While Nate Diaz hasn’t competed inside the UFC’s Octagon since a decision loss to Conor McGregor back in 2016, the popular veteran is still being tested under United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
In fact, Diaz just submitted his first sample of 2019 in the latest round of USADA testing, according to USADA’s athlete test history (first reported by TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter).
In the latest round of USADA testing, Nate Diaz submitted his first sample of 2019.
— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) May 10, 2019
Even though Diaz is being tested in 2019 it doesn’t mean he’ll step foot back inside of the cage this year. After all, UFC has tried to book Diaz multiple fights since his double-dip with “Notorious” in 2016 and the Stockton native seems uninterested. Diaz was scheduled to fight Dustin Poirier back at UFC 230 last year, but an injury to “Diamond” nixed that bout and landed Diaz back on the shelf.
With money coming in from his marijuana takeover Diaz isn’t going to come back to fight just anybody. But considering the 34-year-old hasn’t competed in nearly three years it may be hard to command a substantial spotlight when he does return. Diaz may want to pull the trigger sooner rather than later to avoid such a scenario.
That said, UFC doesn’t seem too worried about getting Diaz back inside of the Octagon if the MMA star is going to fight them the entire way. But with the recent booking of Tony Ferguson vs. Donald Cerrone, maybe the promotion will try to bring Diaz back into the fold for a McGregor trilogy fight or even a showdown with the red-hot Justin Gaethje.