{"id":129539,"date":"2025-05-25T02:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T02:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/129539\/"},"modified":"2025-05-25T02:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T02:29:08","slug":"nate-diaz-almost-rematched-ufc-rival-in-the-boxing-ring-12-years-after-his-first-ko-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/129539\/","title":{"rendered":"Nate Diaz almost rematched UFC rival in the boxing ring 12 years after his first KO loss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nate Diaz was recently in talks to box another one of his former UFC foes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There aren\u2019t many fighters more iconic than Nate Diaz<\/a>, the former UFC title challenger out of Stockton. Diaz fought a murderer\u2019s row in the UFC\u2019s lightweight and welterweight divisions where he became a massive pay-per-view draw with a 2016 submission win over Conor McGregor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Diaz went on to sell over 2 million pay-per-views in his series with McGregor and years later, he headlined Madison Square Garden where he battled Jorge Masvidal<\/a> for the inaugural BMF title in 2019.<\/p>\n

Diaz ultimately lost by doctor\u2019s stoppage TKO<\/a> due to a cut over his eye. Diaz, now a free agent, later got revenge on Masvidal in a boxing match<\/a> last summer.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, Masvidal wasn\u2019t the only rival Diaz wanted to redeem himself against\u2026<\/p>\n

\"UFCPhoto by Ezra Shaw\/Zuffa LLC\/Zuffa LLC via Getty ImagesJosh Thomson says he was in talks to box Nate Diaz next<\/p>\n

In 34 fights, Diaz has only been stopped by punches once in his career and that was to Josh Thomson<\/a> in 2013.<\/p>\n

The Strikeforce star made his UFC debut against Diaz at UFC on FOX 7 on Apr. 20, 2013. Thomson bloodied Diaz in the second round of their lightweight bout and finished him off with a flush head kick and ground and pound.<\/p>\n

Thomson, 46, has been retired from MMA since 2017. Being asked about a potential comeback, Thomson revealed he was recently offered a rematch with Diaz in the boxing ring.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a little bit of an itch [to fight again] about six months ago,\u201d Thomson said on the Weighing In Podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause there was some talk that there was a potential boxing match that I could have had with Nate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just kinda dissipated,\u201d Thomson said of boxing talks with Diaz.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was some talk and conversation about possibly doing that and us being the co-main [event] on another boxing match. I would love to have had that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Josh Thomson open to boxing after ruling out MMA return<\/p>\n

Thomson was one of the most well-rounded lightweights on the planet in his heyday. The American fought the likes of Gilbert Melendez (three times), Benson Henderson<\/a> and Tony Ferguson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Retired for eight years now, Thomson says he still trains at Roger Gracie\u2019s gym in Frisco, TX.<\/p>\n

At 46 years old, \u2018The Punk\u2019 isn\u2019t planning on an MMA comeback but he is leaving the door open for a boxing match.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoxing training, just boxing is one thing,\u201d Thomson explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had to get back in and train like jiu jitsu, wrestling, MMA, I\u2019m like nah. No real desire.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if it was just a straight boxing match, yeah. I just gotta focus on making sure that my shoulders get built back up, a lot of jumping rope, a lot of footwork and movement. I could for sure do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has nothing to do with age,\u201d Thomson said of potentially fighting again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of performance-wise, it does have to do with age. I feel like I have, obviously, slowed down a lot.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nate Diaz was recently in talks to box another one of his former UFC foes. There aren\u2019t many…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,57117,57118,79,5706,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-129539","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-josh-thomson","10":"tag-nate-diaz","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-ufc","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114566120358308054","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}