Nate Diaz is once again back in the news for not having a fight. It’s no surprise, his fans want to know where he is despite saying multiple times that he’s taking the year off to cross-train.
Nate Diaz wants the right opportunity to come along if he’s going to fight in the UFC again, but that doesn’t mean competing for a title.
Diaz was offered an interim lightweight title fight against Tony Ferguson this past May. He was also offered a shot at welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, but obviously, neither fight came together.
Recently, Nate Diaz speaking on the Outside the Box podcast, where he was discussing from his contract, rap, weed and Conor McGregor, Diaz himself broke down exactly why he’s made himself unavailable to the UFC.
“I have some ideas for this year [for a fight] so when it’s time to pull the trigger and finally tell them what’s going down, I’ll but it out, but I want to see how the fights this weekend go and see how some stuff goes. That’s the thing, there’s a lot of fighters that are bad mouthing me too. Fighters are like, ‘He ain’t no fighter, he ain’t no fighter.’ I already fought more than everybody in the UFC. Everyone in the UFC except Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz, BJ Penn, Michael Bisping – who has actually done a lot. I have more fights than anyone on the roster. In the whole roster. That’s from activity from 21 to 30-years old and I’ve been slow the last few years just chilling, fighting once a year. They’ll say, ‘he’s not a fighter, he don’t even fight, he don’t even fight,’ because I haven’t been that active in these last few years. I’m like, hold up. I’m not fighting because I am a fighter. You’re fighting because someone’s telling you to fight.”
“I’ll fight whenever the f-ck I want to fight. That’s cause I’m a G, n-gga. I’m a fighter myself. You know what I’m saying? I ain’t trying to do what nobody says, I’m trying to do what I say and I will fight when I am approached respectively. ‘Will you please fight,’ because things change and you don’t need to fight. I’ve already been fighting too long I’m like man, I don’t need to fight nobody. I’ll fight anybody but I don’t need to fight anybody. You know? And the fighters are like, ‘He’s not a fighter.’ I’m like, it sounds like you’re being manipulated into trying to manipulate me into getting into a fight. I’m like, guess what? You work for somebody, I work for me. Who’s the fighter now, motherf-cker? […] Ask nicely, motherf-ckers. Ask nicely. I’m talking about the organization, the fighters. And make it a big deal, because I’m not trying to just sign a contract just cause it’s a good idea for you guys.”
McGregor has been suggesting the idea of co-promoting his UFC bouts for over two years now, but when he captured the UFC lightweight title in 2016, he started getting specific with his demands. His ego and fame skyrocketed with recent multi-million boxing debut, and McGregor knows the promotion needs him more than he needs it. The same thing happened indirectly to Nate Diaz. Defeating Mcgregor previously alluded him to fame and his whole career. UFC Dana White have a hard time getting a deal with Nate Diaz, but they will keep him as his next fight will be huge and can be PPV break.
