Nate Diaz fed up with UFC: 'They're keeping me hostage, and I want out'
Nate Diaz sounds off on his contract issues with the UFC and makes it clear that he wants his release.
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Nate Diaz can’t be any more clear about the fact that he is not happy with his current situation and wants out of the UFC.
For most of the past year, the mercurial MMA star has been itching to fight the last bout on his UFC contract, but he’s been unable to get booked. Diaz (20-13 MMA, 15-11 UFC), one of the sport’s most popular fighters, repeatedly has aired his frustration over social media, imploring the UFC to get him a fight and, at times, requesting his release.
Diaz is tired of dealing with his UFC contract situation and wants to finish his final fight and be out of the company altogether.
“I was trying to get the show on the road, and they don’t want me out of the contract, and they’re keeping me in, and they’re holding me hostage, and I want out,” Diaz said Tuesday on “The MMA Hour.” “That’s my main objective here, and it’s been an objective of mine since, I don’t know, what year it was? But the year I fought Ben Henderson (2012).”
Diaz hasn’t competed since UFC 263 in June 2021 when he lost a unanimous decision top welterweight contender Leon Edwards. It’s been more than a year since he last set foot in the octagon, and he’s been trying to return since just a couple of months after the Edwards fight so he can move on.
“They haven’t offered me anybody,” Diaz said. “I’ve been asking for fights since whenever. I asked for a lot of fights. I asked for (Vicente) Luque, Tony Ferguson. I asked for like four or five people, and there was no going there, and then they finally offered me the Khamzat (Chimaev) fight, and I gave them the little, ‘What the f*ck.’
“And then I was like, ‘Why not? Let’s just get it done with and get it over with.’ I asked for the Khamzat fight and then all kinds of excuses started happening. But remember I was like I want December, I want January, I want March, I want all these things.”
Diaz, 37, is fed up with the UFC. He said the promotion has offered him more money to sign a new deal, but he made it clear that he believes he’d make more fighting outside of the UFC.
It’s been a long journey for Diaz and the UFC as he made his promotional debut way back in June 2007 and prior to that fought for Zuffa-owned WEC. But it’s clear from his message that the relationship has soured to the point he simply wants out.
“When I’m asking for a fight, they offer me more money,” Diaz said. “Then they offer me more money, more money. I’m at a point in my career and my life where I don’t want any more money. I just want to depart. I’m over the whole UFC roster as of right now. All the guys that they can offer or I’m even asking for, everyone’s been used and abused. It’s a recycled division. Lightweight or welterweight division, I feel like there’s nobody worthy. There’s no worthy opponents at the moment.”
He later asked, “UFC, can I please have my last fight and be on my way?”