Nate Diaz has opened up on why he rejected the UFC’s offer to fight Conor McGregor in favour of competing for Jake Paul on his mixed martial arts fight card.
Diaz has not fought in the UFC since beating Tony Ferguson by submission in 2022 but will return to the cage on a rival MVP event, squaring off against fellow veteran Mike Perry on 16 May.
That is despite receiving a proposal from Dana White’s promotion for a trilogy bout with famous foe McGregor, who he stunningly tapped out the Irishman in 2016 before being beaten on the scorecards in their rematch.
But Diaz has revealed he was far from keen to face McGregor, who has not fought since losing back-to-back bouts with Dustin Poirier in 2021, and instead targeted a fight with newly-crowned “Baddest Motherf***er” champion Charles Oliveira.
“I believe they wanted me to come back and fight Conor McGregor, not Oliveira,” said Diaz, who was the company’s first BMF champion.
“I’m going to fight for my belt that I created that I deserve since I started the division to bring value to all these f***ing fighters. I started this whole s***, me. That’s my belt you’re wearing around your hips.
“And they were like, ‘okay, we want you to come back and maybe later we can do that’. I’m like well, you know who is doing a good job, [I got] almost close to the same amount offered for Mike Perry, who’s the most violent motherf***er around right now. Doing things, taking on businesses, running his own promotion.
“I’m a lot more enthusiastic to get up and run and get ready to train for this motherf***er who’s going to knock me out or I’m going to knock his a** out – who’s the biggest dog or who’s the best motherf***er there is.”
Since his last UFC outing, Diaz has shared the squared circle with both Paul and former BMF rival Jorge Masvidal in boxing matches, suffering a defeat to the YouTuber-turned-bruiser before avenging his doctor stoppage loss to Masvidal in the cage.
Diaz now finds himself fighting for Paul’s promotion but insists he is not working for “The Problem Child”, nor MVP, and is eyeing up an eventual rematch with Paul.
He added: “In the meantime, I’m not fighting for MVP. I’m fighting for Netflix and I’m fighting from Real Fight Incorporated which I’d probably be doing next on Netflix anyway, real fight entertainment and show them [UFC] how to throw a real MMA fight show.
“I’ve been in the UFC for 20 years now so I’m like I’m going to do that. I’m not working for MVP like all these motherf***ers are. I’m a UFC fighter, I’m working for me and I’m hunting Jake Paul’s motherf***ing a**.”
