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UFC President Dana White didn’t have anything nice to say about former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley when “The Chosen One” was getting into the Jake Paul business. But then again, White and Woodley never seemed to see eye-to-eye on … well, anything.
Former 170-pound headliner Nate Diaz on the other hand…
“We feel the same way about Nate, we always have,” White said during the “Contender Series” press conference. “I’ve always joked around about dealing with the Diaz Brothers. These two, you see it now. They’re two iconic fighters that 20 years from now everybody will remember and talk about.”
“This will always be Nate’s house,” White continued. “Nate grew up here. He came in on The Ultimate Fighter [and] fought some of the biggest fights ever here. We love the kid. I don’t know about fighting in the future, but this is always going to be his house. We’ll see.”
Like Woodley (and a few others) before him, the 38 year-old Diaz recently parted ways with UFC and tried his hand at celebrity boxing, coming up short on the judges’ scorecards after 10 rounds of pay-per-view (PPV) action on Aug. 5 in Dallas.
Paul, 26, now hold victories over four UFC fighters including two ex-champions.
“For a kid pushing 40 years old fighting a guy four weight classes bigger than him in boxing and two in MMA and going the distance at his age against a 20-something-year-old kid, so far he’s fared the best out of everybody,” White added. “He looked good. I’m happy for him.”
Diaz is hoping for a Paul rematch in MMA and previously teased a return to UFC at some point in the not-too-distant future.