Nate Diaz Names Four Opponents For Potential UFC Return
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - DECEMBER 07: Nate Diaz is seen in the corner of Kron Gracie during the UFC 310 ... More event at T-Mobile Arena on December 07, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
The last time Nate Diaz fought under the UFC banner was in September 2022, when he scored a submission win over Tony Ferguson in a fight that came to be when his initial opponent, Khamzat Chimaev, came in overweight for their main event welterweight matchup. The matchup at UFC 279 was the final fight on Diaz's UFC contract. The now 40-year-old Diaz seems interested in making a return to the UFC in 2025.
"I plan on going back to UFC," Diaz said on "The HJR Podcast." "If they'll have me, I would like to go back and (expletive) whoop someone's ass there. I'm not fighting at (155 pounds), though. Right now I'm not fighting in there because there's nobody to fight really. It's kind of slow rolling. I don't really have a name in mind right now in the UFC. That's why I'm not there right now."
Diaz (21-13 MMA, 16-11 UFC) has not competed in MMA since his win over Ferguson. Instead, he picked up a 1-1 record in boxing during his time away from the Octagon, losing a decision to Jake Paul in 2023 and then beating former UFC opponent Jorge Masvidal by decision in 2024.
As for who Diaz could face if he makes a UFC return, the one-time UFC lightweight title challenger said that a trilogy fight against Conor McGregor would be on the table.
"Whenever he's back, I'm sure we're going to fight," Diaz said of the man he went 1-1 against. "Me and him for sure got unfinished (business). Got to happen."
In the first Diaz vs. McGregor matchup, the Stockton, California competitor scored a second-round submission upset over his Irish opponent at UFC 196 in March 2016. The two then met in a rematch at UFC 202 in August 2016, with McGregor picking up a majority decision win in that matchup. Both Diaz vs. McGregor meetings won "Fight of the Night" bonuses.
As for other potential opponents, Diaz expressed interest in facing former UFC featherweight champions Max Holloway and Ilia Topuria.
"Those are the guys right there who I would want to fight, like Max Holloway," Diaz said. "I would like to fight the other guy who's really good too, Topuria. He's really good, but he's smaller than me. I'm done with 155. I'm cool off that. It always was (a hard weight cut). When I was 18, it was hard. I'm staying at '70. I'll fight at 185, too."
Not long after speaking about McGregor, Holloway, and Topuria, Diaz uploaded a video to his YouTube page where he said he would be willing to face former UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad.
I'll fight Belal's ass," Nate Diaz said while watching Muhammad lose his title to Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315. "I think I'd beat the (expletive) out of Belal Muhammad."
UFC CEO Dana White has not spoken about a potential Diaz return to the promotion, but Diaz seemed to fight out his contract on good terms with White and the promotion.
"I always joke around about dealing with the Diaz Brothers. These two, you see it now. They're two iconic fighters that20 years from now everybody will remember and talk about. This will always be Nate's house. Nate grew up here," White said in 2023. "He came up on 'The Ultimate Fighter.' He fought some of the biggest fights ever here. We love the kid. I don't know about fighting in the future, but this is always going to be his house. We'll see."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Hailee Steinfeld marries Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen
Actress Hailee Steinfeld and Josh Allen have tied the knot. Steinfeld and the Buffalo Bills quarterback wed in a ceremony in California on Saturday, according to People magazine, who published photos from the event. CNN has reached out to a representative for Steinfeld for comment. The 'Sinners' star and Allen have been romantically linked since 2023 and debuted their relationship the following year, when Allen posted a photo with Steinfeld overlooking the Eiffel Tower in Paris. In 2024, the pair announced their engagement on their Instagram pages, sharing a photo of Allen bent on one knee during what looked like an elaborate proposal, complete with dozens of candles and a pink floral display. Earlier this year, Steinfeld said in an interview with Who What Wear that Allen made sure she was dressed up for the day and still caught her completely by surprise. 'I'm so grateful that he did it the way he did so that I looked good, and we have these photos that we'll have and cherish for the rest of our lives that I'm not looking at being like, 'What was I wearing?'' she said. 'We were in Malibu, which is my happy place, and it was magical. That's the word.' Steinfeld broke out after starring in 2010's 'True Grit' at age 13. She earned an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress for the role, becoming one of the youngest actors to ever to do so in that category. She's also known for 'Pitch Perfect 3,' the AppleTV+ series 'Dickinson,' and her career as a musician. She recently starred in Ryan Coogler-directed horror-thriller 'Sinners.' The couple is known for being private, something Steinfeld said they are intentional about. 'When you realize that so much is already out there in every other aspect of your life, you really learn to cherish the little that isn't,' she added in the interview. 'It just makes things extra special, and it's just for you.'
Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Ira Winderman: How the Thunder came to own the NBA (and the Heat's draft future)
MIAMI — Salt meet wound. Not only will the Oklahoma City Thunder be playing in this year's NBA Finals, but so will a team holding a considerable stake of the Miami Heat's draft future. In this case, it's one and the same. Advertisement When the 2025 NBA Finals open Thursday at Paycom Center, the team in the home colors will be the team in possession of the Heat's 2025 first-round pick, the Heat's 2027 second-round pick, the Heat's 2029 second-round pick and the Heat's 2030 second-round pick. To say the tables have been turned since the Heat's Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh defeated the Thunder in the 2012 NBA Finals would be an understatement, with the Thunder having supplanted the Heat as a touchstone franchise. Yes, the Heat went on to win not only those 2012 NBA Finals but also the following NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs. And, yes, the Heat since have made another pair of visits since to the NBA Finals. But it's not as if the Thunder fell off the face of the playoff race in the interim, with trips to conference finals in 2014 and '16 and then all the way back up to the conference semifinals a year ago, before this 68-14 roughshod run through the regular season and then this playoff success. Advertisement And, along the way — perhaps in a lesson worth heeding by the Heat in their current state — offering a lesson that there is nothing wrong with taking a break. Prior to this OKC revival, the Thunder were 22-50 in 2020-21, 24-58 in 2021-22 and 40-42 in 2022-23, before the jump back up to 57-25 a season ago. Stepping back to step forward has never quite been a Pat Riley gait, admitting just weeks ago he had been complicit in a pair of tanks over his three-decade stewardship, otherwise pedal to the metal, even when all the gears weren't necessarily aligned. And unlike with the Thunder's trove of draft picks, the Heat consistently have instead dealt many away in the hope of something closer to instant gratification (hello, Terry Rozier). Advertisement But as much as anything is the type of move made by the Thunder that Riley arguably has never made over his 30 seasons, selling high to set up the future. Exhibit A (or, more to the point, non-Exhibit A) stands as holding on a bit too long with Jimmy Butler and realizing February's middling return. This, of course, also is where the drawing of parallels needs to be allowed to breathe, because the Thunder's franchise-altering trade was once-in-a-decade stuff, or even beyond. On July 10, 2019, days after the Heat had wrapped up their acquisition of Butler from the Philadelphia 76ers in yet another of Riley's win-now moves, the Thunder swung the deal that now again has Oklahoma City as a center of the NBA universe. On that date, the Thunder dealt Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, the 2021 first-round pick that turned into Tre Mann, the 2022 first-round pick that turned into Jalen Williams, a 2023 first-round pick that turned into Dillon Jones, the No. 15 pick in this year's draft that will come from the Heat, a pick swap this June from the Clippers (moving up from No. 30 to No. 24) and the Clippers' 2026 first-round pick. Advertisement As in 2025 NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. As in 2025 third-team All-NBA selection Jalen Williams. As in enough remaining draft capital to trade for another star, if need be. No, the Heat were not getting for 35-year-old Jimmy Butler in February what the Thunder in 2019 got for 29-year-old Paul George. And for those who believe the Heat should have acted sooner, they also weren't getting anything close to that for 34-year-old Jimmy Butler last summer, either. About as close as you can find to that in this millennium arguably was the Celtics' 2013 trade of what remained of Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Brooklyn Nets for what turned into the draft selections of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Advertisement As for those future Heat picks now held by the Thunder, the selection at No. 15 in this year's draft traveled to Oklahoma City from the Butler trade in 2019; the 2027 second-rounder due came from the Heat's 2021 acquisition of Trevor Ariza from the Thunder; the 2029 second-rounder due from the Heat came from the 2023 salary dump of Victor Oladipo to the Thunder, which also cost the Heat their 2030 second-round pick. So as good as it currently stands for Oklahoma City, and for as ominous as it currently stands for the Heat, while watching the 2025 NBA Finals keep in mind ... the Heat also are funding the Thunder's future. (Or simply watch the Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final instead.) ____
USA Today
14 minutes ago
- USA Today
Mateusz Gamrot calls out 'God of Comfort Zone' Benoit Saint Denis for UFC Paris showdown
Mateusz Gamrot calls out 'God of Comfort Zone' Benoit Saint Denis for UFC Paris showdown Mateusz Gamrot shoots his shot following his win at Saturday's UFC on ESPN 68. Show Caption Hide Caption Mateusz Gamrot calls for top lightweights after halting Ludovit Klein UFC on ESPN 68 winner Mateusz Gamrot talks to MMA Junkie and other reporters post-fight after his unanimous decision victory over Ludovit Klein. LAS VEGAS – Mateusz Gamrot not only wants to beat Benoit Saint Denis, but he also wants him to change his fighter nickname. Following a dominant win over Ludovit Klein at Saturday's UFC on ESPN 68, Gamrot (25-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) called out the Frenchman, and he did so by taking a shot at his "God of War" nickname. Gamrot, who had been searching for a fight for months prior to the Klein booking, claims he was offered to be Saint Denis' replacement opponent for UFC 315 earlier in May, but Saint Denis turned him down and ended up fighting and submitting Kyle Prepolec. The move didn't sit well with Gamrot, and now he wants to fight him in the UFC's expected show in Paris in September. "I can change Benoit Saint Denis' nickname," Gamrot told reporters at the UFC on ESPN 68 post-fight press conference. "He has the nickname 'God of War,' but I can change his nickname to 'God of Comfort Zone' because bro, he got offered to fight with me one week before, and many times he called me out. So he gets opportunity and he says no. Bro, what the f*ck? 'God of Comfort Zone.'" Gamrot fought an unranked opponent in Klein this past Saturday, something that's relatively unusual for someone who's just outside the top five of the UFC official lightweight rankings. The Polish fighter admits being frustrated at the difficulty he's faced lately in getting the bigger names in the division. "When I came to Florida, I always asked to give me the fight, but this moment everybody was booked in the ranking, so I had two options: Wait a few months later and get someone from ranking or take someone without ranking and be active," Gamrot said. "So the choice for me was clear: I want to fight. Of course, this was a big risk, but like I said before, If you be live in yourself and your skills, you can fight with everybody. I did this, I took this fight. It was a big risk, but I won tonight, so I'm so happy: double check."
