At 41-years-old Nick Diaz was scheduled to return to the UFC Octagon this past August to take on Vicente Luque at UFC Abu Dhabi but visa issues ruled him out of his return.
The fan favorite hasn’t fought since September 2021 when he lost to Robbie Lawler in what was his first fight in six years at the time.
Despite calls for the UFC legend to retire, Nick Diaz decided to take a few more years off before booking his anticipated return.
Nick Diaz sends a warning message to fighters who talked badly about his return
Although it was the general consensus amongst the MMA community that the 41-year-old should retire instead of returning for another fight, the former middleweight title challenger has sent a warning message to the fighters that talked ‘sh*t’ about his comeback.
“Don’t for a sec think I forgot about all you little fighters who had a lot of sh*t to say about me… I’m going to hunt you all you p*ssies down one at a time after I’m done with this guy,” Diaz vowed in a post on Instagram.
The Stockton native’s fight against Luque is yet to be rescheduled and UFC CEO Dana White claimed following Diaz’s withdrawal that we likely won’t see the 41-year-old return before the end of the year.
Ultimately, if Diaz is returning for another fight, the hope is that the promotion books him fairly favorably instead of matching him up with a dangerous fighter like Luque, despite his recent regression.
A fight the fans have previously called for is Diaz vs Tony Ferguson, with them both long in the tooth at this point in their respective careers.
Following his recent record-breaking loss against Michael Chiesa, ‘El Cucuy’ refused to retire from the sport and stated that if his time is up with the UFC he will go and fight elsewhere. It is unknown whether Ferguson’s contract with the promotion is up or if he still has fights left on his deal.
Nick Diaz was called out by undefeated middleweight contender
Someone who did compete on the card that Diaz was supposed to compete on was undefeated middleweight contender, Shara Magomedov.
Since his UFC debut last year, the Russian has gone on to win three fights in a row, putting himself on the verge of the 185lb rankings.
Despite being so close to earning a number next to his name, the 30-year-old called out the UFC legend following his win over Michal Oleksiejczuk, instead of someone in the rankings.
Unfortunately, I wouldn’t put it past the UFC to book that fight, as in Nate Diaz’s last UFC fight he was booked to take on Khamzat Chimaev, likely in an attempt to grow Chimaev’s popularity by picking up a win over a huge name in the sport.