Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal will get it on this November.
ESPN’s Brett Okamoto has reported that Diaz vs. Masvidal will headline UFC 244 inside Madison Square Garden in New York City on Nov. 2. The confirmation comes straight from UFC president Dana White.
It’s quite the turnaround in short order as White recently said fight fans might not see Diaz for another three years. White explained to Okamoto how things changed so quickly.
“I thought that was truly gonna be the case and this whole thing started to materialize last night. Last night Diaz’s guys were going back-and-forth with us and we ended up getting it done. Masvidal is pumped for this fight, Diaz is pumped for this fight. I’m excited for it, I’m sure the fans are very excited to see this. It’ll be the main event. Five rounds of Diaz vs. Masvidal at Madison Square Garden.”
Diaz called out Masvidal after having a successful return following a three-year absence. The Stockton native defeated Anthony Pettis via unanimous decision, then laid out the challenge to Masvidal during his post-fight speech.
“The reason I was off is cause everybody sucked. There was nobody to fight. But with this belt I wanna defend it against, Jorge Masvidal had a good last fight. All respect to the man, but there ain’t no gangstas in this game anymore. There ain’t nobody who done it right but me and him. So I know my man’s a gangsta, but he ain’t no west coast gangsta.”
The planned UFC 244 main event was a welterweight title bout between champion Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington. White confirmed a report that negotiations fell apart. Once Covington was out of the picture, the UFC turned to Usman vs. Masvidal. That also didn’t pan out, so now we’ll get a highly-anticipated bout between Diaz and Masvidal.
