For reasons that remain vague, Nick Diaz remains among the most popular fighters in MMA. For reasons that remain equally vague, Nick Diaz is retired right now. And according to MMAJunkie, Dana White hasn’t seen anything from the former Strikeforce welterweight champ that would indicate that this will change.
While there have been some rumbles of a possible Nick Diaz return to the Octagon, the UFC president flatly insisted at the UFC 166 media scrum that “Everything I hear from Nick Diaz is that he doesn’t want to fight.”
Fighters Only released an interview where he stated “I don’t mind taking fights if its a big fight that people are going to make a big deal out of. If not then its not really worth it to me.” The only question is what sort of “big fight” Diaz is expecting.
Michael Bisping instantly threw his name into the matchmaking hat and has begun his token smack-talking campaign. The fight is intriguing, and Dana White expressed interest in making it happen. But he doesn’t seem convinced that Diaz would come out of retirement for it.
Nick Diaz retired immediately after losing a welterweight title bout to long-time champ Georges St-Pierre. Calling it a career after a fight and then reneging is by no means uncommon, and Diaz has done this in the past (he also retired after losing to Carlos Condit, but signed on for a rematch just weeks later).
But after seven months out of the cage, Diaz’s retirement has begun to seem more and more permanent.
That said, Diaz’s name will always come up whenever one of his fellow gym mates, most notably Jake Shields and Gilbert Melendez (the former Strikeforce middleweight and lightweight champions, respectively), have a fight coming up. The same goes for his brother, UFC lightweight contender Nate Diaz.
If Diaz chooses to return, there is no question that fighters new and old would all love a chance to fight him in the cage. For Dana White and the UFC brass, it’s just a matter of coaxing him back into the cage.
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