Nate Diaz says he was “nowhere near” a new contract, claims he told the UFC to sign all his friends in order for him to re-sign

Nate Diaz says he was nowhere near re-signing with the UFC before his fight against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 279.

It has been well-documented that Diaz has one fight left on his deal and the UFC was looking to re-sign him. The hope was to get him locked into a new multi-fight deal but that never happened and he will now face Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 279. According to Diaz, he says he was never close to re-signing with the deal.

“Nowhere near,” Diaz said to ESPN about if he was close to re-signing with the UFC.

Although Nate Diaz says he was never close to re-signing with the UFC, he does admit there was one moment that he thought it might’ve got done. When he was asked what it would take for him to re-sign he told the UFC to sign all of his 10 friends and training partners which the UFC contemplated but after they asked if they could be on TUF or the Contender Series, Diaz balked at the offer.

“One time, I said alright look, if I’m going to re-sign because you are so aggressive, adamant and are so adamant about it and kept coming back to me, and every time I said no they kept coming back with more and more and more. We are like these guys aren’t taking no for an answer and they are like this guy isn’t taking yes for an answer,” Diaz said. “I was like ‘alright, you want me in, then me and my 10 guys are all coming.

“I need contracts for all my 10 guys.’ After I said it and the deal was getting worked on, I was like ‘f**k, they are going to sign all my friends and I’m going to have to fight here.’ Then they started coming back ‘with this guy could go do the Ultimate (Fighter), and this guy can do,’ and I was like ‘everyone is in or I’m out.’ They are doing the up and down, with who can do what and what can do who,” Diaz continued. “I was like ‘oh, everyone is not in right now, then no, I gotta go.’ I’m calling my own shots, I’m not going to ask in the back room, that’s wack, ain’t no one telling me what to do ever, and nobody has the entire time.”

With Nate Diaz fighting out his contract it’s uncertain what will be next for him but he did start a fight promotion.

What do you make of Nate Diaz saying he was nowhere near re-signing with the UFC?