Matt Brown isn't convinced by Nate Diaz's public explanation for declining a UFC return in favor of fighting Mike Perry on the May 16 Netflix card headlined by Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano. Speaking on The Fighter vs. The Writer, Brown argued that the Netflix deal certainly paid more than what the UFC was offering and that Diaz's decision does not hold up to scrutiny as a matter of principle.
The situation began when UFC CEO Dana White revealed that the promotion was in talks to bring Diaz back, but he believed that Most Valuable Promotions had made him an offer he could not refuse. Diaz publicly hit back, claiming that the UFC had actually offered him more money for a trilogy fight against Conor McGregor and that he turned it down because he had no interest in facing McGregor on his "last leg" after being out of action for five years. Brown knows Diaz well enough to know that he respects the framing but does not accept it at face value.
“Money talks,” Brown said. "He's making more money with this Netflix fight than he is with the UFC. That's why he's not fighting Conor in the UFC. I lean toward believing Dana on this. He got an offer he couldn't refuse. Now, with the way the contract is structured, with how Nate is spinning it, there might be something going on a few layers down behind the scenes that we don't know about yet. But there's no way he's making more money. Not earning.
"I don't believe for a moment that he's not making more money with this Netflix deal, although whatever happens, he ends up with more money in his bank account from this fight than the UFC, or he doesn't take the fight. He's going to pick the highest bidder. I don't think that's unique to Nate Diaz, but I think he understands that this is a prize fight. He's fighting for the money. He's going to take the highest pay. Is."
Nate Diaz's MVP deal
Brown's broader theory is that Diaz's deal with MVP could be tied to fewer terms than UFC returns, and the contract structure could be as important a factor as the upfront money.
"There's either something more to it, like potentially he didn't want to sign another contract with the UFC or something along those lines," Brown said. "When they say there was an offer he couldn't refuse, maybe it wasn't just the money. Maybe there was something else going on behind the scenes with him. When he says they offered him more money, up front, they offered him more money - is there something going on through the back door?
"It doesn't make sense to me that he would simply accept a lower salary for what would probably be an uphill battle for him. There's something where the math is not adding up. There are some things going on behind the scenes, behind closed doors, that we don't know about."
