Dana White had no thought of booking Nick Diaz vs. Kamaru Usman.
In the lead-up to Diaz vs. Lawler 2, the Stockton, California native says he doesn’t think he should be rematching Lawler and whoever booked the fight is an idiot. Yet, for White, he says the fight makes sense and had zero thoughts of making Usman vs. Diaz.
“You think he should be fighting Kamaru Usman?” White told Yahoo Sports. “You know what I’ve been saying lately: Kamaru Usman is the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world, OK? (He beat Jorge) Masvidal twice, Gilbert Burns, Tyron Woodley, (Rafael dos Anjos), Demian Maia, Leon Edwards. I mean, the list of guys that this guy has beaten is unbelievable, and the way that he beat them.
“He’s the world champion in that division and he’s the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world,” White continued. “Does anybody out there think that that’s who Nick Diaz should come back and fight after not fighting for seven years? That would be an idiot that would make that fight.”
Although that isn’t a fight the UFC wanted to make right now, if Diaz wins, then perhaps they do make the fight as it would be massive. Yet, Usman still has plenty of challengers ahead of him and Diaz will need to string together a couple of wins in a row to be near a title fight.
Nick Diaz (26-9 and two No Contests) has not fought since he suffered a decision loss to Anderson Silva back at UFC 183. The fight was overturned to a No Contest after both men tested positive. Prior to that, he lost back-to-back decisions to Georges St-Pierre and Carlos Condit for the undisputed and interim UFC welterweight titles, respectively. In his career, he holds notable wins over B.J. Penn, Robbie Lawler, Paul Daley, Gleison Tibau, and Frank Shamrock among others.
