Tyron Woodley explains why Nick Diaz deserves a Hall of Fame spot

Former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley believes that Nick Diaz deserves a place in the UFC Hall of Fame.

The elder Diaz brother recently laid out plans for a comeback, executing a practice weight cut in anticipation of a fight in early 2021. Woodley, who takes on Colby Covington in the main event of UFC Vegas 11 this weekend, weighed in on Diaz’s potential comeback during an appearance on The Hollywood Beatdown on TMZ Sports.

By his estimation, Diaz deserves a Hall of Fame spot whether he fights again or not.

“If he comes back to the sport, I think it will be good to have another household name back in the sport competing,” Woodley said (via MMA Fighting). “But if he doesn’t, he doesn’t. I think he’s done enough in his career, in my opinion, to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.”

“I think (he deserves it), because he was one of the original bad boys,” Woodley added. “There’s some people in the Hall of Fame that had never won a world title, whether it’s just a fight, there’s so many different categories of it. But when you think about it, he came over from Strikeforce, he had a crazy reputation then, and I think you’ve got to take some of that into account when you’re thinking about a Hall of Fame inductee. They bought the organization, they bought the rights to all those fights, so I think the accolades have to come with that.”

While Woodley is impressed by Diaz’s legacy, he doesn’t see the need for all the fanfare ahead of the former Strikeforce champion’s comeback.

“If you want to fight, fight,” Woodley said. “We don’t need a big build up. We don’t need a test weight cut. If you want to fight, fight. Sign a contract and get in the octagon. It’s been so much talk about if he’s gonna fight. Even his brother, ‘Is he gonna come back?’ I think that they deserve the hype that they’ve gotten because when they were fighting years and years back, they weren’t getting paid hardly anything. Go back and pull up the public records on what Nate Diaz made the fight right before Conor McGregor. They’re kind of embarrassing compared to what he ended up making in that fight and the second fight.

“So when you look at it, I have to respect them for staying with it and staying to the point where they were still relevant enough to make the money that they probably deserved a long time ago,” Woodley added. “But if he wants to fight, just fight. What do we need to do this whole hoopla?”

Are you with Tyron Woodley on this one? Should Nick Diaz be a UFC Hall of Famer?