Nate Diaz says that wants to fight former interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier and then retire from the fight game.
“I would like to fight Dustin Poirier. Like now. Like I’ve been trying to. If there’s any mix-up it’s him, and them, and the game,” Diaz told TMZ Sports on Friday.
“I want the fight now. What’s up Dana White? Let’s get this retirement fight cracking so I can get out of this fight game. I’m done with it.”
Diaz has one fight left on his UFC contract. He and Poirier have expressed interest in the match-up.
The two were booked to fight at UFC 230 in November 2018 at Madison Square Garden in New York, but an injury forced Poirier to withdraw from the bout.
Both fighters have been lobbying for the match for months. In January, Poirier said in an interview that the UFC contacted him about fighting Diaz on short notice.
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“Something that got the flame going is a couple of days ago, I got a phone call,” Poirier said during an interview with Teddy Atlas. “I can’t talk about it yet, but it’s a very short-notice thing and something I hate to do is stack things against myself and take a fight on short notice.”
“I don’t owe these guys nothing, it is Nate Diaz,” he later revealed in the interview.
On Jan. 19, Diaz sent a message to the UFC via social media telling them to ‘stop slowing down the real fight game.’
“@ufc stop playing wit me consider this my signature to fight this f*cker I been trying to fight for a minute quit slowing down the real fight game it’s time,” wrote Diaz.
@ufc stop playing wit me consider this my signature to fight this fucker I been trying to fight for a minute quit slowing down the real fight game it’s time pic.twitter.com/6LTkbw9Fs0
— Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) January 19, 2022
