Following his blockbuster pay-per-view headline events with Conor McGregor from earlier this year, Nate Diaz insists he’s only willing to return to the Octagon if the UFC cough up $20 million.
Diaz may not have won a championship or even become a two-weight champion in 2016, but he did become one of the biggest draws in the sport by dancing with McGregor twice.
The reported pay-per-view buy rates of both UFC 196 and UFC 202 combined for an approximate 3.2 million buys. Diaz cashed out big time and is now only prepared to come back to the Octagon if the promotion can give him what would be a monstrous pay day for the Stockton bad boy.
Diaz saiys he’d be willing to return but has a very specific number in mind for his next fight purse. “I’m only fighting at lightweight for a big fight or 20 million just to take the call,” Diaz told MMAFighting.com. “Until then, I’m just living my life.”
With McGregor out for a while due to his girlfriend’s pregnancy and with a cloud of uncertainty surrounding the future of Ronda Rousey depending on how things go in her main event title fight with Amanda Nunes next weekend, the promotion is need of guaranteed pay-per-view draws and they don’t get much bigger right now than Diaz.
For anyone with hopes of McGregor vs. Diaz 3, however, don’t hold your breath because for Diaz the promotion hasn’t ponied up enough for him to take the trilogy fight. “I already beat him, and they aren’t paying enough to fight him again,” he adds.
What both McGregor and Diaz proved this year was that a rivalry with two of the most polarizing fighters in the company can cash in big time at the box office and is beyond belts.
