Back in December of 2016,Nick Diaz was finally cleared by the Nevada State Athletic Commission to fight after a lengthy marijuana suspension. But for some reason, Diaz remains outside the Octagon despite his impressive star power. According to UFC president Dana White, that’s because the Diaz brothers are the most difficult fighters on the roster to book. As far as Nick is concerned, the UFC just isn’t offering him the right fights.
So who would Diaz like to step into the cage against? In a new video with TMZ Sports, Nick says he’ll take either Michael Bisping, Georges St-Pierre, or both.
“I talked to Michael Bisping already in New York about doing this fight, and there’s more money for him if he takes the fight with me,” Nick said. “We we’re talking about a catchweight fight. He’s talking about because it’s harder to make the weight, I was like, come on! It’s a non-title fight, so after I whoop his ass, he still keeps the belt. So that’s more money! Then you go fight GSP. Same with Georges, I’m just doing more numbers than he is. So he’d make more money fighting me.”
Nick Diaz was a pretty big favorite in many people’s minds to win the Georges St-Pierre comeback fight sweepstakes. But of course in the end, Georges chose to fight middleweight champion Michael Bisping for a chance to add his name to the very short list of two division champions. That’s obviously a pretty sweet little distinction to add to his legacy, so of course he’d jump at it.
As for Diaz, he seems to only want the biggest fights, but his record isn’t exactly helping his case much. He’s only competed three times since 2011, losing all three fights (although that third loss to Anderson Silva was changed to a No Contest after both fighters failed their drug tests). At this point, he’s relying on his undeniable drawing power, and while he doesn’t actually ‘do more numbers’ than GSP, he’s still one of the few fighters that can push a fight up to the 1 million buys mark when slated against the right opponent.
In that way, it’d behoove the UFC to go along with Nick and set up the right fight rather than expect him to drop back into the contender grind. But with the promotion and the Diaz brothersseemingly at odds most of the time, it may be a while before we see Nick back in the cage. Which is too bad. The world of MMA is much more entertaining when the Diaz brothers are fighting.
