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LAS VEGAS – Nick Diaz (25-7 MMA, 6-4 UFC) now says he regrets his decision to pass up a boxing contract for a return to the UFC.
Three days before his UFC 137 headliner opposite B.J. Penn (16-7-2 MMA, 12-6-2 UFC), Diaz said a trip to the square circle would have benefitted him more in the long term than the continuation of his MMA career.
"If I had my chance to do it over again, I would have gone back to the boxing contract," the former Strikeforce champion said today.
Diaz was on the precipice of a move to boxing as part of his previous contract with Strikeforce, which in March was purchased by UFC parent company Zuffa, LLC. Boxers Jeff Lacy, Fernando Vargas and Sergio Martinez were floated as opponents.
In the end, though, UFC president Dana White convinced the outspoken fighter to sign a new deal, and a big deal at that – a shot at Georges St-Pierre's welterweight title at UFC 137.
Of course, that never happened. Diaz lost the opportunity by no-showing a press conference in support of the event, and in a shocking turn of events, he was re-booked to meet Penn, a former training partner. (St-Pierre was later forced to bow out with a knee injury, and Diaz vs. Penn was rebooked as the main event of the Oct. 29 pay-per-view card.)
Diaz, who's previously trained alongside champion boxer Andre Ward, has made no effort to hide his displeasure about fighting Penn, and what he said is a lower pay scale for the new bout.
Boxing, he lamented, would have paid more.
"I would have took my punches, win or lose," he said. "Just done my job: fight and get paid."
Prior to signing his new contract, Diaz has often railed at what he perceives as a win-at-all costs mentality in the UFC. Today, he said the UFC he's returning to is nothing like the one in which he currently finds himself. It's far more of a business and less about fighting.
But when it comes to his own business, Diaz believes he missed out by not taking the boxing matches for a later return to MMA.
"I'm sure [the UFC] would have had me back here, or somewhere," he said. "You want to see a pro boxer fight MMA, and then you have yourself a high-level pro boxer that's coming back. So in my opinion – I don't really think about it until it's all over with – but I figure I would have made plenty of money here, and then would have made more money later.
"It definitely would have worked out if I had done what I had set out to do."
UFC 137 takes place at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Main-card action airs live on pay-per-view while preliminary fights air live on Spike TV and stream on Facebook.
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