latest request in an interview with The Mac Life and was not exactly praising Diaz’s merits as a fighter at the time. his career. He even suggested that Diaz leave and book Jake Paul’s fight:
“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to look at it and see a lot of games and whatever. Contractually, we have to fight him, we’ll get him a fight.
“I like Nate. Let’s be honest, Nate has won a fight in the last five or six years. When these guys get to these positions, you have guys who spend a lot of time with us, who we respect, who cares. [Donald] Cerrones and Anthony Pettis before he left and you have Nate Diaz and Nick Diaz is still under contract.
“You want to be fair and do the right thing, whatever it is. Nate Diaz won’t come in and fight Kamaru Usman. We’re trying to do the best we can, trying not to fire anyone and disrespect anyone, but it’s not like “We’re talking about Kamaru Usman here. We’re talking about Nate Diaz. Nate has won a fight in five years. We’re trying to work this out with him. He should probably go. makes sense”.
The story goes on
White is right that Diaz has won a fight, Anthony Pettis at UFC 241 in 2019, since his 2016 Conor McGregor victory.
Diaz was apparently listening to White as he tweeted a request for the UFC to send a release hours later. He then included two emojis: a blond man who may or may not look like Paul and a boxing glove.
It may be worth noting that Paul recently announced that his next fight will take place on August 6, but without confirming any opponent. There has been a lot of speculation about who will go up in the ring with Paul, and Diaz, as an aged MMA fighter, would adapt to recent influencer trends.
Paul even tweeted his own statement to White, saying that he would be happy to face Diaz in the Octagon and would even fight for free, as long as White raises the salary of the fighters and pays for his health care ( White will not).
Obviously, there are many moving parts to this. All parties seem to agree that Diaz wants and should fight, either against Paul or within the confines of the UFC, but it’s a little trickier than that.
Will Nate Diaz fight again in the UFC? (Getty Images)