Nate Diaz not answering calls from UFC for less than $20 million

UFC superstar Nate Diaz has been absent from the Octagon since his UFC 202 main event scrap with Conor McGregor back in August. Following the fight, Diaz revealed that the only way he would return to the Octagon would be for a massive payday.

Since then, there has been no further word on when Diaz will be returning to the Octagon, however following the recent news of Conor McGregor being granted his boxing license in California, Diaz revealed his intentions to leave MMA to pursue professional boxing:

“I’m going to get my boxing license in Cali and Nevada,” Diaz told Seckbach. “I tried to get out of my UFC contract years ago. I had guys try to buy out my UFC contract so I could box – years ago. But the UFC wouldn’t let me go. So I have been stuck in these contracts and stuff.”

“Now [McGregor] is talking about this Mayweather stuff and it’s getting all this hype, and I’m like ‘Do your thing with Mayweather.’ But if they let him out to box, then I’m boxing somebody too – somebody mainstream on the same card. Or another card – whatever.”
“But I’m not doing it for a publicity stunt, I’m doing it because I love the sport of boxing. I want to win, I want to win fights for real and get out of this MMA shit that I’m not even into anyway. I don’t think they want me in there anyway, so I might as well stay out.”

This week, it was reported that Diaz had been offered a UFC 209 interim lightweight title fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov. However via text message to MMAFighting, Diaz revealed that he won’t be taking any phone calls from the UFC:

“I’m only fighting at lightweight for a big fight or 20 million just to take the call. Until then, I’m just living my life.”

Whether or not an interim featherweight title fight is a ‘big’ enough fight for Diaz, remains to be seen.

Stay tuned for updates as they become available.