09 November 2023 , 10:30
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UFC legend Nate Diaz would gladly welcome an MMA fight against Deontay Wilder in a bizarre crossover clash.
Former boxing heavyweight world champion Wilder has expressed his interest in competing in a cage as he told Blue Blood Sports TV this week: "I'm thinking about doing both, UFC and boxing. I'll be a dangerous man in the UFC with 4oz gloves. I feel like picking up a big body and slamming him, then getting on top of him and beating the s*** out of him."
'The Bronze Bomber' was quizzed about his MMA interest by Inside Fighting, who proposed Diaz as a potential opponent for him. Most definitely, Nate I’ll be down bro, I will be down to get in there with Nate for sure," Wilder said. When asked if he thinks he could beat Diaz, Wilder replied: "We gonna see, there is only one way to find out."
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Diaz responded to the call-out by tweeting: "Let’s get these contract written up asap. Real fight s*** respect to a real fighter down to fight for real. All love to boxing but this is different real shit let's f****ng go, 1993." Diaz was seemingly referring to the year the UFC was founded in his tweet as the promotion celebrates its 30-year anniversary this weekend.
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A fight between Diaz and Wilder is unlikely because of their size difference, with Diaz standing at 6'0" and weighing around 180lb whilst Wilder is 6'7" and weighs around 230lb. A more likely opponent for Wilder would be Francis Ngannou as the former UFC champion recently said a fight between the pair is in the works.
“That has been in the discussion,” Ngannou said on The MMA Hour. “That’s something that can potentially happen. Deontay Wilder for a couple of months, or a little while, has been training MMA because there’s an option here. Nothing is set, but some things have been coming to my attention, so that’s something that makes sense.
“He’s really serious about MMA. A lot of people say 'I’m going to do this in boxing and do that in MMA’ but Deontay Wilder is very interested in MMA, and even just to step in the cage for MMA and MMA only. It’s going to be hard. It’s going to be a different beast for him.”