Nate Diaz is not ruling out a trilogy fight with Conor McGregor.
Diaz (20-13 MMA) has not entered the Octagon since June of 2021 at UFC 263 where he went down to defeat against Leon Edwards (19-3 MMA).
Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor (22-6 MMA) met in the Octagon at UFC 202 in August 2016 at at UFC 196 in March 2016. While Diaz was the victor in the first welterweight fight, McGregor took home the prize in the second one.
Diaz has one final fight remaining on his UFC contract, and has called out several fighters, but Dana White and the promotion have still to schedule a fight for him.
In speaking on ‘The MMA Hour‘, Diaz spoke about McGregor, leaving the MMA and what he aspires to do in the future:
“McGregor was too amateur to be fighting Floyd Mayweather, and Floyd Mayweather was like, ‘Oh, I know how to fight him, look what Nate did – that’s how you fight him. Blueprint, beat his ass hella easy, made him punch himself out, 10th round, beat his ass. Didn’t I do that right before him? That’s exactly what I did.”
“And then (Conor) went and got choked by Khabib. He didn’t learn how to not get choked. If he would have finished the trilogy with me, he would have learned how to not get choked. If he would have finished the trilogy with me, he would have learned how to not punch himself out and make it through the rounds with Mayweather.”
Continuing Nate Diaz spoke about the UFC holding him back:
“He could have got better, but he jumped the line. He skipped through, and they helped him. No one has helped me the whole time. I’ve been relevant in this sport and I’m the most relevant, still, without even trying. Fight once a year, and I took three years off, and I still have records. I’m still, like, ‘Fight of the Night’ or top-two or some s*** like that, and I haven’t done s*** in five years. I used to fight every three to five times a year, but the UFC’s holding me back.”
Claiming to be ‘the best fighter to ever step into the UFC’, Diaz said:
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m the best fighter to ever step into the UFC. No one else can hang. This is a war that I’m not quitting and everyone else is, and can’t hang in the whole s***.”
Continuing to speak about McGregor, Nate Diaz said he missed the window:
“You bring yourself back to life and I’ll be back later, because I’ve got s*** to do. What’s he going to do? Fight some people who got knocked on their ass against a guy who just got his leg ass-broken all over the place, and got knocked out the fight before.
“I never got knocked out. I’m still in the running. Everybody else is in last place. And then anybody who’s a champion with their ego trying to be like, ‘I’m not calling him out. I’m the champion.’ You ain’t s***. You ain’t even been here until five minutes ago.”
There is no doubt about it Nate Diaz wants to do other things, like boxing with Jake Paul, but the UFC is holding him back by not releasing him or scheduling him a fight. Diaz has not ruled out a trilogy fight with McGregor at some point.
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