Dana White Changes Mind About Nick Diaz Vs. Lyoto Machida

Dana White has changed his mind about a potential middleweight matchup between Nick Diaz and Lyoto Machida.

After UFC Fight Night 26 Saturday, White told reporters that the fight wasn’t likely to happen.

“That was a bad idea,” he said. “The Diaz-Machida thing I was—I’m going to throw Joe SIlva [UFC matchmaker] under the bus again. That was Joe Silva’s idea. It was a bad idea.”

When asked if the fight was taken off the table because Diaz refused, White said, “No. Diaz didn’t turn it down. There’s other things going on with Diaz.”

It was just last week that White said he had spoken to Diaz about possibly returning to the Octagon.

“I talked to Diaz today [Thursday], and I made him an offer, so we’ll see what happens,” White said. “He had been talking about going to 185 pounds. Machida has been talking about going to 185 pounds. So we wanted to see if he wanted to fight Machida at 185.”

Diaz hasn’t fought since losing to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 158 in March. He said he was trying to retire because he had fought everyone there was to fight in the welterweight division. At the time, White was more focused on setting up a match between St-Pierre and Johny Hendricks, who earned a unanimous decision victory over Carlos Condit in the co-main event.

White also wanted Machida to fight Vitor Belfort, but Belfort wanted to make his own fights. Machida himself expressed an interest in fighting Belfort, but changed his mind when Chael Sonnen defeated Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in Saturday’s main event.

Machida tweeted after the fight:

Since @vitorbelfort hasn’t accepted our fight,I am sure that @danawhite can match me against @sonnench

— Lyoto Machida (@lyotomachidafw) August 18, 2013

Dana White said he would consider all possibilities when he returns from a trip to Maine.

[Pictured: Lyoto Machida; photo credit: Marcos Joel Reis/Flickr]