Following a brutal technical knockout at the hands of Josh Thomson at UFC on FOX 7 on Saturday, Nate Diaz is calling upon the UFC brass to add three more weight classes to the company.
Monday afternoon, Diaz tweeted that his plans of returning to welterweight (via MMA Fighting) would change if the UFC added a weight class in between lightweight (155 pounds) and 170 pounds.
@ufc more weight classes ASAP??163,178,193More super fights more champion vs champion ,closer to weight better fights more potential …
— Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) April 22, 2013
The proposed 178-pound weight class would be in the middle of welterweight and middleweight (185 pounds), while a 193-pound division would be closer to middleweight than light heavyweight (205 pounds).
After an impressive 3-0 run at lightweight between September 2011 and and May 2012, the Cesar Gracie Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt got a title shot against 155-pound champ Benson Henderson in December.
Diaz was thoroughly dominated by “Bendo,” suffering an even more definitive loss to Thomson in his next bout this past Saturday.
The former The Ultimate Fighter winner currently has an 11-7 record under the UFC banner, including a 2-2 run at welterweight between March 2010 and April 2011.
Diaz earned stoppage wins over Rory Markham and Marcus Davis, but he was overpowered and out-grappled by Dong Hyun Kim and Rory MacDonald during that four-fight span at a higher weight class.
UFC president Dana White, nor anyone else affiliated with the UFC, has responded to the tweet as of Monday evening.
At the UFC on FOX 7 post-fight press conference, White stated that Diaz is much better suited to be fighting at 155 pounds than at 170 pounds (via MMA Junkie).
Would adding three new weight classes to the UFC make the promotion that much more exciting, or is this just another whacky soundbite from the Cesar Gracie Jiu-Jitsu camp?
John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA Editor for eDraft.com and contributes MMA videos to The Young Turks Sports Show.
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