Following their brawl at this past weekend’s WSOF 22 event in Las Vegas, Khabib Nurmagomedov has personally requested that the UFC match him up with his rival Nate Diaz next so that they can settle their differences inside the Octagon.
“I keep getting a huge amount of messages regarding the yesterday’s incident and I’d like to tell you that fights between men happen, it’s normal,” Nurmagomedov wrote on Twitter (Translated). “But since we’re both UFC fighters this brawl has become a big deal, yesterday I confronted Diaz at the event and he was the one who started to talk shit and to fight, I tried to be patient as a professional fighter, seeing that there were a lot of people around, WSOF broadcasted live on TV and I have many eye witnesses who can cofirm what I’m saying, I don’t want to describe the situation in details but when the shit hit the fan this lowlife ran from me three times, but I swear to the Almighty I stood my ground, as I always do. We’ll see what happens next. I’ve already asked UFC bosses to arrange me a fight against him but judging by the speed Diaz was running away from me I have a hard time believing this fight would happen.
Nurmagomedov and Diaz have gone back and forth on Twitter for several months before things got physical at the weekend, so there was already heat behind this particular match-up.
From a rankings perspective it doesn’t make much sense to have them fight as Nurmagomedov is currently flying high at No.3 in the division and is currently undefeated in his MMA career with a perfect 22-0 record, including six victories in the UFC that’s left him on the verge of a title shot.
On the other hand, former title challenger Diaz is only ranked No.14 at this moment in time after losing three of his last four fights, most recently losing out by unanimous decision to the man who now holds the title at 155lbs, Rafael dos Anjos.
Still, this is undoubtedly a fight that fans want to see, and with Dos Anjos currently expected to fight Donald Cerrone by the end of the year, there’s still plenty of time for Nurmagomedov and Diaz to throw down.
