It’s been three years since Nate Diaz stepped into the octagon.
The 39-year-old last fought Tony Ferguson at UFC 279 and got a win over the former Interim Lightweight Champion. Since then, Diaz has mostly been talk and little action. Diaz has teased another fight with Conor McGregor, but that’s highly doubtful at this point. He did step back into the boxing ring against Jorge Masdival last year, but he doesn’t seem to be getting any closer to a UFC return anytime soon.
Nate talked about why he’s not particularly interested in stepping into the octagon at the moment and it comes down to him not finding anyone interesting to fight at the moment.
“It’s about buzz and who’s popping and who’s doing something,” Diaz told Full Violence during a photoshoot. “Right now, there’s nobody doing shit in the UFC. Everybody’s boring right now so I’m trying to do other shit for the moment,” Diaz said. “But I want to go back and get a UFC title. I don’t want to fight for nothing. I want to fight for something. Right now there’s not anybody that’s that [entertaining]."
He even clowns on the welterweight division. Belal Muhammad is the current UFC Welterweight Champion, but if all you listened to was Nate Diaz then you wouldn’t know who the top dog of the 170-pound division is.
“Who’s the champion right now at 170? See exactly, that’s what I’m saying. Why would I go back to the UFC right now to fight who? I’m the champion as far as that’s concerned.”
Despite his lack of interest in the UFC right now, Diaz ensures that he’s not done fighting just yet.
“I don’t think about it as done,” Diaz said about his legacy. “I think it’s underrated and I think I left more of an impact than anybody has really. I think Conor [McGregor] has in a way and then what my brother [Nick Diaz] did. ‘GSP’ (Georges St-Pierre) but that shit all gets forgotten about, too. It can’t go away because you ain’t getting credit to begin with anyway so may as well keep that shit going forever. That’s why I plan on fighting forever.”
As previously mentioned, Nate Diaz is 39, so it'll be interesting to see when he finally decides to step back into the ring. Could this be a Conor McGregor situation where he promises to return, but the likelihood of that happening is slim? Maybe, but we’ll see over time what happens to Nate Diaz and the UFC.