Henry Cejudo has urged the UFC to quit "playing business" and release Nate Diaz from his contract.
Diaz has one fight remaining on his contract with the promotion but is yet to find a suitable opponent for his final bow. The American asked to be released from the deal before later making a U-turn and demanding they find him a new rival.
However Cejudo believes that the UFC may look to entice him with a hefty purse in his final fight to keep him beyond his current deal. "I think the UFC, they're just playing a little bit of business with him," Cejudo said during an episode of The Triple C & Schmo Show. "I think if they keep him, they really want to entice him with a good pay check and if they don't keep him, they want to give him a shark so that that's that's what we're looking at. I don't know what the UFC is thinking but that's kind of my take on that.
"Free Nate, man. If you're not gonna give him a fight, dude, free him. Let him be or he could run out his contract, you know? I think every fighter has a contract where they're literally able if they don't get a certain amount of fights per year like you could literally run it out, dude, so it's a trip."
Diaz recently escalated his feud with the company by urinating on their Performance Institute building, before issuing a call-out to the entire UFC roster. He has been heavily paired with former two-time rival Conor McGregor but has confirmed he would rather be released than fight in a trilogy.
The 37-year-old previously verbally agreed a fight with Dustin Poirier but talks never materialised with Diaz becoming increasingly frustrated. Leaked line-ups from the UFC's matchmaking room instead suggested that Diaz would be paired with rising star Khamzat Chimaev in his final fight with the company.
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He has since taken to social media to blame the Chechen star's wedding for a delay in organising a potential bout. Any bout with Chimaev would likely be an uphill task for Diaz with the rising star yet to be defeated since signing with the promotion. Cejudo has also warned Diaz any planned bout with Chimaev could be part of the UFC's plan to feed him to a "shark".
"Right now the UFC, I think they want, they want to feed him to a shark,“ Cejudo continued while assessing Diaz's future. “That’s why they’re trying to kill… Because Diaz knows that there’s so much money to be made outside the UFC, that he doesn’t even care what millions they’re gonna end up giving him.
"I do believe that Nate leaving the UFC is just going to generate more money for fighters, and kind of giving that leverage to fighters like: Hey man, it’s not the UFC, it's not the only place where you can make a good living.”
