Colby Covington claims Nick Diaz ‘dodged’ a fight against him: “He was scared to fight me”

UFC welterweight contender Colby Covington claims Nick Diaz turned down a fight against him.

Last month, fans learned that the former Strikeforce and WEC champion would be returning to the cage. Next month in Abu Dhabi, Nick Diaz will face longtime welterweight contender Vicente Luque. However, the 40-year-old reportedly didn’t want to fight ‘The Silent Assassin’ at first. Instead, Diaz had a list of other opponents he wanted.

One of those names was reportedly Colby Covington. According to Ariel Helwani, Nick Diaz wanted to face the former interim welterweight champion at UFC 300, but the bout didn’t come to fruition. For his part, Covington has been out of the cage since a unanimous decision loss to Leon Edwards in December.

Speaking in a recent interview with Submission Radio, Colby Covington was asked about fighting Nick Diaz. There, ‘Chaos’ claimed that the longtime fan-favorite actually rejected a fight against him in the past. According to Covington, Diaz turned down an offer to fight him at Madison Square Garden in New York back in 2021.

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Colby Covington claims ‘scared’ Nick Diaz turned down UFC fight against him

However, Colby Covington added that he doesn’t hold any ill will against Nick Diaz. ‘Chaos’ stated that the longtime fan favorite turned the bout down because he knew that he wouldn’t win. Covington added that a fight with the 40-year-old would be the biggest mismatch in the history of the promotion.

“Unfortunately, he hasn’t been offered to me in about three years.” Colby Covington told Submission Radio when asked about the 40-year-old fighter. “The last time Hunter [Campbell] called me with Nick Diaz’s name across my desk was when they offered me to him at Madison Square Garden about three years ago. He turned down the fight, so I think the UFC just knows that they can’t match us up.”

He continued, “I mean, that’s the biggest mismatch in UFC history to give me a guy like Nick Diaz. It wouldn’t be doing the company any justice to put some guy that’s over the hill and past his prime versus the guy that’s in his prime and the best welterweight on earth right now, Colby Covington… I’m not going to put down the Diaz brothers and talk s*it about them. They’ve said some bad things about me, but they’ve done great things in the sport and I’m not going to sit down and say anything bad about them. But, he did dodge the fight. He was scared to fight me and that’s facts.”

What do you make of these comments from the UFC welterweight contender? Would you like to see a fight between Colby Covington and Nick Diaz?