UFC

Nate Diaz said he's been offered zero fights from UFC in the last nine months in a response to UFC president Dana White:

Dana said Francis Ngannou was injured and couldn’t fight right now
Idk why he was so confused in interview.
And in the last 9 months I been offered 0 fights and I asked for 5 legitimate opponents ..
Thanks u for the kind words can I go now 👊🏼

— Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) July 17, 2022

Diaz had previously complained that UFC is holding him back as he remains under contract without the opportunity to do anything outside of the organization. He asked for his release from UFC in March.

"When isn’t Nate Diaz saying something crazy?" White said Saturday night after UFC Long Island. "I've said this a million times and I’ll say it again—we can't hold guys hostage. It's not possible.

"I owe you three fights a year. If I don't fight you three times a year, I have to pay you. How could I hold him hostage?"

Diaz, 37, was a title contender earlier in his career and headlined multiple pay-per-view events, but he has seen little action in recent years. He's competed in just three matches since 2016 and hasn't seen the Octagon since his June 2021 loss to Leon Edwards.

According to Ariel Helwani of The MMA Hour, Diaz hasn't been offered a fight in 2022 and UFC has until October to create a bout for the veteran.

Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev will clash for the vacant UFC lightweight title at Oct. 22's UFC 280 event.

The announcement was made Saturday during the UFC Long Island broadcast.

UFC 280 will take place at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, and Oliveira-Makhachev will headline the card.

The 32-year-old Oliveira won the vacant UFC lightweight title in a second-round technical knockout win over Michael Chandler at UFC 262 in May 2021.

He followed that up with a successful defense against Dustin Poirier at UFC 269 in December 2021, winning by third-round submission, but that would prove to be his final defense.

Prior to a scheduled defense against Justin Gaethje at UFC 274 in May, Oliveira failed to make weight and was stripped of the title.

Gaethje would have become the new champion if he beat Oliveira at catchweight, but Oliveira won by first-round submission.

Oliveira is in the midst of an 11-fight winning streak and owns a career record of 33-8. His last four victories have come against Tony Ferguson, Chandler, Poirier and Gaethje, establishing him as the clear top dog in the lightweight division following the retirement of Khabib Nurmagomedov.

In Makhachev, Oliveira will be facing an opponent whom Khabib had a hand in training, as they are both from the Dagestan region of Russia.

The 30-year-old Makhachev is 22-1 in his career and has won 10 fights in a row, including a first-round TKO over Bobby Green in his most recent outing at UFC Fight Night 202 in February.

Oliveira is easily the toughest matchup Makhachev has faced in the UFC so far. Of the 11 men Makhachev has beaten in the UFC, only Dan Hooker (No. 13) and Arman Tsarukyan (No. 10) are currently ranked in the Top 15 of the lightweight division.

The current UFC rankings have Oliveira atop the lightweight division with Makhachev in fourth behind Poirier and Gaethje. Since Oliveira has already defeated Poirier and Gaethje, Makhachev was the next logical opponent.

At UFC 276, Alex Volkanovski didn't leave much room for interpretation.

First, he defeated the great Max Holloway for the third time, dominating the former champ to defend his featherweight title and close the door on their rivalry.

Then, on no uncertain terms, he reiterated his desire to move on to greener, heavier pastures.

"I just proved to you that I want to be in this Octagon as much as possible,” Volkanovski said after Saturday's fight at T-Mobile Arena, per Damon Martin of MMA Fighting. "I want to be busy. I want to move up [to lightweight] and go for double champ, and I'll keep two divisions busy. Charles [Oliveira], whoever gets that belt, no disrespect, I'd love to move up, get that double-champ status."

He's certainly earned the right to try his hand.

After taking out Holloway via unanimous decision in the co-main event, Volkanovski is now 25-1 overall, 12-0 in the UFC and 4-0 in consecutive title defenses. During the performance, he outlanded Holloway (23-7) by a 199-127 margin, a far greater difference than their two previous matchups. If that's not a cleaned-out division, it's pretty darn close.

