Nate Diaz isn’t interested in the big Lightweight contender rematch between Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje at UFC 291 next month (Sat., July 29, 2023).
At UFC 244 in Nov. 2019, the “Baddest Motherf—ker” (BMF) title was born when Welterweight stars, Diaz and Jorge Masvidal, were booked to headline in Madison Square Garden. Ultimately, 2019 was the year of Masvidal, who capped off his run with a three-fight winning streak, ending with a third round doctor’s stoppage technical knockout of Diaz.
The title was expected to be the only one of its kind, but UFC President, Dana White, had a change of heart when booking UFC 291’s main event between Poirier and Gaethje. For Diaz, he just doesn’t see either as worthy of the BMF moniker.
“Yeah, I don’t feel they fit the criteria. I’m good. They’re dorks,” Diaz told InsideFighting. “Poirier and Gaethje, right? Yeah, what’re you talking about?”
Diaz’s loss to Masvidal was his third to last appearance inside the Octagon. He fought twice afterward, suffering a unanimous decision loss to the future undisputed UFC Welterweight champion, Leon Edwards, before finishing his contract with a fourth round guillotine choke win over Tony Ferguson (watch highlights).
According to Diaz, UFC wanted him to go in a different direction to close out his 15-year run in the promotion. Diaz was booked to fight Poirier at UFC 230 in Nov. 2018 but the bout never happened due to a Poirier injury. Instead, Poirier went on to fight for interim and undisputed Lightweight titles against Max Holloway and Khabib Nurmagomedov before re-igniting his rivalry with Conor McGregor, who Diaz also has a history with. The back-to-back “Notorious” wins led Poirier to another title tilt opposite new champion, Charles Oliveira, in Dec. 2021, which he lost by third round rear-naked choke.
“They wanted me to sign to fight Conor, could fight Poirier in the meantime but I’m just sick of Poirier not fighting me,” Diaz said of his final UFC fights. “But he had just got choked by everybody (laughs). He just got choked by everybody, motherf—ker, go win some fights and I’ll fight you.
“So, they wanted me to fight him to kill time for Conor to heal up and come back [after his leg break] then they wanted me to sign for another fight with Conor but only if I win,” he concluded. “What the f—k?”