There is a rumour flying around the MMA community, that Nate Diaz is set to finally fight what looks to be his last (for the UFC promotion) opponent, now nothing as it ever is, is that simple for the Stockton breed fighter, this could very well be just another MMA rumour, but it seems to have some real steam behind it, even the "Bad guy" Chael Sonnen himself spoke about it, on a recent episode via his podcast, stating “I gotta stop right there. I don’t know who the opponent is and I’m not holding that from you and we know Chimaev and Nate have been associated together for a period of time now. I’m not announcing for you guys that it’s Diaz vs. Chimaev. I’m sharing some insight, Diaz has a fight. That I’m sharing with you guys. Is it Chimaev?”

So lets look at the clues and have some fun whilst we are here, lets go through the fights that have been mentioned from being made to barely a rumour;

Diaz vs Poirier, now this fight was meant to happen all the way back in 2018 UFC 230, as we know it never came of anything as the "Diamond" Dustin Poirier pulled out due to a lingering hip injury, but since then both have gone back and fourth with each other via twitter or in interviews, I for one will be very gutted if this fight doesn't happen, personal opinion this is the fight I'd like to see him go out on, if it is to be his last UFC scrap, what a scrap it would be. My conclusion on this unfortunately I don't think will happen, due to my gut instinct telling me we are going to see Chandler vs Poirier instead, which I'm not mad about either.

Diaz vs Holland, I know this one is very fresh on the rumour mill, it only ever came around recently with "Big mouth" stating on numerous occasions how he, would put his name in the hat to fight Diaz, recently he said “No, no, no, I doubt Diaz wants this smoke,” Holland told MMA Junkie. “I’d probably get Nick before I got Nate. I got Nate running the triathlon, I got the Stockton boys doing sprints instead of the Stockton slap, and I don’t know where the f*ck they at, so it’s just how it goes.” Now the only reason I included this option is because, timeline wise it seems Holland called for the fight, now coincidentally Nate now potentially has an opponent. My conclusion is that this isn't the fight to make for Nate or the UFC, it does nothing for either the UFC star or the UFC brand itself, sorry "Big mouth" there's always Michael Pereira.

Diaz vs Chimaev, if you know the UFC you know this is the fight they've been trying to make for nearly the past year, everything from leaked match making photos to the UFC president Dana White himself all pointing or verbally saying that this is the fight to make, of course for the UFC it does a lot for them, they want to feed "the wolf" and that be on the expense of a household name in Diaz, in their world he beats Diaz and that's a big name to push and elevate Chimaev to another stardom level with all the UFC fanbase, in turn that also lowers Diaz stock, but that is a risky move lets not forget Diaz already beat one of their golden superstars, if he does the same again and bounces it will effectively hurt them as a business and Chimaev popularity as a fighter, It's been known the UFC have offered this fight numerous amounts of times to Diaz, has he finally accepted?. My conclusion, looking at the welterweight division Usman and Edwards are tied up, Burns vs Masvidal looks a step closer to being made, Brady vs Belal has been confirmed, Colby has outside issues going on, so it wouldn't surprise me if this is Chimaev's number one contender fight, I think this is the fight that will happen and that is currently being made.

Diaz vs McGregor 3, from the outside looking in, in a complete business point of view, you want Diaz to go out on a loss so his stock goes down with it in the free agency pool, problem the UFC have is if this fight was to be made, with McGregor on his current form, then you add in how close the last two fights were, this would be what you call in a casino "going all in", to have your number 1 golden boy fighter, lose to a guy that's leaving the company in a 2-1 victory trilogy, his (Diaz) stock would fly through the roof, whilst McGregor's and UFC's reputation would take a huge hit, its a big risk I just don't think they are going to take, who can blame them. My conclusion, I think they fancy Chimaev more likely to get the win more than "The Notorious" McGregor himself, so they'll leave that to him (Chimaev) and if he loses, he's young enough to bounce back, whereas these next two fights could be it for the UFC's biggest superstar (McGregor), so that matchmaking has to be right and as mentioned above, to potentially lose a superstar in Diaz and McGregor if Diaz wins, just in the grand scheme of things isn't worth it.

Let me know what you think is next for Diaz.