It’s been four years since Nate Diaz last fought inside an octagon. But the wait is finally over as Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), in collaboration with Netflix, will promote his return against Mike Perry on May 16 at the Intuit Dome in LA. While everyone speculates if it would mark Diaz’s committed return to MMA, ‘The Stockton Slugger’ has finally answered that the return is not just for one fight, as he has his next target set.

“I’m a UFC fighter,” said Diaz during a discussion with Theo Von. “I’m working for me, for Real Fighting, and I’m hunting Jake Paul’s motherf–king a–, not taking a fight with a guy who’s on the comeback. Me and Conor will fight again when the time is right, and it’s to fight, but it’s going to be when we both on the uprising. Not when someone’s dying out. I’m nobody’s comeback story either.”

Nate Diaz’s target in question is none other than Jake Paul. Although Paul’s MVP is promoting Diaz’s fight against Perry, the two share a bitter rivalry. As such, the former UFC title challenger has already fought ‘The Problem Child’. It was just a few months after Paul’s defeat against Tommy Fury in 2023.

Diaz, making his professional boxing debut at the time, fell short as the judges declared Paul the winner via unanimous decision. But ‘The Stockton Slugger’ is seemingly not overlooking the loss as he eyes the YouTuber turned boxer next.

“What do you think I’m doing here? I’m on the hunt,” Diaz said when asked if he sees Paul fighting in MMA. “I’m gonna take his a– clean out. I’ve gotta fight Perry, get through that fight — which is a really big task at hand — and then we get the Paul fight.”

Whether it would be another boxing bout or an MMA fight is still a mystery. But Diaz, for sure, wants to scrap inside the octagon.

“We’ll see (if that happens in MMA). Time will tell, though,” Diaz added. “I think he will (fight in MMA).”

Amid that, Nate Diaz was recently linked to Conor McGregor for a fight. A trilogy setup where both had one win each in their pockets to facilitate their MMA return. However, as things stand, this particular matchup might take some time to materialize. While Diaz is booked to fight Perry, McGregor is getting linked to a rematch against Max Holloway.

Although the official announcement regarding Conor McGregor‘s next fight is yet to be made, Diaz is not very interested in that prospect. To that end, Diaz even received a proposal to fight the Irishman. However, he had his reasons to overlook it.

Nate Diaz explains the reason behind turning down UFC return offer

After Nate Diaz signed with Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) for a fight against Mike Perry, Dana White admitted to having conversations for Diaz’s UFC return. While White claimed that the ‘massive financial opportunity’ with MVP derailed that plan, Diaz has stated otherwise.

“I believe they wanted me to come back and fight Conor McGregor, not Oliveira,” said Diaz in the aforementioned conversation with Theo Von. “I’m going to fight for my belt that I created that I deserve since I started the division to bring value to all these f***ing fighters. I started this whole s***, me. That’s my belt you’re wearing around your hips.”

“And they were like, ‘Okay, we want you to come back, and maybe later we can do that.’ I’m like, well, you know who is doing a good job, [I got] almost close to the same amount offered for Mike Perry, who’s the most violent motherf***er around right now. Doing things, taking on businesses, running his own promotion.”

Well, the crux of the story is quite simple. Nate Diaz wanted a fight against the UFC BMF champion Charles Oliveira. However, the leading MMA promotion was more interested in booking him against Conor McGregor. In Diaz’s eyes, the BMF title fight holds more value than a trilogy bout with McGregor.

Hence, despite a good monetary offer, the California native refused. And that same time, Jake Paul’s MVP also approached Diaz for a fight with Mike Perry, who is referred to as “The King of Violence”. So, Diaz, being a fighter who has been part of some of the most competitive fights like the one against Jorge Masvidal in 2019, a matchup against Perry moved him.

And on May 16, we’ll ultimately get to see ‘The Stockton Slugger’ return to MMA action. On that note, who do you think wins between Diaz and Perry? Also, who do you think Diaz will fight after this? Let us know in the comments below!