As far as Joe Rogan is concerned, UFC 209 on March 4th was a lost opportunity that could have earned the UFC a 2 million buyrate with Nick and Nate Diaz.
UFC 209 on March 4th is set to be an excellent card with a lot of great fights. But as far as Joe Rogan is concerned, the event really needed a dose of Stockton in order to reach its true potential.
As you probably already know, 209 is the area code made famous by Nick and Nate Diaz, who never pass up an opportunity to rep their rough Stockton upbringing by yelling 209 into the camera. With Nick Diaz finally cleared to fight after an extended suspension for marijuana metabolites (again) and Nate at the height of his star power following two fights with Conor McGregor, having one or both of the Diaz brothers on the card seemed like a recipe for massive success.
“They had one opportunity ever in the history of the UFC to do it,” Rogan said in a recent Fight Companion podcast with UFC fighter Ian McCall. “Like, I planned episode 911 [of the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast] to be Alex Jones. They should have planned episode 209 to be in Stockton with Nick and Nate Diaz. I guarantee to you, that s**t would have gotten two million pay per view buys.”
Sadly, Nick and Nate haven’t exactly been receptive to the UFC’s attempts to book them lately. Dana White referred to the Diaz brothers as the toughest guys to book a fight for, and suggested he was just going to start throwing all the big fight offers to Jorge Masvidal instead. If he thought that might push Nick towards agreeing on something less than the perfect fight for a ludicrous amount of cash, he was wrong.
But while it’s definitely too late for a Diaz themed UFC 209 event, there’s still a good chance we’ll get to see Nick Diaz back in the cage against Georges St-Pierre soon. When discussing GSP’s comeback, his boxing coach Freddie Roach let slip that the fight would be a rematch. And who else would St-Pierre want to rematch other than Nick?
With new owners in place and fighters still sore about the $4.3 billion dollar price tag that never came close to their pockets, it may be a while before guys like the Diaz brothers can be convinced to help the UFC cash in on their area code without ponying up more cash than the promotion is willing to part with. Which is too bad, because while they might not crack two million PPV buys, they’re definitely worth the extra money.