Nate Diaz has never been the type to hold his tongue, and his latest comments about Charles Oliveira are exactly what you’d expect.
After Oliveira captured the BMF title by beating Max Holloway back in March, Diaz saw an opportunity. A former UFC champ, current BMF titleholder, dangerous everywhere, active in the division. In Diaz’s eyes, that’s the kind of fight that actually makes sense.
Apparently, Oliveira didn’t see it the same way.
According to Diaz, he reached out about making the fight happen, only to be brushed off because Oliveira was focused on chasing championship fights. Diaz understood the reasoning at first, but that patience disappeared the moment Oliveira started entertaining a possible fight with Conor McGregor.
That’s where things got personal.
“Oliveira got the belt and I was waiting for shit to happen,” Diaz told MMA Fighting. “Oliveira’s the man. I’ve been around longer than Oliveira. Everybody thinks that he’ll kill me but I’m like yeah right. I always wondered why me and Oliveira never fought. Oliveira was always getting his ass whooped when I was fcking everybody up and now he’s just out of nowhere. So when he finally got the belt and was around, I was like oh shit, I’ll fight fcking Oliveira. So I said what’s up with Oliveira? Respectfully, I’d like to fight Oliveira. He’s been around and he said ‘no, thanks homie.’ [He said] ‘I’m trying to fight for titles and do all this big shit’ and I’m like OK, you got me on that. I don’t have the belt and I’m like you could say that you little f*cker.
“Because you’re right there and then he won fcking one fight and then he called out Conor. That’s exactly what I thought when he called out Conor. Why are you trying to fight the guy who’s coming off a leg break, just got knocked out and he’s all fcked up and f*cking on a downward spiral and you’re over here like ‘no thanks, homie, I’m trying to do bigger things.’”
And honestly, Diaz does have a point.
If Oliveira’s goal is getting back to UFC gold, calling for a fight against an inactive McGregor coming off a catastrophic injury doesn’t exactly scream “title path.” McGregor is still the biggest payday in the sport, sure, but from a competitive standpoint, Diaz clearly sees it as opportunistic.
He didn’t mince words.
“I was like picking on a guy that just got his ass whooped the whole time, motherfcker?” Diaz said about Oliveira. “You’re full of shit. You think you’re fcking tight and that’s why I had something to say about Oliveira. I don’t have nothing against him except for that.
“No thanks, homie, I’m onto bigger, better things. Like what? Picking on a guy who just got his ass whooped the whole time? That’s whack.”
Diaz has already made it clear he’s not interested in immediately running things back with McGregor himself, mostly because of the long layoff and the uncertainty around what version of McGregor would actually show up. Same logic applied to a Dustin Poirier fight after Poirier’s recent loss and retirement.
But Oliveira is different.
He’s active. He’s dangerous. He’s still competing at the top level. And maybe most importantly, he’s holding the BMF belt, a title that Diaz has every reason to feel connected to.
That’s why this matchup makes sense from Diaz’s perspective.
Whether the UFC ever books it is another story.
But Diaz made one thing crystal clear:
“Those are the motherf*ckers that I’m trying to fight,” Diaz said about Oliveira. “I’m fighting the bullies.”
