With Conor McGregor apparently out of the picture for July’s UFC 200 event in Las Vegas, his intended opponent Nate Diaz has revealed that he’s heading away for a well-earned break.
“Happy to announce that I’m going on vacation #gone #100 ✌,” Diaz wrote on Twitter.
UFC President Dana White had brought Diaz onto the stage at a UFC 200 press conference last Friday, indicating that he was looking to find a new opponent for the star after pulling McGregor from the show due to his failure to attend his media obligations for the event.
However, Diaz threw a spanner in the works by telling the assembled crowd that he’d only be willing to fight ‘The Notorious’ Irishman.
Unfortunately, hopes that the UFC could be leveraged into re-booking the fight between them for the historic card appear to be fizzling out, with White now stating that he’s now looking to have McGregor fight later in the summer or beyond, with UFC 201, 202 or 203 named as possible landing spots for him.
If and when he does finally return, White has also indicated that it probably won’t be against Diaz, but rather will be his first featherweight title defense against the winner of UFC 200’s interim title fight between Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar.
At this stage there’s still no official word on what the new main event for UFC 200 will be, though a light-heavyweight title rematch between Daniel Cormier and Jones is currently believed to be the frontrunner to clinch that coveted spot on the card.
As for Diaz, there’s no indication on when he might return, and due to the fact that he’s believed to have earned several million dollars for his short notice victory over McGregor at UFC 196 earlier in the year, he appears to be in no particular rush to step back into the Octagon.
