Ronda Rousey warned the UFC and Dana White a few weeks ago that chasing cost-effective fights instead of the best ones was going to come back and bite them. She was right, and now they have a big problem. Nate Diaz announced his MMA return just a few hours ago with UFC CEO Dana White’s rival, Jake Paul’s promotion.

On May 15, Most Valuable Promotions will host the Stockton native’s comeback against BKFC champion and former UFC star Mike Perry in a five-round welterweight fight. The stakes are even higher for the UFC, since the same card will feature former UFC stars Ronda Rousey and Francis Ngannou at the top.

Now, veteran journalist and MMA insider Ariel Helwani has shared more details about Nate Diaz’s return. He revealed that the UFC, led by Dana White and his team, actually offered Diaz a comeback, but Diaz chose to decline the opportunity.

“I think there are many interesting points to talk about,” said Ariel Helwani. “Number one, that they got Nate and Mike is huge. No secret, you know, Nate was a free man. No secret. I can tell you, UFC was interested in bringing Nate back.”

Helwani, however, did not share additional details, such as when the UFC offered Nate Diaz a return or whether the offer was lucrative. Reportedly, he may have been an option to welcome Conor McGregor back to the Octagon. The McGregor-Diaz trilogy has remained elusive ever since the pair last fought in 2016. But this move from Diaz may have closed the door on that rivalry for good.

Looking at Diaz’s recent history, it’s clear he is chasing big paydays. After leaving the UFC in 2022 following his victory over Tony Ferguson at UFC 279, he quickly took a boxing match against Jake Paul in 2023. Then, he fought Jorge Masvidal in a rematch in boxing to settle their long-standing UFC rivalry, with the series now tied at 1-1.

Even so, Diaz’s decision to return to MMA rather than continue in boxing raises eyebrows and highlights just how lucrative the Netflix-MVP offer must be. That’s where the UFC seemingly failed.

They could not meet Ronda Rousey’s financial expectations and lost the Rousey vs Carano fight to Netflix. Now, Diaz has made it two big-name stars they’ve failed to herd back to their stable. Rousey is set to face Gina Carano on the same MVP card’s main event, a matchup fans have dreamed of for nearly a decade, and that is finally happening.

Rousey had been in talks with the UFC to return last year. However, after the UFC signed a seven-year partnership with Paramount, they abandoned the ESPN and PPV model, which limited Rousey’s PPV earning potential and hurt the negotiations.

The same reasoning applies to the Stockton native, who declined the UFC’s offer. Jake Paul has built a reputation as someone who always promotes “fighters first” and frequently criticizes Dana White’s pay structure.

Beyond that, Diaz remains frustrated with the UFC due to personal issues, including a few years back when he publicly expressed his anger at Dana White after White challenged Diaz’s “needle-moving” capacity.

Diaz responds to Dana White’s critique

In his decade-long career with the UFC, Diaz headlined some of the MMA promotion’s most lucrative pay-per-view fights, all against Conor McGregor. Events like UFC 196 and UFC 202 were highly successful, with around 1.3 million and 1.65 million buys, respectively, which helped the UFC to stand out on the map. But that was not always the case.

In Dublin, two years before Diaz’s historic 2016 PPV run against McGregor, Dana White had claimed they would not renegotiate with Diaz because he was not a needle mover. When the balls were in his court after the first McGregor fight at UFC 196, Nate Diaz fired back at White, sending a direct message to the UFC head honcho.

“That’s cold, Dana,” Diaz said. “They [the UFC] had a deal with FOX. They had to reach certain numbers. You know how the deals work with this; they have to hit certain numbers for FOX, like ratings. In this month, you’ve got to hit these certain numbers, or however it works. So they’re putting all the headliners on the FOX shows. They’re like, we’ll get this guy who’s the needle mover, and we won’t have to pay him extra for it.

“They’re like, ‘this is free TV.’ I’m like, wait, wait, wait, let’s not get it twisted. Free for motherf*ckers at home who aren’t paying for pay-per-view. But you guys are getting paid. That’s how it works. So I understood what was going on. They wanted to be like, that’s why you’re not on pay-per-view (because you’re not a needle mover). I already knew what was up.”

The McGregor fights did wonders for Diaz and shot him up the popularity ladder. Three years later, he was headlining MSG with Jorge Masvidal for the inaugural BMF fight. The event reportedly sold 900K+ PPVs. So yes, he did move the needle quite a bit. But 2016 was ten years ago, and it is not hard to see why the UFC would not want to pay him top dollar anymore.

Even though Nate Diaz later reconciled with Dana White after leaving the UFC, White didn’t acknowledge him beyond his accomplishments. What do you think about the ex-UFC star choosing to return with MVP instead of the UFC? Drop your thoughts below.