In late May, UFC executives Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta flew out to Stockton, California to meet with Nate Diaz, supposedly to work out a deal for the rematch against Conor McGregor.
Initial reports after the said meeting claimed that White "stormed out" of the meeting "visibly angry". However, during his special MMA Hour episode last Tuesday, Diaz merely downplayed the reports as a mere exaggeration.
But in his own appearance on FOX Sports 1’s "The Herd" on Thursday, White confirmed that the meeting between him and Diaz did not end well.
"That was true. It wasn't necessarily as much Nate Diaz as it was the management, but yeah, I did," White said (transcription by MMA Fighting). "And the problem is -- what drives me crazy is when you have a contract. Everybody sits down at one point and we do a deal. Everybody is happy. You shake hands, you hug. And then we move onto the next fight and everybody wants to blow up the deal."
For his part, Diaz had been adamant about getting paid what is due for him, claiming that his most recent paycheck is "reimbursement" for the work he had put in over the course of his career. But for White, the main issue is honoring the contract that the UFC had previously made for both fighters.
"Conor has a deal. It's not like we went in and renegotiated," White explained. "This was a big myth coming out of that fight. Conor McGregor has never, ever -- not only does he step up and take big fights last minute, moved up however many pounds to fight Nate and was willing to fight anybody; that's why people love Conor, because Conor will fight anybody, anywhere, anytime -- he has never come back and tried to renegotiate a contract, ever. Ever."
"So that was a big myth that he was doing that. Nate, we signed a new deal going into that fight, then he signed the contract for UFC 200. So then Conor doesn't show up for UFC 200, and now Nate is trying to blow up the deal. It's just frustrating."
"But listen, that's the business we're in. This is what we do. Everybody is not going to be happy all the time. It's part of the deal, so now our job is, Lorenzo (Fertitta) and I have to sit down and try to figure out how to make this deal work."
White also confirmed that due to the lack of time to complete the deal for the Diaz rematch, McGregor may have to pick a new opponent for his next fight.
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