Dana White offers Nick Diaz fight against Lyoto Machida at middleweight

[Dale]

Perhaps Lyoto Machida can be the one to get Nick Diaz out of retirement.

A day after UFC president Dana White told FUEL TV's "UFC Tonight" that he wanted to book a middleweight fight between Machida and Vitor Belfort, White said on Wednesday he offered Diaz a fight against Machida at middleweight.

"I talked to Diaz today, and I made him an offer, so we'll see what happens," White reportedly said during a question-and-answer session in Boston for The Shawn Thornton Foundation, a charity dedicated to improving the lives of those affected by cancer and Parkinson's diseases. MMAJunkie.com first reported the news.

"He had been talking about going to 185 pounds. Machida has been talking about going to 185 pounds. So we wanted to see if he wanted to fight Machida at 185."

White told MMAFighting.com afterwards that he offered the fight to Diaz himself, but he didn't know which fight had better a chance of happening: Machida vs. Belfort or Machida vs. Diaz.

Belfort has yet to comment on the potential Machida fight.

Of course, the 30-year-old Diaz vowed to retire from MMA following his UFC 158 loss to Georges St-Pierre, unless he received a rematch against St-Pierre or a fight against Anderson Silva, which didn't seem likely at the time. Thus far, Diaz has not hinted at a comeback, however, he has kept a low-profile since the welterweight title fight against St-Pierre in March.

Machida most recently lost a controversial unanimous decision to Phil Davis at UFC 163. Machida's manager, Jorge Guimaraes, told "UFC Tonight" on Tuesday that they loved the idea of fighting Belfort at either middleweight, light heavyweight or a catch-weight. He was not available to comment on the Diaz proposal.

Don't see Diaz being interested in this at all, Machida's elusive style would likely piss Diaz off to no end and he'd then go on a tirade about him running from him.

 

[TheOneKnownAsFetter]

Don't see Diaz being interested in this at all, Machida's elusive style would likely piss Diaz off to no end and he'd then go on a tirade about him running from him.

Not really sure. He wasn't very elusive against Johnny Bones or Davis.

 

[The Cork]

Basically the exact same fight as Diaz/Condit, Nick swinging and missing then throwing a hissy fit when he loses.

 

[Deezy]

Fuck Dazi! I want Vitor vs Machida.

Give Diaz Hendo, then atleast he knows he won't have someone running from him.

 

[Slim]

I think the most entertaining part of the fight would be Diaz standing there trying to goad Machida into coming in and Machida just standing back waiting for Diaz to throw a punch so it'd be a lot of dancing and taunting.