Chael Sonnen is stoking the fire of fight rumors.
When it comes to combat sports recently there have been a handful of fighters that are making much more than anyone else. These fighters have the popularity and the skills to draw big numbers, whether it be in boxing or MMA. Two of these big earners are Jake Paul and Nate Diaz.
Last weekend, Diaz fought out his UFC contract and has entered free agency. He spent the last fifteen years fighting for the UFC and has made a name for himself in doing so. His big fights with Conor McGregor made him a household name and at the end of his career, he was one of the biggest earners in the UFC. Now that he is free to make a change, people have been wondering if he will transition to boxing and face Jake Paul.
Paul has made his boxing career so far off of beating former MMA fighters. He has his next fight set already against another former UFC champion Anderson Silva, but will most likely welcome a chance to fight Nate Diaz. The two have been involved in some trash talk on social media in the past and now seems like a perfect time to set it up.
Chael Sonnen has the scoop on what could be next for Nate and Nick Diaz
Chael Sonnen has made the transition from fighter to a commentator. He hosts in own show on YouTube and still has his ear to the ground in all things MMA. He was recently on Morning Kombat to talk all things MMA and dropped a little tidbit about what could be next for Nate Diaz.
“I will tell you this, there’s a rumor, so if we’re going to spread it, let’s spread it. Jake versus Nate, but on the same card, Logan versus Nick, and that, the two brothers is a different story,” Sonnen said.
This combination of matchups with the Diaz brothers facing the Paul brothers on the same boxing card would be huge. Fans would eat this up, but there is a catch, Nick Diaz is still under contract with the UFC. The UFC would most likely not let him out of his contract to go box and then come back. They would need to let him go for good, which Sonnen feels is a possibility.
“You need somebody to help,” he said about the UFC letting Nick match up with Logan. “Dana has stated here, ‘I don’t know if I’m gonna use him again.”
Sonnen thinks the UFC would gladly part ways with Nick Diaz, who has only fought once in the past seven years.
Another route that Nate Diaz has been embarking on since leaving the UFC is that he is opening his own fight promotion. This is a trend among fighters who have retired or are nearing the end of their career, such as Khabib Nurmagomedov, Anthony Pettis, and Urijah Faber. Sonnen has some advice for Diaz on his new promotion, “Real Fight inc.”
“I would encourage you to be careful. Don’t go around and sign a whole bunch of anything. Don’t book five venues at once. Don’t line up, you know, 30 guys under multi-fight contracts,” Sonnen said. “There’s promotion and there’s event organizing, and I think right now an event or one-at-a-time event organizing is the right move.”
The big thing is that now that Diaz is free from his UFC contract, he is able to choose any of these options for himself. Whether he fights Jake Paul or becomes his own fight promoter, he will always have a possible return to the UFC to fall back on.
