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Neil Magny Still Wants to Fight Nate Diaz

At this stage, Nate Diaz fighting at UFC 200 seems very unlikely. UFC welterweight Neil Magny, however, would still love to fight the Stockton hero on the July 9 card.
Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC

One of the biggest drawbacks of Conor McGregor's highly-publicized withdrawal—or removal— from UFC 200 is that it left Nate Diaz, the fighter the Irishman was expected to share the cage with on the July 9 card, without an opponent. And though UFC president Dana White assured that the UFC was hunting for a replacement opponent for Diaz, the Stockton native rebutted that for him, it was McGregor or nobody.

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So, when it was announced that McGregor was officially off the card, Diaz packed his bags and set out on vacation, smothering what little hope remained that he would be stepping onto canvas in Vegas on July 9. If his Instagram posts are any indication, he's now soundly in vacation mode, spending his days relaxing and hanging out with Jean-Claude Van Damme. In sum, UFC 200 seems to be the furthest thing from his mind.

One person, however, has not given up on Diaz's re-joining the UFC 200 bill. That person is surging UFC welterweight Neil Magny.

When we last saw Magny, he dazzled onlookers with a come-from-behind battering of former Bellator champ Hector Lombard. The win, which registered as a fairly substantial upset, pushed the oft-underappreciated TUF vet into the uppermost echelon of the welterweight rankings, where high-stakes bouts with the division's top contenders seemed to await. Unfortunately, however, most of the welterweight division's top dogs are currently booked.

Matt Brown and Demian Maia are set to tangle at UFC 198 later this month. Stephen Thompson and Rory MacDonald will mix it up in Ottawa on June 18. Johny Hendricks is scheduled for a scrap with Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 200. Tyron Woodley is expected to take on divisional king Robbie Lawler sometime this summer. Carlos Condit is floating somewhere between retirement and one more scrap. Yes, while Magny's thumping of Lombard undoubtedly earned him a date with a top-ranked opponent, the fact is that all of the welterweight division's best are currently preoccupied. This then, left Magny with two choices. The first was to play the waiting game. Given that Magny fought a whopping 5 times in 2015 alone, however, we know that inactivity is not his style. So, provided he's interested in fighting before the leaves change colours, Magny was left with just one option: get creative.

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That's just what he did when he threw his name in the McGregor-replacement hat on Twitter, and what he did once again when he spoke with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour earlier this week.

"The opportunity came up when I saw Conor McGregor pull out of the fight," Magny told Helwani on the show. "Nate didn't have an opponent at the time and I just thought it would be a great thing for me. Everyone ranked above me in the welterweight division is preoccupied to fight, so I thought why not pick a fight against Nate Diaz."

"It would be a huge opportunity for me to keep relevant," Magny continued. "The opportunity to fight at UFC 200 would have been huge and, against Nate Diaz, who is coming off an impressive win over McGregor, would be huge for my career. I just saw the opportunity and it wasn't anything personal against Nate Diaz, it was just the chance to fight him at UFC 200. That is a fight that would be great for the fans, as well. I don't think he or I would hold back in that fight. It would just be an all out war where the fans get a fight they can really appreciate. And it might be along the lines of the fight between Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin. I'm sure we would both leave it all in that Octagon and just go to war."

Of course, it's hard to imagine a pairing of Magny and Diaz looking anything like the all-out, clip-emptying firefight that was Griffin vs. Bonnar 1. While Diaz and Magny are both often in fun fights, both are also measured technicians who rarely get careless. Their throwing caution to the win in a throwback-style slugfest, then, seems unlikely. All that being said, however, their prospective pairing would undoubtedly be very entertaining, as the two fighters, both well-rounded an technical, match up beautiful on paper. And better still, as two relevant, big-name fighters, they would make an excellent addition to the UFC 200 bill.

In the wake of the McGregor debacle, the UFC scrambled to build UFC 200 back into the stacked, record-breaking card that fans expected. And while they've done a pretty good job by throwing Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones into the main event spot, many fans still feel the card is missing a little something. A Diaz brother taking on a game, hungry opponent would almost certainly be that something in the eyes of the fans.

It'd be a real shame to cut Diaz's vacation short, but from the perspective of a fan—which is so often a selfish perspective—we hope this fight gets made. Yes, Diaz's desire for superstar opponents (something Magny is not), renders it a pretty unlikely possibility, but there's no denying this welterweight showdown would make an excellent addition to the UFC 200 lineup. Here's hoping Magny gets his wish.