Remember when UFC President Dana White told the combat sports media that Nate Diaz may never fight again and we all laughed like “haha Dana you’re such a card” … well, it certainly feels like that prediction is coming true, based on the consistently “crazy” negotiations with Dustin Poirier.
I guess we know where “El Cucuy” got his Tony-shaped bows.
Diaz was lighting up the promotion last Wednesday on Twitter, accusing the UFC brass of holding up a potential Poirier fight. White, however, insists Diaz can fight three times in 2022, so long as he doesn’t “jump outta nowhere” and make his own demands.
“Of course we’re interested, I mean this is what we do, we make fights every weekend,” White told ESPN. “What happens is guys just wanna jump outta nowhere and say, ‘Alright, I wanna do this, I wanna do that.’ We have fights booked all the way up until, I wanna say May 2nd, right now. Everything is in place, everything is done. Obviously Nate Diaz will get a fight. I say this all the time, I’ve been saying this for 20 years. We’re contracted to fight guys three times a year. They gotta get fights. He’ll get a fight.”
White didn’t seem to be in any big hurry to name Poirier as a potential opponent.
After missing all of 2020, the 36 year-old Diaz returned against Leon Edwards at UFC 263, falling by way of unanimous decision to drop to his second straight. It should also be noted that Diaz has only competed three times since his Conor McGregor rematch back in late 2016, a span of more than five years.
As for Poirier, 33, he’s competed 12 times during that same span. Unfortunately for “Diamond” fans, the Louisianan came up short in his Charles Oliveira title fight at UFC 269 back in December, promoting talk about a potential move to welterweight.
Whether or not it’s against Diaz remains to be seen.