{"id":575019,"date":"2026-04-01T11:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T11:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/575019\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T11:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T11:17:11","slug":"nate-diaz-opens-up-on-why-he-turned-down-ufcs-offer-to-fight-conor-mcgregor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/575019\/","title":{"rendered":"Nate Diaz opens up on why he turned down UFC’s offer to fight Conor McGregor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nate Diaz has claimed he turned down an offer from the UFC to fight Conor McGregor for a third time.<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old, who hasn’t featured in the UFC since beating Tony Ferguson in September 2022, will face \u201cPlatinum\u201d Mike Perry on the stacked Ronda Rousey vs Gina Carano undercard on May 16.<\/p>\n

Diaz’s bout with Perry is part of the Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) event on Netflix and will be contested over five five-minute rounds in the welterweight division.<\/p>\n

\u201cGlad to be back in action. It\u2019s time,\u201d said Diaz<\/a> after the announcement was made. \u201cTime to set the bar again, so get ready for a new takeover again and again until the end of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

UFC president Dana White recently confirmed that he held talks with “The Stockton Slugger” about a return to the company, but after receiving an “offer he couldn’t refuse”, discussions broke down. <\/p>\n

Earlier this week, MVP co-founder Nakisa Bidarian claimed Diaz signed for Most Valuable Promotions following negotiations with the UFC. <\/p>\n

“I will say that the offer that he had from us was not as lucrative as the offer he had from the UFC<\/a>,” Bidarian told talkSPORT<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"DiazDiaz will return to the cage on May 16. Image credit: Getty<\/p>\n

“I think ultimately, for whatever reason, he decided to come and fight with MVP and Netflix; his decision, I can’t speak to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nate Diaz on why he turned down UFC offer<\/p>\n

Diaz has been vocal about his desire to take on newly-crowned BMF champion Charles Oliveira, but the UFC wanted him to finish his trilogy with Conor McGregor<\/a>, an idea Diaz was not on board with. <\/p>\n

“I believe they wanted me to come back and fight Conor McGregor, not Oliveira,\u201d said Diaz.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to fight for my belt that I created that I deserve since I started the division to bring value to all these f***ing fighters. I started this whole s***, me. That\u2019s my belt you\u2019re wearing around your hips.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they were like, \u2018okay, we want you to come back and maybe later we can do that\u2019. I\u2019m like well, you know who is doing a good job, [I got] almost close to the same amount offered for Mike Perry, who\u2019s the most violent motherf***er around right now. Doing things, taking on businesses, running his own promotion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a lot more enthusiastic to get up and run and get ready to train for this motherf***er who\u2019s going to knock me out or I\u2019m going to knock his a** out – who\u2019s the biggest dog or who\u2019s the best motherf***er there is.”<\/p>\n

\"JakeJake Paul won a unanimous decision against Diaz in 2023. Image credit: Getty<\/p>\n

Diaz is adamant, however, that he’s not fighting under the Most Valuable Promotions umbrella. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the meantime, I\u2019m not fighting for MVP,” he added. “I\u2019m fighting for Netflix and I\u2019m fighting from Real Fight Incorporated which I\u2019d probably be doing next on Netflix anyway, real fight entertainment and show them [UFC] how to throw a real MMA fight show.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in the UFC for 20 years now so I\u2019m like I\u2019m going to do that. I\u2019m not working for MVP like all these motherf***ers are. I\u2019m a UFC fighter, I\u2019m working for me and I\u2019m hunting Jake Paul\u2019s motherf***ing a**.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nate Diaz has claimed he turned down an offer from the UFC to fight Conor McGregor for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,639,641,638,24584,82,640],"class_list":{"0":"post-575019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-conor-mcgregor","11":"tag-fighting","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-nate-diaz","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-ufc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}