HOUSTON — If Nick Diaz insists on sitting out until he gets a big-name opponent, Michael Bisping is more than happy to oblige him.
Bisping, currently sidelined with a detached retina, challenged Diaz to a middleweight fight on Twitter earlier this week. UFC President Dana White quickly gave his endorsement to the match-up, and he repeated that sentiment during Thursday’s UFC 166 media day scrum.
“I love that fight. I love that fight,” White gushed. “I like it. But everything I hear from Nick Diaz is he doesn’t want to fight.
“But I love that fight. Fun fight.”
Diaz retired in early 2013 after falling short in consecutive contests against Carlos Condit and Georges St-Pierre.
Nonetheless he remains the No. 6 ranked welterweight on the UFC roster, and his teammate Gilbert Melendez recently told MMAFighting.com that Diaz would return for “the right opportunity,” a belief which Diaz’s younger brother’s manager Mike Kogan echoed.
“I don’t know about Nick. I think he’s just in the mindset of staying in shape and looking for the right fight,” Kogan said.
“He spent a long time fighting anybody that the organization offered him. I think he’s just kinda matured enough to kinda be like, ‘Hey, wait a minute. I want these other guys that just sit around and wait and talk and get themselves into the right fights. I don’t want to just fight whoever.'”