During a recent appearance on Theo Von’s This Past Weekend podcast, former UFC star Nate Diaz confirmed that he had been in talks with the promotion about a return to the Octagon before he accepted a fight against Mike Perry on the May 16 Most Valuable Promotions card.
“I think that if I went back to UFC, they want me to fight Conor McGregor right now,” Diaz said. “For me, Conor McGregor just – Pull up his record, do we got his record? I know this, but I’m thinking about it, I’m like, Conor McGregor just f*cking lost to [Dustin] Poirier. He got knocked out on his ass… so Poirier knocks his ass out and then he breaks his leg, which is horrible because Poirier’s a sorry little bitch. I’m like, he knocks him out and then he gets his leg broken and it’s like, ‘F*ck, that’s f*cking horrible.’ We’re adversaries, but I’m like, ‘Bro, you broke your whole shit.’ I don’t wish that on nobody.
“Then I’m like, I hope he comes back and does good. Then everybody’s counting him out, I’m like, alright, cool. I know he’s having a hard time with the UFC because I’ve been having a hard time with the UFC. I’m like, ‘Yo, good vibes, damn, handling your shit.’”
Diaz first met McGregor when Rafael dos Anjos had to withdraw from his lightweight title defense due to a foot injury. Diaz took the bout on only 11 days of notice.
After several memorable press conferences leading into the UFC 196 headliner, McGregor dominated the opening frame of the welterweight contest with his striking, bloodying up Diaz’s face.
However, after McGregor continued to have his way in the first few minutes of Round 2, Diaz suddenly shifted the momentum with a beautiful combination. From there, he started dictating the pace with his volume boxing.
When Diaz connected with a ‘Stockton Slap,’ it was clear that he felt as if he had taken control. As he stayed in McGregor’s face, the Irish star began to tire.
No longer willing to trade with Diaz, McGregor shot for a rare takedown attempt. Diaz stuffed it, took McGregor to the ground and eventually forced him to tap with a rear-naked choke at the 4:12 mark of the second round.
Less than six months later in the UFC 202 main event, Diaz and McGregor went to war for 25 minutes in an epic rematch. McGregor won a majority decision (48-47, 47-47, 48-47).
Diaz is down for a trilogy fight with McGregor, who hasn’t competed since breaking his leg in a first-round TKO loss (doctor stoppage) to Poirier at UFC 264 on July 10 of 2021, but he doesn’t want it to happen in McGregor’s return bout. Instead, Diaz wanted to take on Charles Oliveira for the BMF belt that he created.
“When [McGregor] is ready to come back now and he’s motivated and doing what he’s got to do and I’m like, ‘OK, I want to fight motherf*cking BMF motherf*cker who’s claiming my belt that’s running all around,’” Diaz said. “Charles Oliveira just won the fight. You’re rocking my belt now and you’re running around like you’re the baddest motherf*cker, so that’s where I’m like, what’s popping with the UFC, let’s link up and get this fight popping. I go back to talk to them about it and they’re all ready for me to come back and fight Conor. I’m like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, listen to what I’m talking about.’
“I want to fight the best of the best when they are the best of the best. Conor’s great, but I’m not trying to go kill off Conor when he’s on his last dying f*cking leg, literally. That’s f*cked up. I’m not trying to be the ending to some f*cker’s story like that. We ain’t friends, we ain’t none of that, but I ain’t trying to finish this dude off. That’s what I plan on doing if we’re fighting. At the same time, I ain’t trying to get f*cked up by nobody who just got knocked out on his ass and broke his leg, this guy’s down and out, now he’s nothing but motivated to fight me because who else are you going to fight in there? They’re probably going to give him a f*cking BMF belt, f*cking bitch-ass Oliveira, who I believe I’ll beat the f*cking shit out of.”
Since leaving the UFC following a fourth-round submission win over Tony Ferguson at UFC 279 in 2022, Diaz has fought twice in boxing. He lost a unanimous decision to Jake Paul in 2023 and won a majority decision over Jorge Masvidal in 2024.
Diaz, who will turn 41 later this month, explained to Von how he is more motivated by the Perry bout than one with McGregor right now.
“[Perry is] the f*cking most violent motherf*cker around right now. Doing things, taking over business, running shit, doing his own promotion. I’m a lot more enthusiastic to get up and run and get ready to train for this motherf*cker who’s going to knock me out or I’m going to knock his ass out and we’re going to take who’s the bigger dog and the best motherf*ckers there are.
“Me and Conor will fight again when the time is right, and it’s to fight, but it’s going to be when we both on the uprising. Not when someone’s dying out. I’m nobody’s comeback story either, so I’m fighting the most dangerous, most violent motherf*ckers there is on Netflix and then I’m hunting his boy (Jake Paul) that he works with at MVP. So that’s what I’m doing right now. That’s my objective and that’s what I’m doing. I didn’t want to talk about it, but that’s what’s happening.”