But it seems “Platinum” wasn’t the only opponent offered for the May 16 fight card, booked for Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. Retired UFC lightweight Josh Thomson was also in the running before Diaz passed, which then sent the 47 year-old “Punk” into negotiations with Diaz teammate Chris Avila.
“The MVP card, I knew about it last summer,” Thomson said on his Weighing In podcast. “Then I knew that they were looking for somebody to potentially fight Nate. And here’s the thing, the promotion wasn’t gonna offer you any less money to fight me, or to fight Mike Perry. He chose Mike Perry. I gotta give him credit for that. I ran into your people at the Texas A&M vs. LSU game last year. And I guess the concern from you, Nate, was that you wanted me to fight somebody else, because I had been inactive for a while. I was like, ‘All right, cool, I’ll take it. Who do you have in mind?’ They’re like, ‘Oh, I don’t know, like, give me some names.’ I said, ‘Why don’t I just fight Gilbert Melendez or Chris Avila?’ And then if I beat one of those guys, that gets me active again. Gets me back on track. But then I’ll fight Nate.”
“And then this whole thing happened in January, and then February came, you went off to the UFC,” Thomson continued. “I was like, ‘Oh, he ain’t fighting, he’s gonna go fight Conor, smart on his part.’ And then that deal didn’t go through, and then you came back, and then you’re fighting Mike Perry, which I still get it. Then I got a call that, ‘Hey, Chris Avila might be looking for an opponent, he’s gonna be on the card.’ I said, ‘Well, let’s let’s go ahead and do that one.’ After I beat Chris, then let’s try and make the Nate fight happen, because that was Nate’s concern. Now you’re turning down a fight with me and saying you want an easier fight. That they went and signed whoever to fight Chris Avila. All that West Coast gangster sh*t. And you guys are over here saying, ‘No, you don’t want to fight a 47 year-old who hasn’t fought in seven years.’ I was laughing. You ain’t gangsters, dude.”
To see who else is fighting at the upcoming Netflix MMA: “Rousey vs. Carano” event click here.
