We haven’t seen Nate Diaz in the Octagon since his record shattering two fight series against Conor McGregor back in 2016. Since then the Stockton native has been sitting on the sidelines, waiting either for a rubber match with McGregor to break their 1-1 tie or at least another big money fight that can earn him eight figures. And while another fight with Conor may still happen someday, it looks like the UFC has finally figured out an opponent that could move the needle alongside Nate: Georges St-Pierre.
“It is true and they would fight at 155-pounds,” White said on the UFC Unfiltered podcast when asked about GSP vs. Diaz (via MMANYTT). The whole thing is part of what sounds like it could be a UFC 227 supercard on August 4th in Los Angeles.
“There are rumors, what did I see? That we were doing Gustafsson and Rockhold, that is true, but that’s not for the interim title, that’s false,” White continued. “It might be L.A., I’m targeting L.A. In my perfect world, if everything goes perfect, and nothing ever goes perfect in this world: Dillashaw vs Garbrandt, GSP vs. Diaz would be the co-main, Gustafsson vs. Rockhold and Brunson vs. Antonio Carlos Jr. It’s very interesting.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKLn1UPY_Dg
Interesting doesn’t even begin to cover it. Georges St-Pierre would be returning after a successful attempt to move up in weight to win the middleweight title. Now it sounds like he’s returning to lightweight, and there’s little doubt the winner of this fight between Nate and Georges would get a crack at whoever ends up holding the UFC lightweight title (confirming our original report that GSP was aiming to become the only three division champ in UFC history). That should be sorted when current 155 pound champ Khabib Nurmagomedov faces stripped champ Conor McGregor sometime in the fall.
Of course, as Dana White mentioned, this is perfect world talk. The UFC president hasn’t gotten along with Georges St-Pierre since GSP walked away from the sport back in 2013. The Canadian’s eventual return took forever due to endless contract negotiations, or should we say a refusal from the UFC to sit down for contract negotiations. As we learned leading up to GSP’s UFC return and eventual fight with Michael Bisping, it’s best not to trust Dana White when it comes to what Georges is and isn’t doing.
But we’d certainly watch that fight if it happened.