Nate
Diaz hasn’t been shy about voicing his displeasure with the UFC
in recent months.
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The popular Stockton, Calif., native discussed his difficulties
dealing with the promotion during an appearance on “The MMA Hour,”
sounding like a fighter who was ready to fulfill his obligations to
the UFC and move on to other endeavors.
“I was trying to get this s—t on the road, but they don’t want me
out of contract and they’re keeping me in there and they’re holding
me hostage,” Diaz said. “And I want out. That’s my main objective
here.”
Diaz last competed at UFC 263, where he suffered suffered a
unanimous decision loss to current welterweight No. 1 contender
Leon
Edwards in June 2021. Since then, he claims the UFC hasn’t come
through with a concrete offer for a fight, despite plenty of
suggestions from his side.
“They haven’t offered me anybody,” Diaz said. “I’ve been asking for
fights since whenever. I asked for a lot of fights. I asked for
[Vicente] Luque, Tony
Ferguson. I asked for like four or five people, and there was
no going there, and then they finally offered me the Khamzat
[Chimaev] fight, and I gave them the little, ‘What the f—k.’
“And then I was like, ‘Why not? Let’s just get it done with and get
it over with.’ I asked for the Khamzat fight and then all kinds of
excuses started happening. But remember I was like I want December,
I want January, I want March, I want all these things.”
Diaz thinks the promotion could be holding out for a trilogy fight
with Conor
McGregor, who is in the process of recovering from a broken leg
suffered in a loss to Dustin
Poirier in July 2021. There is still no clear timetable for
McGregor’s return.
“They don’t want to let me out of my contract,” he said. “They want
me to fight Conor. I’m not fighting Conor
McGregor right now. Our timelines aren’t matching up. … You
bring yourself back to life, and I’ll be back later.”
Money doesn’t appear to be a sticking point in recent talks. While
Diaz didn’t offer specific details regarding his contract, he did
claim during the interview he has been offered more than anyone in
the UFC makes — with the exception of McGregor.
“When I’m asking for a fight, they offer me more money,” Diaz said.
“Then they offer me more money, more money. I’m at a point in my
career and my life where I don’t want any more money. I just want
to depart. I’m over the whole UFC roster as of right now. All the
guys that they can offer or I’m even asking for, everyone’s been
used and abused. It’s a recycled division. Lightweight or
welterweight division, I feel like there’s nobody worthy. There’s
no worthy opponents at the moment.”