Nate Diaz is tired of being portrayed as a fighter that doesn’t want to fight.
It took the Californian well over a decade to get his dues, but he earned them with a submission victory over Conor McGregor at UFC 196.
That victory elevated Diaz from fighting on free-to-air FOX to taking a guaranteed $2m and points on the pay-per-view for UFC 202. The fact that he lost the return fight with McGregor did little to harm his stock as he took just about every shot in The Notorious’ locker and was still standing after the final bell.
While McGregor has since fought, at UFC 205, and won, Diaz has been assessing his options. He insists he will only fight again if there is a belt on the line or a lot of money on the table. He has even sought a California boxing licence and claims he had the crossover idea long before McGregor.
Diaz is not going to rush into his next fight but there is an interesting prospect of an interim lightweight title fight against Tony Ferguson if Khabib Nurmagomedov fails to return to action before the summer.
An MMA Mania interview with UFC president Dana White appears to have irked Diaz no end. During the interview, White was asked about possible return dates for Diaz and his older brother, Nick Diaz. On Nate, he replied:
“I have no idea. Maybe he is holding out for McGregor. Conor has endless possibilities for fight.”
Both Urijah Faber and Jake Shields shared the story and elicited this strong-worded response from Diaz:
This fucker can't stop making shit up about me and I haven't been offered any fights except the one Iaughed at 👊🏼🖕🏼 pic.twitter.com/7gRskEXEP9
— Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) March 20, 2017
Diaz, then, has been offered one fight at least.
Eddie Alvarez had been keen to take on Diaz after his lightweight title loss to McGregor but that notion was seemingly ignored. There was also talk of Diaz stepping in to fight Ferguson on short notice but it would not have been for the title [Diaz would not have made weight] so ‘El Cucuy’ decided against it.
Diaz is nine months without a fight now and his foul-mouthed response to the UFC president could well be the final straw for his tempestuous relationship with the promotion.
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