UFC president Dana White is trying to talk Nick Diaz out of retirement by offering him a middleweight fight against Lyoto Machida.
Diaz hinted at retirement after losing to Georges St-Pierre by unanimous decision at UFC 158 in March.
“I’m trying to retire, I’m trying to get out of this gig…. I’ve had more than 30-something fights. What am I going to do if I don’t get a rematch? I don’t want to fight any of these guys out here — they came in after me,” Diaz said after the fight. “Georges is the only one who … I’ve done everything I’ve set out to do — I’ve fought everybody who started when I did, my era, my generation.”
At the time, White made no mention of giving Diaz a rematch against GSP, instead saying that Johny Hendricks should be the next person to take on the welterweight champion. Hendricks scored a unanimous decision victory against Carlos Condit in the co-main event.
A few months after the loss, Diaz said he wanted to fight again . White said the 29-year-old had broken up with his girlfriend and was eager to get back in the Octagon. White said that Diaz was under contract with the UFC, and that the promotion was willing to offer him a fight whenever he was ready.
Now White is making good on that offer.
“I talked to Diaz today, 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.”
Neither Machida nor Diaz has ever fought at 185 pounds. The Dragon had avoided dropping from 205 pounds while his friend Anderson Silva was middleweight champion. Now that Silva has lost his title to Chris Weidman, Machida may consider the change in weight class.
White initially wanted Machida to fight Vitor Belfort, but Belfort wanted to make his own fights. Should Machida and Diaz agree to a match, it would likely take place at UFC 167 in November.
What do you think of a possible middleweight fight between Lyoto Machida and Nick Diaz?