There are still bows at featherweight; Josh Emmett or the winner of the bout between Yair Rodriguez and Brian Ortega on July 16 come to mind. Another high-profile name who has thrown himself into the ring is Henry Cejudo. But let's hit the brakes on that one right now. As great as the semi-retired Cejudo was, he's still a flyweight who stretched to make bantamweight. He'd be massively undersized against Volkanovski, a featherweight who has competed at welterweight.

In any case, lightweight is clearly Volk's preferred destination, and he wants to go straight to a title shot. The former rugby player should have no trouble adding the requisite mass. However, with the lightweight belt sitting vacant and with an injured hand clouding Volk's return timeline, his request requires a bit of a thought exercise.

Oliveira will likely be one-half of the lightweight title bout whenever it's announced. But who else might be in the mix for Volk at 155 pounds, regardless of whether he gets to cut the line? Here are five possibilities listed in no particular order.

Charles Oliveira

Let's get the obvious choice out of the way first. You can rearrange Oliveira, Volkanovski, middleweight champ Israel Adesanya and welterweight champ Kamaru Usman at the top of the pound-for-pound list, but no matter how you slice it, this matchup would give you two of the four best fighters on planet Earth.

But here's the rub: Oliveira has repeatedly called for a date with Conor McGregor, whenever McGregor returns from that gruesome leg injury (the general target is early fall).

So that may leave Volkanovski—and everyone else—on the outside looking in when it comes to the lightweight title picture. But there are even more complications. Oliveira recently told Helen Yee Sports that he's willing to move up a weight class if it means securing the McGregor fight. No shade on Oliveira for following the money, but it further complicates the scenarios at 155.

Dustin Poirier

Poirier appears to be on a collision course with Michael Chandler following a cageside fracas at UFC 276. Still, you know he'd love one or both of the following things to happen: 1) another shot at the lightweight title and 2) something with a lot of zeroes behind it.

A mega-bout with Volkanovski would satisfy the second criterion, and it could satisfy the first if Oliveira is more fixed on McGregor to the point that he'd walk away, if only temporarily, from the division he ruled for roughly a year .

If Poirier and Volkanovski were to lock horns, Poirier's pressure and inside boxing style could limit the effectiveness of Volkanovski's feinting and movement.

No matter what else happens, it would be hard to deny a title shot to the winner between these two.

Islam Makhachev

Makhachev is often painted as the third wheel in this division's title race after Oliveira and McGregor. Further, guys like Volkanovski and Poirier have much bigger name value. And third, Makhachev is good. Really good. It seems no one wants to touch the Dagestani with a 10-foot pole, given that he and his power wrestling are a threat to anyone and everyone in the division.

Volkanovski could fill the void, especially if the winner were guaranteed a title shot. This is also an intriguing matchup, with Makhachev's grappling posing a major test to Volkanovski's robust takedown defense. If Makhachev gets on top of you on the mat, it's typically curtains.

Justin Gaethje

No big deal. Just one of the biggest popcorn fights the UFC could make in any division. Gaethje is the wild card on this list, but that's just the way he likes it.

But this is more than surefire violence. How will Volkanovski's power translate to lightweight? How about his wrestling? How about his chin? Gaethje's strength, takedown defense and durability all would pose massive challenges for Volkanovski.

Conor McGregor

In April, Volkanovski told TMZ Sports that he was indeed interested in facing McGregor once the Irishman returns.

"Oh, yeah. … It's always going to interest a lot of people,” Volkanovski said. "It's always going to be a big fight. There's always going to be money. There's going to be a circus. It's going to be entertaining. It's going to be fun. I'll enjoy that whole f--king thing."

Keep in mind that a date between Oliveira and McGregor is not a fait accompli, no matter how badly Oliveira wants it. There's an argument to be made that Volk is a bigger name than Oliveira, and McGregor's power striking would make for a counterweight to Volkanovski's pressure and volume. Volkanovski has also shown a greater aptitude than Oliveira for playing the hype game—a critical component to facing McGregor.

Ultimately, money talks, and a Volkanovski-McGregor matchup may talk the loudest, regardless of whether a title is even on the line.

Nate Diaz delivered the "Stockton Slap" to a member of the media backstage at UFC 276.

"OG" Shawny Mack of Full Send MMA approached Diaz and asked if he was there to see Sean O'Malley compete on the card. The UFC star admonished Mack for some recent posts on social media before knocking the microphone away and slapping him.

