Scott Coker clarifies previous comments about Bellator being in “dialogue” with Nate Diaz

Bellator President Scott Coker has cleared the air on the extent of his “dialogue” with Nate Diaz.

Coker recently turned some heads when he told reporters that he was in communication with Diaz. The Stockton native has fought out of his UFC contract and he revealed his plan to fight outside of the promotion for a little while, but he vowed to eventually return.

Here’s what Coker initially told media members.

“We are definitely talking to him. We’ve reached out,” Coker said about Diaz. “But I’m sure he’s talking to everybody, he’s in a pretty good situation. I know he wants to fight Jake Paul, who is fighting Anderson Silva on Showtime pay-per-view – which is our home network – so there’s some synergies here. We’re just hoping that we could have some type of deal to at least have his MMA fights with Bellator, so we are in dialogue.”

The Bellator boss cleared things up following Bellator 285, revealing to reporters that he was told Diaz still has a negotiation clause with the UFC until December (h/t MMAJunkie).

“Well, here’s the thing, is that my guys reached out to the management and the management came back and said, ‘Look, he still has an exclusive negotiation period,’” Coker told reporters at the Bellator 285 post-event news conference. “So, let’s see how that plays out.”

Diaz is coming off a submission victory over Tony Ferguson at UFC 279 on September 10. It was Diaz’s first win since 2019. The win improved his pro MMA record to 21-13. His record under the UFC banner sits at 16-11.

Diaz has said he wants to explore different martial arts sports if he truly becomes a free agent. With that said, he also made it clear that he still wants to become a UFC champion.