Nate Diaz is once again back in the news for not having a fight. It’s no surprise, his fans want to know where he is despite saying multiple times that he’s taking the year off to cross-train. But once the rumors of a welterweight title fight heated up, the year-long question of “when will Nate fight again” has enthralled the world of cage fighting. Especially after these latest tweets from Adam Hill, who interviewed Whtie for Las Vegas’ Review-Journal:
"Nate Diaz has turned down a fight with everyone on the roster. We've been offering him fights for a year and a half." -Dana on Nate
— Adam Hill (@AdamHillLVRJ) November 28, 2017
Dana says there was never officially an offer for Woodley vs. Diaz at UFC 219. Says one of the attorneys in the company spoke hypothetically to both fighters. "Our guy went off the reservation."
— Adam Hill (@AdamHillLVRJ) November 28, 2017
This may look bad to some, but it’s common practice for the UFC. They are contractually obligated to offer fights to their contractors in order to keep them under contract, and that’s what they’re doing with Diaz — keeping their contract honored, even if it’s for fights he doesn’t want. On paper, some of them look good — he’s reportedly turned down Tony Ferguson, Eddie Alvarez, and possibly others, but Nate has a reason not to fight, and it’s come up many, many times before: Money.
Back in May, the UFC tried to get Diaz to fight Tony Ferguson for an interim lightweight title, but Diaz told Bret Okamoto from ESPN that he’s simply not interested if they aren’t going to pay him. He also had some evergreen words for Dana White: “He’s making stuff up because that’s what he needs to do. He’s trying to get me to argue with him, but there’s no argument necessary. It’s cool. If I’m not worth sh*t, why am I all over the news with people trying to figure out what’s what, when I’m not fighting?”
As someone who prided themselves on fighting anyone, anywhere over the last ten years, it seems odd that Diaz is coming up on three total fights over the last two years, but he’s made bank against McGregor, and his star, despite not fighting since August of 2016, is still brighter than ever. As he said to his training partner Andre Ward: “I just think about, I’m not turning down any fight ever. They might be turning down the deal. So it’s on them. It’s not in my hands because I’ll fight when you pay.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d__E_gNYaVU
Diaz also said this on the MMA Hour earlier this year:
“They’re trying to pressure me to fight Tony Ferguson, but what the f*ck, I’m going to cover for Conor McGregor and do his work while he’s out making f*cking millions of dollars fighting boxers and sh-t? I’m not covering for you, bro. You guys fight each other. I heard Tony’s manager talking, saying that I need to get a fire up under Conor McGregor’s ass if I want to fight him for the third time. Like, I gotta’ do what? You guys should fight each other, motherf*cker. You guys have the same manager. You guys are working together against me. You guys need me to do the work for you? F*ck off. I ain’t asking for no money fights because you know what? I am the money fight.” (h/t BJ Penn)
So when will the UFC pay? He made $2 million plus PPV points against McGregor, and he fought on terrible contracts for years when the UFC wasn’t a $4 billion dollar monstrosity, so where’s the money? When the money comes, the fight will come. White has been playing down Nate’s drawing power for years while booking him in multiple UFC on FOX main events and paying him some of the most bonuses in UFC history. The fans love him, White loves having him on his roster, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, and Nate will fight, but he needs to get paid. Nothing wrong with that.
“If they call me with a nonsense fight, my number is $20 million,” Diaz said. “You call me with a fight that won’t do me any good, you need to pay me $20 million just to hear that bullsh*t.”
So until that happens, the UFC will continue to offer him fights, as is contractually obligated, until he gets the one he wants/deserves — McGregor III.
