Dana White Isn’t Sure The Diaz Brothers Will ‘Ever Fight Again’
Yesterday (Wed. May 3, 2017) UFC lightweight and welterweight contender Nate Diaz joined The MMA Hour to discuss his current status as it pertains to mixed martial arts (MMA) competition.
During the interview Diaz revealed that he was offered a fight with No. 2-ranked lightweight Tony Ferguson, a fight he gladly accepted – but on his own terms. Those terms were denied by the UFC, so Diaz eventually decided to turn the fight down.
Diaz doubled down on his suggestion that he’s taking the year of 2017 off unless his financial numbers are met by the UFC or an opponent motivates him to get back into the Octagon.
UFC President Dana White caught up with TMZ Sports shortly after Diaz’s comments, and said that he isn’t sure the Diaz brothers will ever fight again. The UFC boss claimed that he’s offered both Nate and Nick fights on multiple occasions, but they keep getting turned down:
“I don’t know if those guys will ever fight again,” White said. “We offer them fights all the time.”
With the UFC lacking any true top pay-per-view attractions at the moment, it would certainly behoove the promotion to sign one or optimally both, but it seems that new UFC owners WME-IMG aren’t all that interested in breaking the bank for any fighter – or even retaining many of the employees that got the company to the point it was worthy of the largest-ever purchase in franchise history.
Diaz believes they will eventually have to make some moves before the whole thing goes down, and he just might be part of the money WME is going to have to spend in order to turn around year that’s begun as lackluster as any in MMA history.
As for the Diaz brothers, well they’ve always been tough to negotiate with regardless of which regime was in charge. You can listen to White’s comments here:
