We should point out that this almost certainly won’t happen.
Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe insisted that there would be no mixed martial artists competing on the undercard of the August 26 super-fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather.
Ellerbe made the statement on Monday’s edition of the MMA Hour, with fighters from Mayweather’s stable likely to pad out the build-up to McGregor’s boxing debut against one of the greatest of all time.
But if there was a UFC fighter who you’d think could at least hang in the boxing ring, it might just be Nate Diaz.
Diaz is a regular sparring partner of pound-for-pound king, Andre Ward, and has some of the best hands in MMA.
He’s spoken at length about his refusal to fight below his value and Diaz’s reaction to the confirmation of McGregor vs. Mayweather tells you exactly what he thinks about the match-up.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BVVnnkrn9o3/?taken-by=natediaz209
“It’s gonna be a good fight for that #2 spot,” Diaz wrote on Instagram last week.
There is a lot more money to be made at the pinnacle of boxing than there is in the UFC and Diaz seems to have an official offer on the table from former four-weight world champion, Adrien Broner.
Broner is set to take on Mikey Garcia at the end of July, four weeks before the McGregor-Mayweather card but, pending a clean bill of health, ‘The Problem’ would be open to welcoming Diaz to the boxing ring.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_1yOI7SKnk&feature=youtu.be
“Y’all sit up and say McGregor’s going to beat Floyd. This boxing game’s crazy!” Broner said.
“So after this fight, I just feel like, if I come out untouched, I feel like I’m going to be victorious…
“I feel like I should come back and fight on Floyd’s undercard against Nate Diaz.”
In January, Diaz announced that he would be applying for a boxing licence in Nevada and while little has been mentioned about that since, one would imagine that he would have no problem getting licensed if the money was right for the commission.
As we say, we can’t see this happening, due in no small part to the fact that Diaz is significantly larger than Broner, who most recently weighed in at 146lbs. Diaz, meanwhile, has never competed any lighter than 155lbs and has fought as high as 170lbs.
But we can dream, damn it. Can’t we?
