A former three-time UFC title challenger alleged that Nate Diaz would forfeit a $12 million payday if he chose to compete in boxing against Jake Paul as opposed to the blockbuster trilogy fight with Conor McGregor.
Following a victory over former interim champion Tony Ferguson at UFC 279, the Stockton native Nate Diaz parted ways with UFC. Now that he is a free agent, he is considering his options outside of the UFC. Ever since then, many people have been speculating about his next move.
Chael Sonnen, a UFC veteran, is one of them. Sonnen shared his thoughts on what Diaz should do next in an interview with Middle Easy. Despite the fact that the former UFC title contender acknowledges Diaz has several options, he thinks the latter will choose a boxing match. But Sonnen claimed that by doing so, Stockton’s second child may lose out on a huge payday from his trilogy fight with the Irish UFC star.
“We’ve been saying that he would go and fight Jake Paul. And we did that for about a year. And all of a sudden Jake’s like, ‘I’ll fight him’ and Nate’s like, ‘I would never do that, that’s stupid.’ Fighters have the right to do that to gain headlines. But Nate doesn’t have a history of that,” Sonnen said.
“I guess he’s going to boxing. I mean, I can’t imagine the money. He’s probably steering about $12 million dollars to go and fight Conor McGregor a third time. I can’t imagine there’s that kind of money, even half of that in boxing,” he added.
Will Conor McGregor vs Nate Diaz 3 happen?
Diaz and McGregor have crossed paths twice inside the UFC octagon. For the UFC, both of their fights generated a sizable number of pay-per-views. With the first fight generating $80M (1.5M PPV buys) and the second earning over $90M (1.65M PPV buys), both fights are ranked among the top 5 highest-earning UFC fights.
Therefore, the company was trying to make the third clash between them. However, it never came to fruition due to many reasons. But now, both the combatants have agreed to the blockbuster trilogy.
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McGregor and even Diaz admitted that the third fight is bound to happen before they bid adieu to the sport. Thus, there is a high chance that we will see them clash against each other for the third time. However, they have only verbally agreed and there has been no official news about the same.
Do you guys think this trilogy will happen in the future? What are your thoughts on Sonnen’s words?
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