Colby Covington claims "scared" Nick Diaz refused fight offer in 2021, calls it "biggest mismatch in UFC history"

Nick Diaz has just been mentioned by Colby Covington, whose recent sitdown with Submission Radio led to an interesting claim. In 2021, Covington was finally given his long-awaited UFC welterweight title shot at UFC 268, where he faced Kamaru Usman in a legendary barnburner.

Unfortunately, Covington came up short, losing via fifth-round TKO. Covington has claimed that the fight, which took place at Madison Square Garden, may have never taken place, as he was allegedly offered a fight with Diaz at the same venue in 2021. UFC 268 was the only event held by the promotion at the 'MSG' that year.

Covington, however, claimed that Diaz declined to face him, before describing the hypothetical bout as the biggest mismatch in UFC history. He said:

"The last time Hunter called me with Nick Diaz's name across my desk was when they offered me to him at Madison Square Garden about three years ago. He turned down the fight, so I think the UFC just knows that they can't match us up. I mean, that's the biggest mismatch in UFC history to give me a guy like Nick Diaz."

Covington further claimed that Diaz's alleged decision not to face him was one made out of fear. Despite the enmity between him and the Diaz brothers, Covington chose not to speak ill of them out of respect for their contributions to the sport of MMA.

"He [Nick Diaz] came up to me one time when I fought after UFC Sacramento and he's like, 'Yeah, you're the future of the division.' Showed me a lot of respect, so I'm not going to put down the Diaz brothers and talk sh*t about them. They've said some things about me, but they've done great things in the sport, and I'm not going to sit down and say anything bad about them. But, he did dodge that fight. He was scared to fight me, and that's facts."

Check out Covington talking about fighting Diaz (14:05 and 15:23):

Instead of facing Covington, Diaz took up another fight in his eventual octagon return, facing Robbie Lawler in a rematch. While he was victorious in their initial fight, knocking Lawler out back in 2004, he lost their 2021 rematch via TKO.

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Nick Diaz returns next month

Nick Diaz will make a stunning return to MMA at UFC on ABC 7 in Abu Dhabi, where he takes on welterweight knockout artist Vicente Luque, who is currently 1-3 in his last four fights.

The pair will co-headline the card on Aug. 3, marking Diaz's first fight in three years, just a day after his 41st birthday.