Rizin keen to book Nate Diaz vs Floyd Mayweather

Rizin are interested in booking a boxing super fight between Nate Diaz and Floyd Mayweather.

The Stockton legend is now a free agent having fought out his UFC contract with a submission win over Tony Ferguson at UFC 279. In his post fight interview, the 37-year-old said,

“I want to get out of the UFC for a minute and show all these UFC fighters how to take over and own up another sport, how you’re supposed to do it.”

He went onto to warn the ‘creme de la creme’ of ‘boxing, JiuJitsu and kickboxing’ that he would be coming for them. Could that include a 45-year-old Floyd Mayweather?

Image via @floydmayweather on Instagram (photographer not listed)

‘Money’ retired with an unblemished 50-0 record after beating Nate Diaz’s arch-rival Conor McGregor in 2017. He’s since enjoyed competing in exhibition bouts, and proved he’s still got dangerous hands with a second round knockout win over Japanese MMA fighter Mikuru Asakura at Super Rizin last month. 

The Las Vegas-native is set to take on YouTube star Deji Olatunji in November, but Rizin boss Nobujuki Sakakibara is keen to match up the multiple-time world champion with Nate Diaz.

Speaking in an interview with MMA Mania, the former main man of PRIDE said,

“Nick and Nate, they both have a great personality, their fighting style is very exciting, and we’ve known them since the PRIDE days. We had Nick fight in PRIDE before and we’ve known them from way back. So, if we were to do something with Floyd again, we always have to talk about an opponent.

“We do think we’re at a point where we can’t just only focus on the Japanese market anymore,” he continued. “We have to target the international audience. So, with that said, Floyd’s opponent doesn’t have to be a Japanese fighter anymore. It’s just one possibility thinking about the future. Not only Floyd’s opponent, but Nate Diaz as an individual has a great amount of character, fight style, and a great following internationally. So, as an individual, he would definitely be somebody we’d be interested to be talking to.”

Diaz was part of two of the biggest-selling UFC pay-per-views of all-time and with almost 6 million followers on Instagram he’s become one of the biggest stars in combat sports. Mikuru Asakura and his brother Kai are huge stars in Japan with a massive YouTube following and Sakakibara sees comparisons between them and the Diaz brothers.

“Nate’s kind of like the global [version of the] Asakura brothers. The Diaz brothers are the global Asakura brothers,” Sakakibara said. “And who would not want to see them fight and take on Floyd Mayweather? Floyd’s been perfecting boxing his entire career and now he’s willing to do these exhibitions to fight different professionals like MMA fighters, YouTubers, and right now it’s the time where that is what sells and that is what people are entertained by. These big competitions — exhibitions — amongst different professions is something that really gathers attention and gets people talking.

“Nate Diaz might even have a chance of beating Floyd, you know?” Sakakibara continued. “And for us to promote that ‘what if’ factor is definitely something that we need to promote for these exhibitions against Floyd. Making the people think maybe … that ‘if’ factor, Nate Diaz can bring all of that, so, we do think it’s a great idea.”

Do you think Nate Diaz vs Floyd Mayweather is the fight to make?

Nate Diaz hanging out with #FloydMayweather after Mayweather's bout with #ConorMcGregor. 📸: @allelbows pic.twitter.com/65PMA7eeQy

— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) August 27, 2017