Nate Diaz says he is fighting again; Dana White denies it
Nate Diaz was back in a UFC Octagon last night. However, it wasn’t because he was fighting, rather he was cornering Kron Gracie in his UFC debut.
Gracie and Diaz are training partners, and friends which is why Diaz was there. Then, after the card, Megan Olivi was conducting her interview with UFC President Dana White when Diaz walked to where this encounter took place.
“Nate, are we gonna see you soon, or what?” she asked.
“Yeah, we’re coming,” Diaz replied.
Followed then by Diaz walking away and Olivi asking White if he will return. But, before fans get their hopes up, he was quick to shut it down.
“You think we see Nate Diaz in the octagon soon?” she asked.
“No,” White replied.
Diaz last fought back at UFC 202 in 2016. He lost that fight by a majority decision to Conor McGregor in their rematch. Since then Diaz has been waiting for the trilogy fight or a big money fight to return. And, it appeared he was finally going to return at UFC 230 where he was set to take on Dustin Poirier before Poirier withdrew due to an injury.
Way back in October, White made it apparent Diaz was not fighting again and he backed it up again last night.
“I’m not interested in making a Nate Diaz fight until Diaz is just dying to fight,” said White. “We’ll offer him fights, we always offer him fights. We probably offered this kid 50 fights since he fought Conor. When he’s ready to fight, he’ll let us know.”
Part of the reason why they don’t fight is the fact that White believes they are a headache to deal with.
“He wanted a fight, we made a fight, we announced the fight, immediately he starts saying he’s not fighting,” White said. “We had a guy here in the company that was a big Nate Diaz fan, a big Nick Diaz fan and wanted to work with them. He’s not as enthusiastic as he used to be.”
