Tommy Fury is reported to be taking on Jake Paul in a rescheduled fight later this summer, but a new option has opened up for the American with UFC president Dana White suggesting that he should fight Nate Diaz rather than Fury.
Diaz has publicly spoken out about his place on the UFC roster due to a lack of action and on Tuesday he tweeted as such, saying that he would like a fight this summer. Now, White has said that he could see a fight between Paul and Diaz being a possibility amid speculation surrounding the 37-year-old's future.
White told The Mac Life that he believes that a fight with Paul should be the next step for the man who beat Conor McGregor in 2015, saying: “He probably should go on and fight Jake Paul. That’s a fight that makes sense.”
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He added: “I like Nate. Let’s be honest, Nate’s won one fight in the last five or six years. When these guys get into these positions, guys that have been with us for a long time that we respect, that we care about. You got the Cerrones, and Anthony Pettis before he left. And you got Nate Diaz and Nick Diaz is still under contract with us,” White said.
“You want to be fair to everybody, you want to do the right things, whatever. Nate Diaz isn’t gonna fight Kamaru Usman." He explained. “Listen, we’re trying to do the best we can. I’m trying not to shit on anybody and disrespect anybody. It’s not like we’re talking about Kamaru Usman here. We’re talking about Nate Diaz. Nate’s won one fight in five years. We’re trying to figure this thing out with him.”
However, Paul's camp appear to be continuing to target a fight against Fury, despite the Fury camp's apparent reservations surrounding the fight. Paul's trainer Danny Smith says that he believes that negotiations for a fight against Fury are '90% done', as he explained in an interview with Vegas Insider.
“I'd probably say that we're around 90% done but we're just waiting on their end. We're good on our end. Whatever particulars that need to be worked out there end that's what we're waiting on,"
“I think so without question [ Tommy Fury is the right fight for Jake]. And I like it because Tommy is a very fast foot guy, very fast hands and he moves around and understands distance and range, he boxes fairly well. It's going to be really, really good. He's not a huge puncher, but decent, with the right hand he is pretty decent."
