Nate Diaz has been backed by UFC legend Chael Sonnen to immediately make a return to the promotion for a massive money trilogy bout with Conor McGregor.
The former lightweight title challenger upset the MMA world when he took on McGregor on just a few days' notice back in March 2016 and submitted him within two rounds. The Irishman was supposed to be moving up to 155lb from featherweight to challenge for his second world title, but when champion Rafael Dos Anjos pulled out he was forced to face Diaz instead.
McGregor ended up doubling his weight jump and came up 25lb to welterweight, but was still favoured to beat Diaz having just dethroned the legendary Jose Aldo three months prior. But he couldn't quite handle the new weight, and quickly tired before being submitted in the second round by rear naked choke, taking his first loss in the UFC.
The Irishman immediately insisted on a rematch for UFC 200 and ended up facing Diaz at welterweight in the summer of that year, although it took place at UFC 202 instead. He looked considerably better prepared for the rematch and won by Majority Decision, leaving the pair's series at 1-1.
Diaz and McGregor never met for a third time, and that bout has never seemed further away now that the American has left the UFC for the first time in a decade-and-a-half. Sonnen still believes it's possible, however, saying during a recent appearance on The MMA Hour : "What I’m trying to say is all options are on the table.
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"But that option is also to return to the UFC and to fight Conor McGregor. That’s not just gone now, and it has to be Jake Paul or Floyd Mayweather and he’s got to go start his own promotion. Those things are all possibilities, but a return is also on the table - in fact, I think it’s leading the charge of what’s possible for Nate Diaz.
"He would not just be coming back. There would be a brand new and fresh conversation to be had and I think he wants to have that conversation. Yeah, I think it’s leading the way. I don't think he's going off to box Floyd, I don't know how much legs there is to Jake Paul, I realise there is something there to both, but what about his own promotion?"
Diaz recently attended a fight between Jake Paul and Anderson Silva, which the YouTuber won by unanimous decision. He has joked about the potential of facing Paul in the past, but is likely to have offers from every major MMA promotion and boxing broadcaster after entering free agency.
