Dana White: “Nick Diaz Will Fight This Year”

UFC President, Dana White, is surprisingly optimistic about a Nick Diaz return in 2021.

UFC President, Dana White, is (oddly) liking the optics of a Nick Diaz fight in 2021. Indeed, White offered an update on Diaz’s long-awaited UFC return in a teaser from an upcoming interview with UFC Arabia’s Farah Hannoun.

“I didn’t think that it would happen, but it looks like it will. It looks like Nick Diaz will fight this year,” the UFC boss said (h/t theScore). “Looking promising.”

This is a much more promising update than White gave in May after meeting with the former UFC welterweight title challenger.

“My whole thing with Nick Diaz is I just question how bad he really wants to fight,” White declared just last month. “We got together, we had a great conversation, talked about a possible comeback for him. I just don’t know.”

Diaz, 37, has not competed professionally since a “No Contest” against Anderson Silva in Jan. 2015. The Stockton native (26-9) rides a three-fight winless streak against the aforementioned Silva, as well as title fight losses to Georges St-Pierre and Carlos Condit.

In fact, Diaz’s last win came in 2011, scoring a unanimous decision over B.J. Penn and, in the process, punctuating an 11-fight win streak that also included Paul Daley, K.J. Noons and Frank Shamrock, among others.

He was rumored to make his comeback fight against the COVID-plagued Khamzat Chimaev at some point in 2021.