Teammate Jake Shields Reacts to a Matchup Between Nate Diaz and Khamzat Chimaev; “He Finally Beat a Ranked Opponent”
Fan-favorite Nate Diaz has been wanting to fight ever since the tail-end of 2021. The last time the younger Diaz brother stepped in the octagon was against Leon Edwards at UFC 263 a fight he lost via unanimous decision. Since then, Diaz has been wanting to get back in the octagon and fight out his UFC contract but he has been stalled by the UFC for the better part of a year now.
In a recent interview with Helen Yee, Jake Shields, Diaz’s friend and training partner shared his thoughts on Diaz being stalled by the UFC. He said, “Yeah the whole situation is just getting weird and frustrating. I have not talked to Nate about it in a couple of weeks but I don’t think anything has really changed. It seems to be the same pattern as Nate wanting to fight and them not offering anything. He always said he wanted to fight top 10 because they offered him Khamzat or whatever.”
The former title challenger continued, “He said he was not sure then he said he would fight him after the Burns fight once he finally beat a ranked opponent and then they would not offer him the fight after he asked for it… It is the last fight of his UFC contract and the UFC just don’t want to let him out of his contract…. He said he would take the fight after the Burns fight and then at that point they stopped offering it to him. Hopefully they will be able to come to terms and offer him some kind of fight. At some point they’re going to have to offer him the last fight of his contract or come to terms and re-sign him.”
Nate Diaz to fight before the end of 2022 in the UFC?
Diaz is on the last fight of his UFC contract. The common consensus is that the UFC want to wait till McGregor is healed so that they can get a trilogy done before Diaz is done with the UFC.
However, every UFC contract is bound by time therefore the UFC can not keep Diaz on the sidelines for a long period of time or he will be able to walk away as a free agent.
