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Dana White's Patience with the Diaz Brothers Seems to be Wearing Thin

Dana White Laments the Diaz Brothers Sitting Out Their Window of Opportunity

No one can say that the Diaz brothers, Nick and Nate, aren’t talented fighters. Nick has won the Strikeforce and WEC welterweight titles and fought for the UFC’s 170-pound championship. Nate won The Ultimate Fighter 5 lightweight tournament. He’s earned five Fight of the Night awards, five Submission of the Night awards, and one Knockout of the Night bonus.

They have a loyal and rabid fan base, but both have recently stated that they want out of their UFC contracts.

Nick Diaz announced a pseudo-retirement following his UFC 158 loss to Georges St-Pierre for the welterweight title. He’s on a two-fight losing streak, losing to Carlos Condit for the interim welterweight title at UFC 143 prior to the loss to St-Pierre. In a recent interview with The Boxing Channel, the older Diaz said he wished someone would buy out his contract so he could pursue a boxing career.

Nate Diaz snapped a two-fight losing streak in his last outing, defeating Gray Maynard by technical knockout on Nov. 30, 2013. He’s voiced his displeasure with his current UFC deal on Twitter and asked to be released from his contract. Both brothers have called for title shots in order to return.

UFC president Dana White addressed the situation with the Stockton duo following The Ultimate Fighter Nations Finale in Quebec City in Canada on Wednesday.

Nick Diaz has a contract. The whole crazy thing with the Diaz brothers, this is one of those situations that is gonna be sad in a few years when you look back on it. You're gonna see two talented kids that had fans and had interest in fighting and they sat out,” said White.

“What people don't realize, and when you're in the moment, your time is now. Guys don't realize until it's over. You will never make that kind of money again for the rest of your life. You should fight as much as you can possibly fight, get as popular as you can possibly get to make as much money as you possibly can,” added the UFC president.

Nate was offered a fight with undefeated rising star Khabib Nurmagomedov but turned the fight down.

“Coming off of two losses and then you get a win, the Nate Diaz thing. Nate was in position, he fought for the title, then he fought again to put himself back in title contention and then he got knocked out in that fight, and now wants a new contract and wants a title shot and all this. That is not how this all works,” said White.

Nick was offered a fight against Hector Lombard and initially seemed interested in the match-up but has since cut off communication with the organization.

“You can't pick up the phone and call these guys. I talked to Nick. I offered him the Lombard fight. Said he was interested in it and then he's gone, disappears,” White said.

The patience of White and the UFC seems to be wearing thin when it comes to the Diaz brothers, and the window for them to return to the organization seems to be rapidly closing.

“You can sit out, you can talk all you want, you can tweet all you want, you can do whatever you want; the bus is gonna pass you by and you're gonna be sitting there saying what did I do. Or maybe they won't,” he said. “Life goes on. Life goes on without anybody. Presidents of countries leave, die, move on, whatever, the world moves on without you.”

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