Is Nick Diaz contemplating a return to mixed martial arts (MMA)?
Maybe … or maybe he just got high one day and decided to fight Rafael dos Anjos for no apparent reason. Either way, there was enough interest for UFC matchmaker, Sean Shelby, to get on the horn and pitch the fight to the not-lazy Brazilian for this weekend’s combat sports event.
And Diaz wasn’t the only recognizable name bandied about.
“We talked about some other options,” Dos Anjos told MMAjunkie.com. “(Santiago) Ponzinibbio, (Jorge) Masvidal and even (UFC matchmaker) Sean (Shelby) called me to say, ‘Hey, Nick Diaz might be interested in a fight with you.’ Things did not work out and the only name they throw for me was Kevin. He’s a top contender at lightweight coming up a division and I can’t sit on my sofa waiting for the perfect fight. I’ve got to work.”
Diaz, meanwhile, is applying for that greeter job at his local Walmart.
Dos Anjos ultimately settled on Kevin Lee for the UFC on ESPN+ 10 headliner, which takes place this Sat. night (May 18, 2019) inside Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, New York. Both fighters have moved to welterweight after years of grueling weight cuts at 155 pounds.
As for Diaz, now 35, he hasn’t competed inside the Octagon since his middleweight “no contest” against Anderson Silva at the UFC 183 pay-per-view (PPV) back in early 2015, a fight in which both combatants flunked pre-fight drug tests.
I guess he doesn’t need the money since his “famous” brother is an A-List business man.