Nick Diaz is living the semi-retired kind of life at the moment, acting as the face of Nick Diaz Promotions & WAR MMA, and says he's only interested in returning to the UFC for a title fight. Since the UFC has GSP & Chris Weidman booked, they are reportedly offering Diaz the next best thing--a title eliminator-level bout at 185-lbs. against an interesting opponent in Lyoto Machida. Although Machida is rumoured to be fighting Vitor Belfort at UFC 167, the UFC and Dana White specifically are irritated with Belfort for refusing to fight his original opponent Tim Kennedy. In offering Diaz the fight with Machida they seem to be weighing their options. Machida's drop to middleweight corresponds with team mate Anderson Silva's recent title loss potentially opening up an avenue for Machida to become champion again without having to go through Jon Jones. As for Diaz, the Stockton native has been a champion at middleweight before with Strikeforce. Machida would seem to be a bad match-up for Diaz stylistically as the Brazilian counter-puncher would be the last fighter to want to engage Diaz in a pillar-to-post boxing contest. The UFC supposedly approached Diaz with the offer of fighting Demian Maia in Brazil on a recent card as a replacement but nothing came of it. Machida has been campaigning for a rematch with Phil Davis after feeling his unanimous decision loss was unjustified but the fans and the promotion are cool on the idea. http://www.mmajunkie.com/news/2013/...ick-diaz-an-offer-lyoto-machida-at-185-pounds
^ Exactly. Everyone wanted to see Shogun/Machida 2 to get it out of their system. To a lesser extent the third Ortiz/Shamrock fight was the same way. There was so little entertainment in the Davis/Machida fight I think everyone would just as soon forget it. Seems like Machida shouldn't be the one to be complaining about gift decisions either given that he's had a few himself.
