Nate Diaz Reveals Why He Didn’t Resign With UFC

Nate Diaz (22-13), who walked away from the UFC following his round 4 stoppage win over Tony Ferguson in September 2022, has opened up on why he passed on a return to the promotion, opting instead to fight on the Rousey-Carano Netflix undercard.

Speaking ahead of his MMA return against Mike Perry this weekend, Diaz confirmed the UFC had been in contact: “I was pretty close because they’ve always been great since I left. They talked to me and met up with me — wheels were spinning just for an MMA fight, an MMA return, and get back to what I do.”

What held him back was the suspicion that Conor McGregor was his intended opponent as Nate said: “I know that they wanted the Conor fight right now, and that’s not what I was wanting. They were insinuating. They didn’t offer it, but I think that’s what they wanted.”

Diaz was blunt about his reasons for resisting: “I’m not trying to be a comeback story for Conor. I want Conor back, and then I want him to be showing people he’s whooping a**. I don’t want to be fighting a guy they don’t know about. Because I know he’s gonna come back and do good. I don’t want him to do it on me.”

Although Diaz doesn’t want to be the comeback story for Conor, he did say his ultimate plan is to fight Conor in a trilogy fight when the timing is right. Nate defeated Conor by a round 2 stoppage in their first bout in March 2016, but lost the rematch via a majority decision in August of that same year.