Report Reveals Opponents Nick Diaz Asked To Fight In UFC Return
Nick Diaz is returning to the UFC. The MMA legend is set to fight Vicente Luque at UFC Abu Dhabi on August 3. UFC journalist Ariel Hewani provided a rare look into the fight negotiations and provided fans with a dive into Diaz’s search for a fight. Let’s take the opportunity to gain some insight into fight negotiations and speculate about Diaz’s UFC goals.
Helwani discussed how Diaz ended up with a fight against Vicente Luque on “The MMA Hour“.
The four fights that Diaz campaigned for are as follows:
- Georges St-Pierre
- Colby Covington at UFC 300
- Michael “Venom” Page at UFC 303
- Kevin Holland at UFC 303
Let’s start with why these three fights did not come together. The most obvious is St-Pierre. Despite their bitter rivalry, St-Pierre is firmly retired. That fight is borderline impossible.
The remaining three fights have a few more details. The first note from Helwani was that Covington was unable to fight because he was nursing a foot injury that he suffered in his most recent fight. As a result, he could not fight Diaz at UFC 300 or Ian Machado Garry at UFC 303. That led to the UFC booking Page against Garry. That took another one of Diaz’s desired opponents off the board.
The Holland fight was the closest to coming to fruition; however, Holland declined the fight in favor of a fight with Michal Oleksiejczuk at UFC 302.
This list of desired opponents can provide two decent pieces of information regarding Diaz’s UFC future. The main takeaway is that Diaz is not asking for layups. The list of opponents featured three ranked opponents and one UFC legend.
The more intriguing aspect of Diaz’s requests is that he wanted to compete on UFC 303. Who is headlining that event? Conor McGregor.
This could potentially give us some information. One potential reason for getting on UFC 303 is that it would allow him to call out McGregor. Although, the more likely reason is that he could use the event to sell the trilogy for his younger brother Nathan.
The lessons in Diaz’s negotiations should be that he is down to fight tough opponents and one of the brothers, more likely Nathan, is attempting to get a fight against McGregor. At the same time, the UFC’s unwillingness to put older brother Nick on the card tells how they feel about potential Diaz and McGregor bouts. It’s massively unlikely.
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