Nate Diaz had a rough outing against Mike Perry at the Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano card but he’s promising a much better performance when he returns to action again.
On Tuesday, Diaz released a statement addressing his loss to Perry, which came at the end of the second round after the one-time UFC title challenger suffered several gruesome cuts on his head that had blood pouring down his face. As a result, Diaz’s coaches stopped the fight and Perry got the win via TKO.
But Diaz laments that he had such a long layoff between fights — his last MMA bout was in 2021 and his last appearance in boxing was in 2024 — and that cost him against Perry.
“I didn’t like my lack of activity because of lack of opponents,” Diaz wrote on Instagram. “I know it was easier to get up to fight me for this fight but now I believe it will be easier to fight him.
“But all good shoutout to Mike on the win and getting me off my ass. Time to kill now. I got something to do.”
Diaz took the fight against Perry after passing on a UFC offer for him to return to the promotion for a trilogy against Conor McGregor, who is now booked to face Max Holloway at UFC 329 in July.
Unfortunately that choice didn’t pay off with Diaz absorbing a lot of damage across two rounds before the fight was stopped and Perry got the win.
Immediately afterwards, Diaz didn’t complain about the stoppage because the blood in his eyes was clearly affecting his vision but he also pitched a rematch to run it back with Perry again. Most Valuable Promotions’ co-founders Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian also expressed interest in possibly booking Diaz against Perry again on a future MVP MMA show.
There’s no telling if the rematch ever happens but it looks like Diaz is ready to go whenever he gets the chance to fight Perry again.
