Nate Diaz: Conor McGregor Didn’t Really Want To Fight At UFC 200
Nate Diaz has gotten a lot more notoriety in the media lately since defeating Conor McGregor at UFC 196 back in March, and he knows his newfound worth.
In an exclusive interview today with MMAFighting‘s Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Diaz dished on a variety of topics including his sit-down meeting with UFC President Dana White and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta in his hometown of Stockton:
“Yeah, for sure it was the first time, they’ve never been out here so it was cool”, Diaz said. “They hit me up about UFC 202. I didn’t even answer, I said ‘I wonder what’s gonna happen with that'”.
The Stockton native then commented on the rumors of a potential boxing match between McGregor and boxing legend Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather:
“I hear all this Mayweather McGregor shit, I feel like that’s a big old publicity stunt to hide that he got his ass whooped”.
Diaz then spoke on McGregor’s meeting with White and Fertitta, and how both men looked happy following the meeting.
“They called my management that next day and said are you in or not?,” he said. Diaz jokingly continued, “Where’s my dinner? wheres my special meeting?”
According to Diaz, White and Fertitta flew out the next afternoon to talk a potential rematch with the Irishman:
“We went to lunch and we had a talk, everything went how it did and they went home. I just basically told them what was up. I said look, that was the biggest fight they had. I know, if whether they want to say it or not, that I put bigger numbers in than anyone else too, but they just put me on a Fox card.
“I just beat your biggest draw, so if you don’t mind I’d like to be compensated better than I was last time.”
Nate Diaz” width=”639″ height=”399″ />Diaz then went on to say he has accepted a fight with McGregor multiple times, and how he believes the UFC 200 fiasco was a ploy to buy the Irishman more time:
“I’ve said yes to this Conor McGregor fight six times, and I fought him one time and I won,” he said. “I don’t think the fight was ever on, I think they were buying him more time.”
“I think the Mayweather thing is a publicity stunt.”
Though rumors surrounding the possible McGregor vs Mayweather boxing match have been running rampant these past few weeks, Diaz is not convinced it’s happening and that the UFC is just buying the Irishman more time to prepare. Do you agree?
