Nate Diaz says a trilogy fight against former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor is not going to happen.
“I’m not interested in it at all,” Diaz told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani on Monday. “I’m interested in winners. He lost his last fight and I won my last fight. You think I’m trying to fight someone who just got his a– beat all over the place? I’m a black belt in jiu-jitsu. That s— wouldn’t happen to me.”
Diaz and McGregor fought twice prior, both of which were all-time classics.
Diaz, face covered in blood, submitted the Irishman with a second-round rear-naked choke at UFC 196 in March 2016. It ended McGregor’s 15-fight win streak at the time. The two immediately had a rematch at UFC 202 in August 2016, another all-out brawl where McGregor earned the majority decision.
McGregor followed up that performance with a second-round TKO win against Eddie Alvarez, taking the UFC’s lightweight belt in the process. He since has faced Floyd Mayweather in boxing, a 10th-round TKO loss, and was submitted by Khabib Nurmagomedov in the fourth round of their fight at UFC 229 last October.
Diaz told Helwani he does not believe he lost the second matchup with McGregor and shouldn’t have to beg to fight him a third time.
“[The UFC] were dissing me, saying I f—— turned down fights,” Diaz said. “I was like ‘dude, what are you talking about?’ You’re giving this guy the world, and you’re putting this guy down. That’s why I haven’t been fighting. Why would I work for you while you’re over here playing me?
“Three years went by and then they start expecting me to start screaming for f—— Conor as soon as he loses? Nah, dude, I won that last fight. I’ll fight Khabib. Then Khabib is playing like I have to win something to get to him. I’m like, ‘what are you talking about dude. You have to win to get to me. I slapped you.'”
Diaz, in fact, says he’s done with the lightweight division altogether. He went 11-6 as a UFC lightweight and was 2-3 in his last five bouts, including a title fight loss to Benson Henderson. He will face Anthony Pettis at UFC 241 on August 17 in Anaheim, California as a welterweight.
“That’s in the past,” Diaz said. “I think it’s time to fight at a more comfortable weight class. There’s nothing for me there. I already did everything, beat everybody. I feel I’m the king of that division anyways. I mean, I am the king of that division.”