Nate Diaz wants Paul, Edwards rematches after avenging Masvidal loss; responds to McGregor

Nate Diaz checked one rematch off his wish list on Saturday.

In his second fight with Jorge Masvidal, Diaz defeated his one-time UFC rival via majority decision in a 10-round boxing match at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. It wasn’t a textbook runback — their first fight happened under MMA rules at UFC 244, where Masvidal defeated Diaz via doctor stoppage — but it’s one in the win column for Diaz all the same.

Now that he’s avenged that loss, Dia has other past foes in mind. In the ring post-fight, Diaz called out Jake Paul and UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards as opponents he’d like to beat after previously suffering losses to them, and he discussed those names further speaking to the media.

“Just off the top of my head, I would like to whip [Paul’s] ass,” Diaz said at the evening’s post-fight press conference. “I would like to get a win against Leon Edwards, who’s the best fighter in the world right now at 170 [pounds]. I think that’s something major who actually brings something that I can take and put in a credential box, that’s what I’m going for. I’m not playing for no f*cking fun fights, because that shit ain’t fun.”

Paul defeated Diaz via majority decision this past August in what was Diaz’s boxing debut following a 15-year run with the UFC. After Diaz mentioned Paul live on Saturday’s broadcast, “The Problem Child” answered on social media.

“F*ck you, Nate Diaz, you’re a ho who ducked my PFL $15 million offer,” Paul wrote on Twitter, referring to a previous challenge he’d made for Diaz to fight him in PFL under MMA rules.

Despite that response, Diaz seems confident that the rematch is a possibility.

“It’s f*cking pretty realistic as far as I’m concerned,” Diaz said. “That’s the only thing I got in in my head is whoever thinks they’re f*cking tight can get their ass whooped.”

As for Edwards, he clashed with Diaz at UFC 263 in June 2021. Though Edwards went on to win a comfortable decision, he was rocked badly by Diaz in the fifth round, a moment that Diaz has worn as a badge of pride ever since. Edwards later went on to defeat Kamaru Usman for the UFC welterweight title and is scheduled to defend it against Belal Muhammad in the main event of UFC 304 on July 27.

On Saturday, Diaz was a winner on the scorecards for the first time in almost five years. When Diaz was asked for his thoughts on Masvidal criticizing the judging, he suggested that Masvidal’s power punches weren’t as effective as they looked.

“I think he threw the harder shots and was trying KO, but couldn’t get no job done,” Diaz said. “I never really got hurt. He hit me with a couple of things, I was like, ‘Alright, motherf*cker, I’m not going to let you do that again.’ If it was [less] rounds, I think we could have done a lot more damage, but it was 10 rounds, so I treated it like that.”

Another former Diaz opponent made headlines on fight night when Conor McGregor tweeted that he put $500,000 on Diaz, a near 3-to-1 underdog, to defeat Masvidal. When Diaz won, that six-figure wager turned into a $1,625,000 payout, according to McGregor.

Diaz and McGregor were involved in a blockbuster pair of headlining UFC bouts in 2016, with each man holding a win in their series. Told of McGregor’s gambling success, Diaz was nonplussed.

“That’s cool,” Diaz said with a smirk. “Good job for us.”