If you feel as though you haven't seen fan-favorite Nate Diaz in the octagon in a while, trust me, you are not alone. The fighter who at least on the surface appears to hate his employer claims that he has been offered no fights in the past 9 months and has asked for 5 separate ones that have all either been denied or ignored by the admins over at UFC. It is difficult to tell if Nate is telling the truth because when he does throw information to the masses, it is done through a Tweet that hasn't been read by anyone other than Nate. This much is obvious because of the fact that they are normally filled with spelling errors and teenager thug-talk.
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In a recent interview the topic was broached, presumably by a reporter about fighters not getting fights and being "held hostage" in the UFC so that they cannot move to other organizations such as Bellator (which was almost certainly not mentioned by name but I am not sure.) Dana, as he usually does, handled the question in a calm and almost politician-like manner but he put the question to rest with these words.
I’ve said this a million times and I’ll say it again, we can’t hold guys hostage, It’s not possible. I owe you three fights a year. If I don’t fight you three times a year I have to pay you."
Now what Dana has said here is factually correct but we need to understand the contracts first. Most of these guys' contracts have what most people would consider very low guaranteed payouts so most of the guys would prefer to actually fight where they will have sponsorship bonuses as well as PPV % payouts and other incentives like potential "fight of the night." If you are just riding the bench, they receive the "league minimum" that was specified in their original contracts and this number is going to be really low. Now when an average person like me or you thinks about getting $20,000 for doing nothing that sounds like a dream come true but at the same time we don't have massive payrolls filled with trainers, teams, and self-paid travel expenses to come up with.
Diaz fired back in his usual ghetto way with this Tweet.
Diaz has been at the forefront of complaining about the UFC's ways and how they book fighters. He also doesn't hold back at all when criticizing the UFC and while I appreciate his "no ass kissing" approach, it probably isn't helping him to land that one fight that is left on his contract. I certainly don't want to see him back down but he clearly wants to be released by the UFC and if he wants it, I am quite certain that he would be offered a lot of money by other organizations because even though he has a less-than-stellar record, he remains one of the biggest draws in the sport. No matter what organization he was to transfer to, you can be guaranteed that the hype surrounding his move would be one of the biggest of all time.
Is this why Dana is holding out? Are Dana and the rest of the top brass at UFC punishing Nate for talking out of line? There is no doubt that Nate could co-headline a UFC pay per view and the place would be packed so I think that at least from a spectator's point of view this holdout seems to have been done out of spite and something of a revenge move done by UFC against Nate Diaz.
In the meantime Diaz' hands are tied. He can't just pack his stuff and go. He is contractually obligated to not fight for anyone else without UFC permission that they are certain to deny.
For most fans, I think we just want to see Nate fight and then be on his way. He has plenty of other things going for him including his brand that he set up with his brother Nate, as well as several MMA training gyms. He has plenty of money so it isn't just about that. In the next 3 months I hope to see this feud between him and Dana end without the assistance of lawyers. By the end of the year though, we may see it go to precisely that if one of these two guys can't swallow their pride.