The origin of the beef is unclear. Per Jason Hartley of MMA On Point, Diaz may have taken issue with something Mack said about Nick Maximov, who has trained with Diaz.

It doesn't appear things escalated beyond the slap that was captured on video.

In 12 tries, no MMA middleweight has been able to defeat Israel Adesanya. Luckily for fans and maybe unluckily for Adesanya, then, is that a kickboxer was able to do it—and then make the jump to the UFC.

That fighter's name is Alex Pereira, and in its own way, that emphatic knockout of Sean Strickland on Saturday at UFC 276 in Paradise, Nevada, might have been even more impactful than Adesanya's dull-but-convincing middleweight title defense against Jared Cannonier in the evening's main event.

After the card, if not also before, the pairing seemed like a fait accompli, so much so that Adesanya, in his post-fight interview with color commentator and podcasting luminary Joe Rogan, called out Pereira before Rogan even had a chance to ask the question.

"We all know who is next: Poatan," Adesanya told Rogan, using Pereira's nickname. "Trust me, the first time I told you, it was an error on my part, spamming the right hand. But that was in kickboxing. … But like I said at the press conference: next time I'll put you on skates. You're gonna get frozen like Elsa."

Adesanya was a substantial favorite coming into the bout versus Cannonier, and people who played a dollar or two—or in Drake's case, a million—on the champ never had much reason to sweat.

That said, this was not a high-octane fight. While some may have foreseen Cannonier pulling a shocker out of some white-hot slugfest, Adesanya was able to maintain distance and decorum throughout.

The champ's key weapon was the jab, which he fired from perfect range, particularly as the fight wore on and he became more comfortable and Cannonier lost his stamina. As the champ switched stances, he threw the jab as a straight without missing a beat. Cannonier, a former heavyweight, was chiseled out of granite in there, but at 6'4" with an 80-inch reach, the champ had five-inch and 2.5-inch height and reach advantages, respectively, on the challenger.

Although striking numbers are admittedly and literally a one-dimensional way of examining an MMA fight, they may be useful here given that neither man attempted a submission, and only Cannonier tried a takedown, going 0-of-4 for his efforts, per official UFC stats. To put it simply, this fight didn't spend a second on the ground.

After 25 minutes of action, Adesanya took a unanimous decision on the judges' scorecards by a margin of 49-46, 49-46, 50-45.

Even for a fan or contrarian or adventure-seeking better, it was hard to find a round for Cannonier, with the possible exception of the third. He was on the end of Adesanya's jab all night and, for the most part, was not able to get inside and do damage with his trademark power. He made some hay for stretches in the clinch but wasn't able to string enough success together to make a significant difference.

Meanwhile, Adesanya continued to pick and pick. He outlanded Cannonier in significant strikes in every round except the third, where they tied 17-17. This was also the round that saw the challenger rack up the most control time, with 1:29 in the clinch.

But it wasn't enough. With about two minutes to go in the contest, the boo birds rained down in earnest. It's a tough way to watch the brilliant Adesanya win a fight over a game competitor in Cannonier. At the same time, you also understand that people want to see Adesanya, who is never shy around the microphone, walk his talk.

Enter Pereira. His place farther down the main card—and his ability to capitalize on that placement—brought drama to the main event regardless of what happened.

Let's say more about that capitalization.

This was only Pereira's third bout in the UFC, but he has 33 pro kickboxing wins under his belt. Two of those wins came over Adesanya, the first by decision in 2016 and the second by left-hook knockout in 2017.

Pereira is dangerous with both hands and showed it Saturday against Strickland. Halfway through the first round, he crushed Strickland with a left hook from outer space and then followed up with a curtain-closing right. The end came at 2:36 of the very first round.

For his part, Pereira said before the fight that he believed a Saturday win would get him a title shot.

"Yeah, this is the fight that's going to give me a chance for the title," he told Cageside Press through a translator.

Light heavyweight might still provide interesting pastures for Adesanya, but not before he defeats a formidable opponent and readymade rival in Pereira. Even as he rid himself of another challenger in Cannonier, an even more worthy foe appeared in the MMA personage of his old kickboxing adversary. Before there's any talk of 205 pounds again, Adesanya has fresh business down at 185.