UFC president Dana White has claimed Nate Diaz assured him that he won't fight Jake Paul when he leaves the UFC.
The former lightweight contender has one fight left on his deal with the promotion, and is expected to leave once he has faced Khamzat Chimaev in the main event of UFC 279 on September 10. He has been heavily rumoured to face Paul whenever he does get out of his contract, but White believes it's untrue.
Speaking with Yahoo Sports, the UFC president explained that he had spoken with the outgoing Diaz, and the fighter had indicated that he wouldn't face Paul. Mirror Fighting understands there were tentative plans in place for the UFC legend to be Paul's opponent on his August 6 fight date at Madison Square Garden, but he was never able to get that final fight.
Now, Paul is set to face Hasim Rahman Jr on that day in New York, having previously agreed to fight Tommy Fury. The Brit pulled out due to travel issues that prevented him from going to America in time for the event.
“I don’t know [if Diaz will fight Paul],” White said in his interview with Yahoo Sports, who also contacted a Diaz representative for comment and were told he is focused on Chimaev. “He said, ‘I would never do that.’ That’s what he said to me. He said, ‘That s***’s goofy.’ I don’t know. That’s what he said to me.”
While the most obvious route would be for Diaz to face Chimaev and quickly move on to Paul by the end of the year, he appears keen on exploring his options. He wants to compete in a number of disciplines not limited to boxing such as jiu-jitsu and kickboxing.
"I don't want no more money," Diaz said of his UFC deal during an explosive interview on The MMA Hour earlier this month. "I want to go and do different stuff, there's stuff out there for me to do."
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Diaz has been given a monumental task in Chimaev, who is undefeated and ranked No.3 at welterweight. The Swede is the highest-ranked fighter who champion Kamaru Usman hasn't beaten, and had been told that if he wanted to sit out and wait for the winner of Usman's defence against Leon Edwards that it would be an option.
But he is unfazed, and the bout is expected to draw a major crowd on pay-per-view for the promotion as well as selling out the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Diaz is one of their higher paid fighters, but has only competed four times since his star-making win over Conor McGregor in 2016.
He defeated the Irishman at the peak of his powers, but was defeated in their hastily arranged rematch months later. Then, it was three years out for Diaz due to disputes with the promotion before he fought twice in 2019, beating Anthony Pettis and losing to Jorge Masvidal. He has fought just once in the post-pandemic era, losing to Edwards.
