Sensationally, Dana White Has Revealed that Nate Diaz Turned Down the Opportunity of a Fight Against UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagamedov… Diaz Responds By Calling the UFC Presider a Liar…
Will we ever see Nate Diaz step into an octagon again? At this point in time, it seems increasingly unlikely. The Stockton fighter hasn’t fought since his narrow decision loss to Conor McGregor, in their rematch back in 2016. The momentum for their trilogy has fizzled out for the moment and Diaz seems to be at loggerheads with the UFC.
He was meant to fight Dustin Poirier in what would have been on paper an excellent fight. However, infuriated by the fact that the announcement of their fight was overshadowed by Conor McGregor v Khabib Nurmagamedov he tweeted that it was off. Then ‘The Diamond’ got injured, making it official.
Now it’s been revealed by none other than UFC President Dana White that Diaz had even been offered a fight against Khabib Nurmagamedov. What else could Diaz have wanted? Well, he wasn’t impressed and responded with harsh words…
@EDLEZGIN @TeamKhabib Nate turned the fight down
— danawhite (@danawhite) January 11, 2014
Rejected
As you can see from the tweet above, Dana White is done pulling punches when it comes to the two most infamous brothers in MMA. A fan tweeted asking the UFC boss to make a fight between Diaz and Khabib. White responded bluntly:
“@TeamKhabib Nate turned the fight down.”
No details have been revealed about whether or not this was before or after Khabib became champion. Would Diaz really turn down a title fight? He’s one of those fighters – like Mark Hunt and Donald Cerrone – who is a fan-favourite but never quite got near the belt. Is it really just all about the money for the Californian?
Lies
According to Diaz though, it’s all lies. He slammed the UFC president on Twitter, not holding back at all with his language. He wrote:
“This f**ker can’t stop making sh*t up about me and I haven’t been offered any fights except the one laughed at.”
All is definitely not well in the UFC’s relationship with the Diaz brothers. Of course, Dana White is notorious for falling out with his fighters, MMA agents, fellow promoters, and his own mother. This definitely isn’t the best way to get the UFC president back on your side though – especially when he’s the one holding all the cards.
This fucker can't stop making shit up about me and I haven't been offered any fights except the one Iaughed at 👊🏼🖕🏼 pic.twitter.com/7gRskEXEP9
— Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) March 20, 2017
Overplayed
Diaz’s problem was that he overplayed his hand waiting for the Conor McGregor trilogy fight. When that didn’t happen in 2017 because of a certain Mr Floyd Mayweather Jr, it left him in a sort of stasis. He didn’t want to fight anybody else because he would risk losing and devaluing the potential trilogy fight. Also, fighting McGregor remains the biggest payday in the UFC. It’s more lucrative than any championship fight because of those pay-per-view points.
He’s overestimated his value though, and with McGregor moving on to bigger things, there’s a chance that it could never happen. If Diaz could shred his contract and go to Bellator, you’d almost think he would. His older brother Nick has already openly flirted with the UFC’s biggest North American rival. Those contracts are watertight though.
