UFC President Dana White has revealed that Demian Maia’s next opponent is likely to be either Nick Diaz or Jorge Masvidal.
“I just reached out to (Diaz’s team) and said what do you guys think about a fight with Demian Maia?” White revealed on the UFC Unfiltered podcast. “I haven’t heard back from them yet. If Nick doesn’t take it, I’ll give it to (Jorge) Masvidal.”
The 33 year-old Diaz is looking to return to action after a two year absence from the Octagon, but according to White he’s already turned down a fight with Robbie Lawler, so it remains to be seen if he’ll bite on the opportunity to go up against Maia instead.
“I offered Nick Diaz the (Robbie) Lawler fight and he turned it down. Lawler accepted the fight and Nick turned it down so I’m looking for something else for Lawler right now. (Diaz’s team) were terrorizing me saying ‘we want a fight’ so they wanted to announce it that night at the Sacramento card (at FOX UFC Fight Night). Cause he was there, it’s the right crowd, it’s close to his hometown and they wanted to announce it.
“I got Robbie Lawler to accept the fight, I called him, and they turned it down and they’ve been radio silent on me ever since.”
One man who doesn’t plan on staying silent in Masvidal as following his impressive TKO win over Donald Cerrone on Saturday night was calling for a fight with a top contender at 170lbs, even challenging White to a $200,000 bet that he couldn’t find a welterweight who could beat him.
Maia would likely be a tricky fight for both Diaz and ‘Gamebred’, but it has to be said that a match-up that’s more likely to whet people’s appetite would be to have Diaz fight Masvidal instead.
