Nate Diaz is planning to have his final UFC fight next month, just weeks after Jake Paul faces Tommy Fury, as the pair continue fight talks.
Diaz has just one bout left on his current deal with the promotion, and is planning to compete on January 20 in Anaheim, California at UFC 270.
The event will be headlined by a huge heavyweight world title fight between Francis Ngannou and Cyril Gane, with Diaz claiming he wants to fight one of Kamaru Usman, Vicente Luque or Tony Ferguson.
A potential bout with welterweight champion Usman is fanciful given his one win in the last five years, and he has already turned down a fight with top prospect Khamzat Chimaev for his final fight.
Speaking with TMZ, Diaz said that he wants to fight a "top five" fighter, although not recent title challenger Colby Covington, who is widely regarded as the number two welterweight and one of the pound-for-pound best in the world.
“Top five, top five," he replied when asked who he would fight next.
"I’m fighting a top five guy ASAP. Let’s do January in, where’s the January fight? Anaheim, yeah."
Diaz is from California, and would likely help to draw a large crowd to the event, which also features a trilogy bout for the flyweight title between Brandon Moreno and Deiveson Figueireido.
But it's already a heavily subscribed card, and has a number of big attractions on its main billing.
Diaz was offered a bout with Chimaev, who recently broke into the UFC's welterweight rankings, but believes he is not experienced enough to warrant a fight with Diaz, who has competed at the top level for almost 15 years.
“They’re coming at me with Khamzat," he explained.
"And I’m like, ‘hold on, don’t disrespect me like that, trying to offer me a fight with a rookie.’
"I’m cool, you got 4 fights in the UFC. Don’t even talk my name.”
He also has minimal interest in facing Covington, and instead wants to fight champion Usman, who has never lost in the UFC, and is believed to be the best fighter in the world at the moment.
However, it would be highly unlikely that after two losses consecutively to Leon Edwards and Jorge Masvidal in his last outings, and his contract coming to an end, they would give him that fight.
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“Colby Covington just got his a** whipped,” Diaz replied when asked if he would fight him. “I’ll take the winner of his last fight [Usman].”
It is believed that Diaz won't re-sign with the UFC when he finishes out his contract , with talks currently taking place for a potential boxing debut against Paul in the middle of next year.
Diaz's teammate Chris Avila will fight the YouTube star's sparring partner Anthony Taylor on the undercard of the Paul vs Fury event, which the former lightweight title contender will likely attend in Florida next month.
The bout is being billed as "Team Paul vs Team Diaz" by the promotion, and Mirror Fighting sources have indicated that the ideal next opponent on Paul's end is viewed as being Diaz.
The pair, according to sources, would look to share a super-card with their brothers Nick Diaz and Logan Paul, who are also said to be in talks for a fight, assuming the elder Diaz can get out of his UFC deal.
