{"id":556945,"date":"2026-03-22T12:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T12:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/556945\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T12:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T12:02:15","slug":"dana-white-reacts-to-nate-diaz-ditching-ufc-for-mvp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/556945\/","title":{"rendered":"Dana White reacts to Nate Diaz ditching UFC for MVP"},"content":{"rendered":"

The move came as a surprise.<\/p>\n

Diaz hasn\u2019t competed in MMA since submitting Tony Ferguson at UFC 279 in Sept. 2022, closing out his UFC contract on a high note (watch highlights<\/a>). Since then, he\u2019s explored boxing \u2014 losing a decision to Jake Paul in 2023 before picking up a win over<\/a> Jorge Masvidal in 2024.<\/p>\n

Still, there had been growing chatter about Diaz potentially returning to the UFC to complete his trilogy<\/a> with Conor McGregor later this year.<\/p>\n

And according to the UFC head honcho, those talks were very real.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came in and met with me a couple of weeks ago,\u201d White said during the UFC London post-fight press conference. \u201cWe had a good time, and I think Nate just got an offer he couldn\u2019t refuse. I haven\u2019t talked to him since then, but I\u2019m happy for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite losing out on one of its biggest stars, White didn\u2019t sound bitter about Diaz\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d White said when asked if this affects Diaz\u2019s chances of returning to the UFC. \u201cLet him do his thing. Let\u2019s see how the fight plays out, and we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Diaz is doing exactly that \u2014 his own thing.<\/p>\n

That dream just took a major hit.<\/p>\n

For everything you need to know about the \u201cRousey vs. Carano\u201d-led event click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The move came as a surprise. Diaz hasn\u2019t competed in MMA since submitting Tony Ferguson at UFC 279…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,250320,85,1396],"class_list":["post-556945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-ronda-rousey-vs-gina-carano-netflix-news-hub","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}