Former UFC champion Michael Bisping believes there are plenty of options for Nate Diaz’s next fight.
Diaz returned to action last Saturday in Los Angeles, where he faced Jorge Masvidal in the boxing ring. While Diaz lost his first meeting with Masvidal in the UFC in 2019, he emerged victorious in the rematch with a hotly debated majority decision.
The win puts Diaz at 1-1 as a professional boxer, after losing his debut to influencer Jake Paul last year.
In Bisping’s mind, Masvidal’s win helped Diaz undo some of the damage done by the loss to Paul.
“This was a different Nate Diaz,” Bisping said in a video posted to his YouTube channel. “If you look at Nate Diaz and the way he performed against Jake Paul, I thought it was going to be a bad night for Nate Diaz.” [against Masvidal]But I was wrong. He came motivated, fit and super aggressive from the start. As soon as the fight started, Nate Diaz was on him, he was on his back, he was relentless. It was phenomenal.
“I think Masvidal landed the cleaner shots, the more powerful shots, but Nate Diaz was in his face the whole time,” he added. “Nate Diaz was there the whole time, pushing him back, throwing long, weird, unorthodox combinations. He was taking him down. He was the aggressor.”
“I just have respect, and it was a newfound respect because I thought he fell a little bit behind Jake Paul. [That loss] It was a little embarrassing, but that’s it. [fight with Masvidal] “It was phenomenal and showed that Nate Diaz is still a force and still needs to be respected.”
After defeating Masvidal, Diaz set his sights on a rematch with Paul, and also a title fight with UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards.
Bisping appears to view a rematch with Paul as a viable option for the former UFC star.
“He’s a guy who has a lot of options now,” Bisping said of Diaz’s next move. “Maybe he can fight Jake Paul now, but Nate Diaz has a lot of options.”
Bisping sees former UFC welterweight and middleweight Darren Till, who also won a professional boxing match over the weekend, as another option for Diaz. He also mentioned Tommy Fury and Mike Perry as possible future opponents.
“Darren Till also wants a piece of Nate Diaz,” he said. “He also wants Jake Paul. So there’s a nice love triangle between Jake Paul, Nate Diaz and Darren Till. Tommy Fury makes it a love square, probably a love hexagon.” [if] You add some other people, some other [expletive] heads, Mike Perry. He is not a [expletive] head, I’m not saying that, I love Mike Perry.”
