LAS VEGAS, NV - AUGUST 19: (L-R) Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor of Ireland face off during the UFC 202 weigh-in at the MGM Grand Marquee Ballroom on August 19, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Nate Diaz-Conor McGregor trilogy is there “If Diaz wants it” according to Dana White
Nate Diaz has options looming if he wants to fight and one of those options is the long-awaited trilogy with bitter rival and former two-weight UFC champion, Conor McGregor. Back in 2016, Diaz set the fighting world ablaze when he stepped in on short notice and defeated McGregor in a welterweight contest at UFC 196.
The two would run it back at UFC 202 later that year which saw McGregor pick up a majority-decision victory and both fighters calling for a trilogy fight to happen. Five years removed from their two meetings, and the trilogy has yet to happen, although now may be the perfect time to book it. Nate Diaz has lost two of his three fights since the McGregor meetings, with his losses coming to Jorge Masvidal, and most recently, Leon Edwards at UFC 263 in June.
After his second fight against McGregor, Nate Diaz took an extended break from fighting, with a three-year layoff from his second bout against McGregor, until his victory over Anthony Pettis at UFC 241 in 2019. With Conor McGregor also losing two of his last three fights, both to Dustin Poirier this year. While currently rehabbing from a fractured tibia and fibula suffered in his second fight against Poirier, McGregor has been active on both social media and in his recovery as he angles to return in the Spring or Summer of 2022.
If the trilogy fight is the right one to make, UFC President Dana White said that the fight would be made, if Diaz wanted the fight to take place. Speaking to Brett Okamoto of ESPN this week, White laid out how the trilogy fight can go down if the Stockton superstar wants it.
Currently, Diaz is in the last fight of his deal, and while the two sides are reportedly working things out, White didn’t give much of any other options besides a trilogy between the two.
“This is a tricky thing, because I don’t want to sit here and act like Nate Diaz turned this fight down or that fight down I don’t want to get into all that. I say this to you guys all the time: I’m in the fight business. By contract, I have to offer these guys three fights per year, and they can say yes or nno. We’re working it out. The trilogy with McGregor is always there. That fight could happen. We could make that fight.”
Recently, Diaz scoffed at the idea of facing undefeated rising welterweight contender Khamzat Chimaev and has gone back-and-forth with Poirier about a potential fight between the two, but it doesn’t appear the UFC is ready to match them together.
It appears to be slim pickings for Nate Diaz if he wants to return, but if he does, the long-awaited, highly-anticipated trilogy fight against McGregor is there for the taking if he wants it.
