Current No.4 ranked welterweight contender Vicente Luque has set his sights on a big-name match-up for his next fight after calling out Nate Diaz, and it seems there’s a chance it could actually happen.
“To me, Nate is a fighter and fighters fight, and I’m the kind of fighter that’s going to put on an exciting fight no matter who it is,” Luque said after a first-round submission victory over Michael Chiesa last month. “So, Nate wants a big fight, I’m not going to sell it by talking, but I’m definitely going to sell it by fighting.”
Now Diaz has finally responded to that call-out and appeared to give the green-light for the match-up to be made.
“So let’s fight,” Diaz wrote.
An excited Luque quickly replied and urged the UFC to make the fight ASAP.
“This will be fight of the year @ufc @danawhite @seanshelby @AliAbdelaziz00 make it happen!!!” Luque replied. “When real fighters step in the octagon fans know it’s gonna be a war 🔥.”
Truth be told it’s a fight that doesn’t really make any sense as Luque is homing in on title contention after winning his last four fights in a row by either strikes or submission, while Diaz currently isn’t ranked after losing three of his last four bouts.
However, Diaz still has star power, and so a win over him would add weight to Luque’s title push, while enabling him to avoid some of the potentially tougher stylistic match-ups at the top-end of the 170lb division for the time being, which includes the likes of Colby Covington, Gilbert Burns and Leon Edwards.