After a rocky couple of years in the UFC, Nate Diaz is kicking things up a gear following his win over Michael Johnson at UFC on Fox 17.
It's been reported by MMA Fighting that the 30-year-old offered to fight former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis to try and save the failed UFC 196 pay-per-view. Sources close to Ariel Helwani confirmed the news on Tuesday.
Diaz, who was considering an exit from the UFC in 2014, re-stamped his authority in the Octagon after boxing up Michael Johnson in December. The Stockton product elevated to #6 in the official UFC lightweight rankings and immediately called out Conor McGregor in an expletive-laden and censored post-fight interview with Joe Rogan.
The highly anticipated UFC 196 PPV, which originally featured a championship rematch between Fabricio Werdum and Cain Velasquez in the main event, was axed after both heavyweights dropped out from the event. Velasquez cited a back injury for his withdrawal and Werdum pulled the plug shortly after Stipe Miocic was announced as a late-replacement challenger.
Pound for pound #1 and former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones also tried to save the PPV after he offered to challenge Miocic for the official heavyweight title. The UFC rejected both Jones and Diaz and bumped up Johny Hendricks vs. Stephen Thompson to the main event of a Fox Sports 1 broadcast.
Check out the full card below:
Fox Sports 1 Main Card
Johny Hendricks vs. Stephen Thompson
Ovince Saint Preux vs. Rafael Cavalcante
Joseph Benavidez vs. Zach Makovsky
Fox Sports 1 Prelims
Derrick Lewis vs. Damian Grabowski
Misha Cirkunov vs. Alex Nicholson
Fight Pass Prelims
Mickey Gall vs. Mike Jackson