Nate Diaz Explains What’s Preventing Him From UFC Return
Nate Diaz has made it clear that he wants to return to the Octagon for another fight.
Diaz has not been seen in the Octagon since his rematch with Conoe McGregor back at UFC 202 when he suffered a majority decision loss which came five months after Diaz submitted McGregor in their first bout at UFC 196.
Diaz has been biding his time since a third bout has been off the table with McGregor.
The younger Diaz brother was in attendance for Saturday’s Bellator 199 event on the Paramount Network at the SAP Center in San Jose, California, which was headlined by Ryan Bader securing a first-round knockout victory over Muhammed Lawal in the quarterfinals of the Bellator heavyweight tournament.
After the event, Diaz spoke with MMAJunkie about his desire to once again compete inside of the Octagon under the UFC banner.
“I’ve been trying to get in there and get going,” Diaz told MMAjunkie. “I’ve been wanting to get in there and get going this year. I just got this lawsuit out of the way that I’ve been going through for the last two years, so I wasn’t even able to fight. So that’s all done and over, and I’m ready to get back to fighting if I’m going to be fighting anymore. I’m training until there’s something good to do here.”
Earlier this week, UFC President Dana White dropped some major news on the latest episode of UFC Unfiltered, which was the confirmation that they were planning Diaz versus Georges St-Pierre for the upcoming UFC 227 pay-per-view event.
Diaz stated in this interview that he is not accepting that fight.
“No, I’m not fighting that fight,” Diaz said. “Like I said (on Facebook), he cheated when he fought my brother (Nick Diaz at UFC 158 in 2013), so I just had to bring up old sh-t because they’re trying to brush it off like it’s nothing,” Diaz said. “I got other sh-t to do, and it was just weird because we never even really talked about it.”
“There was a fight I asked them for, and now that (bout) that fell through, we’re back to square one,” said Diaz, who declined to identify his opponent request.
“What people don’t understand is that any fight I fight is going to be a money fight,” Diaz said. “I’m not waiting for anybody. I’m just waiting for a motherf-cker to do something. Let’s get a real fight going. I’m not going to be involved in no weak sh-t.”
Diaz made it clear that no one in the promotion interests him right now, and that includes former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez and former title contender Kevin Lee.
“Nobody interests me right now, but I’m interested in doing something,” Diaz said. “I don’t think the UFC wants any of those fights to happen because we haven’t been talking about none of them. So time will tell.”
