Despite Anderson Silva’s call for a rematch, it doesn’t look like Nick Diaz is interested in fighting again.
We’ve gone through this seemingly a billion times already, but the latest edition of “Will Nick Diaz fight in the UFC again or not?” sees the former Strikeforce champion lean towards staying outside the cage.
Diaz (26-9, 2 NCs) indulged in some alcoholic beverages with friends in a video published to Instagram Story, and he expressed zero intention to fight again.
“(Expletive) all this – I don’t want to hurt nobody,” Diaz said (via MMAjunkie). “I just want to party.”
At the UFC 234 post-fight press conference, Silva eyed fighting at UFC 237 in his hometown of Curitiba, Brazil, with a rematch vs. Diaz as a potential matchup.
“I think it’s a very interesting fight because the last fight with me and Nick is a no contest,” Silva said. “I talked to Nick’s manager a couple of months ago about this fight and Nick say, ‘Okay, let’s go do it. Let’s go talk to Dana and let’s go do it.’”
It was just over four years ago that Diaz fought Silva in the UFC 183 main event, losing a unanimous decision. Both men wound up failing drug tests, but while Silva’s was for PEDs, Diaz popped for marijuana for a third time, and the Nevada Athletic Commission initially handed down an astonishing five-year ban before reducing it to 18 months.
The last time Diaz won was against B.J. Penn at UFC 137 back in October 2011, an event so long ago that the UFC was still on Spike TV. He’s since lost a close decision to Carlos Condit for the interim welterweight title at UFC 143, a one-sided decision to then-champion Georges St-Pierre at UFC 158, and the aforementioned Silva bout was flipped from a loss to a no contest after Silva’s PED failure.
There was talk of Nick fighting Jorge Masvidal at UFC 235 in March, but Dana White said it would not be happening, saying “I don’t think it looks like he’s training for a fight.”