Dana shoots down reports of Nate Diaz’s imminent return
Nate Diaz’s reported return to the Octagon at UFC 227 in August was shot down by President Dana White in an interview with Yaoo’s Kevin Iole.
Published on Thursday, 5/3/18, at 1:26 p.m. Eastern.
ESPN’s Brett Okamoto reported earlier this week that Nate Diaz was recently engaged in discussions with the UFC to make his return at UFC 227 in early August.
However, a tweet from Yahoo Sports combat sports writer Kevin Iole on Wednesday night seemed to shoot down that notion.
Also, @danawhite didn’t seem to think much of the news about UFC negotiating a fight with Nate Diaz. “We offer him a fight every 3 or 4 months and have ever since his last fight. Nothing is going on.”
— Kevin Iole (@KevinI) May 3, 2018
After making millions of dollars on both of his fights with Conor McGregor, Diaz has been on the sidelines for nearly two years. The 33-year-old BJJ black belt isn’t going to make anywhere near the amount of money he made against ‘The Notorious’ facing any other fighter on the roster.
Therefore, Diaz fans shouldn’t be holding their breath to see the Stockton product back in the Octagon anytime soon. Nate will have to settle for a modest payday (at least compared to his last two payouts) for a deal to get done.
McGregor is likely to be booked to face current lightweight kingpin Khabib Nurmagomedov once his legal issues in New York are resolved in June. The likelihood of McGregor-Diaz III coming to fruition will increase if Nurmagomedov retains his belt by defeating McGregor. If that happens, I would think there’s a good chance we’ll see Nate and Conor settle their feud in early 2019.
