Nate Diaz returned to the win column this past Saturday with a win over Jorge Masvidal in the boxing ring, but former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman believes Diaz is no longer a world-class fighter.
Nate Diaz finally picked up his first combat sports win since 2022 this past Saturday when he exacted revenge on former UFC rival, Jorge Masvidal.
Following his win, Diaz called for rematches against both Jake Paul and Leon Edwards, despite no longer being contracted to the UFC.
Kamaru Usman claims Nate Diaz is no longer a world-class fighter despite boxing win
Although Diaz has never won UFC gold, he is considered one of the biggest stars in MMA because of the name he has built for himself, with his 2016 win over Conor McGregor playing a big part in his continued success.
With that, the 39-year-old is constantly rumored to return to the UFC to settle his rivalry with the Irishman and potentially other fights.
As bizarre as Diaz’s callout of Edwards was, former UFC two-weight champion, Henry Cejudo, claimed on the Pound 4 Pound Podcast that Diaz could potentially come back to the UFC and slide straight into a title fight.
That comment didn’t sit well with former welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman, who completely disputed the claim telling Cejudo to ‘get serious’.
“Nate Diaz is on the complete tail end of his career, yes of course he’s made a great name for himself, and big shoutout to Nate Diaz for still having that notoriety to be able to go out there and still get paychecks like this because he’s getting all of these good fights,” Usman began.
“To say Nate Diaz is going to come back in and walk into fighting world-class Mixed Martial Arts fighters right now in the UFC, come on, that’s absurd, that’s crazy,” the former 170lb champion continued.
‘Triple C’ posed a question to ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ asking if he thinks Diaz is still a world-class fighter, to which Usman hastily replied, ‘no’.
“He’s not a world-class fighter, are you crazy? Throw Nate Diaz in there with Shavkat Rakhmonov, throw Nate Diaz in there with me, throw Nate Diaz in there with (Jack Della Maddalena), throw Nate Diaz in there with Justin Gaethje. Come on,” Usman continued.
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Usman is confident Diaz would beat Jake Paul in posed MMA rematch
Although Usman doesn’t think the 39-year-old can return to MMA competition to fight the best out there, he does believe he could beat ‘The Problem Child’ in a rematch in MMA.
Diaz was embarrassingly dominated in his boxing debut by the Internet sensation turned-boxer last August, but Paul offered him a rematch in the PFL Smartcage.
Despite the alleged $15m offer, Diaz is yet to accept the 27-year-old’s offer.
“I think so (he beats Jake Paul in MMA). First of all, his ability to endure the punishment, second of all his grappling ability, I think gets to Jake Paul. Jake Paul hits him and Nate Diaz doesn’t go down.
“What happens when you realize it’s not ropes anymore, I’m trapped inside a cage, oh this guy is on my legs, oh this guy gets me down, oh he’s trying to choke me. Yeah, I got Nate Diaz,” Usman predicted.