Nate Diaz is not going to want for options during his free agency period.
At UFC 279, Diaz completed his promotional contract, going out on a high note by submitting Tony Ferguson in the fourth round of the main event. Following the win, Diaz said he planned to leave the UFC to “show all these UFC fighters how to take over and own up another sport” which most interpret to mean he will pursue a much talked about boxing match against Jake Paul. Diaz also said he intends to return to the UFC afterwards to get a UFC belt, which he called “the best title in the world.” But Scott Coker hopes to have something to say about that.
The CEO of Bellator MMA, Coker has a long history promoting Diaz’s older brother Nick Diaz back in the Strikeforce days, and speaking with reporters ahead of Bellator Dublin this weekend (h/t/ BBC Sport), Coker revealed that Bellator is already in talks with the younger Diaz brother.
“We are in dialogue”
Bellator president Scott Coker says the promotion have “reached out” to Nate Diaz about a potential deal #bbcmma #mma pic.twitter.com/4dJBR8Yx2f
— Paul Battison (@PaulBattison) September 21, 2022
“We are definitely talking to him. We’ve reached out,” Coker said. “I know he’s probably talking to everybody. He’s in a pretty good situation. I know he wants to fight Jake Paul. Jake Paul is fighting Anderson Silva on Showtime pay-per-view, which is our home network, so there’s some synergies here. We’re just hoping that we could have some type of deal to at least have his MMA fights with Bellator. So we are in dialogue.”
Signing a big name free agent like Diaz is nothing new for Coker. In recent years, Bellator MMA has signed a number of high-profile fighters from the UFC, most notably former women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg; however, Bellator is far from the only promotion interested in Diaz’s services. One of the biggest stars in the sport, both the BKFC and the PFL have already stated their intent to pursue Stockton’s finest, and there’s also the possibility that Diaz will simply choose to remain independent. After all, prior to UFC 279, Diaz lamented his restrictive deal with the UFC, saying he felt like the promotion was holding him hostage, and with a lucrative fight with Paul looming, and his own nascent promotion, Real Fight, Inc., starting, Diaz may decide choose to continue betting on himself for the foreseeable future.
Talks. Floyd Mayweather says ‘there’s been talks’ of Conor McGregor rematch in 2023, McGregor responds.
Business. Anderson Silva explains UFC business practices and his one ‘problem’ with Dana White.
Pampered. Yoel Romero responds to ‘pampered’ Israel Adesanya over recent comments: ‘How many fights does Izzy have that are boring?’
USADA. UFC welterweight Elizeu Zaleski suspended one year for ostarine: ‘The positive test came as a surprise to all of us’.
The MMA Hour.
The Thrill and the Agony.
Raul Rosas Jr.’s fight from Contender Series.
Michael Bisping debating Jose Aldo’s place in the pantheon.
Cooking with Volk and Hasbulla.
No Bets Barred. Creating the Official MMA Betting Rulebook.
Terrance McKinney pointing out The Rock’s noticeable silence.
My tweet to the rock about his shoes went viral and Sports Illustrated even wrote an article about it but he never replied to me. At least he’s able to tweet about penguins and wrestlers from the 80s tho ♂️
— Terrance ‘T Wrecks’ McKinney (@twrecks155) September 21, 2022
I gotta risk it I can’t sit around and let stuff like this happen to us @TheRock is literally no different than the faceless company crypto .com except they don’t pretend to care about fighters I was hopin Dwayne would be different that his nice guy thing was real https://t.co/nO76Z5mUbf
— Terrance ‘T Wrecks’ McKinney (@twrecks155) September 21, 2022
Perhaps he just doesn’t want this smoke.
Im only going to fight the rock
Otherwise I’m goood— Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) September 21, 2022
A good question.
How does the UFC sign a 17yr old (some states I don’t think you’re even allowed to fight till 18?) but not Bo Nickal?
Like we all know they’re gonna sign Bo, but why not straight off the bat.. why make him fight twice on DWCS?
— Megan Anderson (@MeganAnderson) September 21, 2022
Showing the love.
Wow. He hit the nail right on the head. https://t.co/4Fbw5pO0Vv
— Roxanne Modafferi (@Roxyfighter) September 21, 2022
EA UFC.
Imagine any other @EASPORTS video game not having a full roster of players to play with. Every UFC fighter that currently has a contract should be on there IMO ♂️. Crazy there are ranked guys not in the game yet ♂️. https://t.co/JXNILGkvIB
— Matt “The Steamrolla”Frevola (@SteamRollaa) September 21, 2022
Wonder what it takes to get into the @EASPORTSUFC roster
— Adrian Yañez (@yanezmma) September 22, 2022
Forgetting that CM Punk exists.
Still waiting for a celebrity outside of mma, to gain the courage to step inside the octagon . #youDONTplayMMA
— Derek Brunson (@DerekBrunson) September 21, 2022
N/A.
Thanks for reading! See y’all tomorrow.
If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @JedKMeshew on Twitter and let him know about it. Also follow MMAFighting on Instagram and like us on Facebook.
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