Rizing has been in the Floyd Mayweather business for quite a while and it’s looking like they might’ve just found someone whose star power could match Money Mayweather.
Apparently the promotion is looking to book a boxing exhibition between Nate Diaz and Floyd Mayweather.
After finishing his UFC contract with a submission victory against Tony Ferguson at UFC 279, Nate Diazis is now a free agent. Or he will be once his non-compete clause is up in a couple of months.
The 37-year-old remarked during an interview after the bout that he’s interested in boxing. Sharing he wanted to show his peers “how to take over and own up another sport, how you’re supposed to do it.”
After defeating Conor McGregor in 2017, Mayweather retired with a pristine 50-0 professional record. Since then, he has participated in several exhibitions.
At Super Rizin last month, he showed he still has deadly fists by knocking out Japanese MMA pro Mikuru Asakura in the second round.
Mayweather is scheduled to face YouTube sensation Deji Olatunji in November. However, Rizin head Nobujuki Sakakibara, wants to pair Mayweather with Nate Diaz.
The former main man of PRIDE was interviewed by MMA Mania and said,
“We’ve known Nick and Nate since the days of PRIDE, and they both have wonderful personalities and fantastic fighting styles. We’ve known them for a very long time and have seen Nick fight in PRIDE previously. Therefore, if we were to work with Floyd once again, we would always have to discuss a rival.”
He continued: “We do think we’re at a point where we can’t just only focus on the Japanese market anymore. We have to target the international audience. ”
“It’s just one possibility thinking about the future. Not only Floyd’s opponent, but Nate Diaz as an individual has a great amount of character, fight style, and a great following internationally. So, as an individual, he would definitely be somebody we’d be interested to be talking to.”
Rizin should be wary – UFC has something called matching rights for another year. This means the UFC is legally able to nix any contract Diaz may have if they’re willing to match the offer.