Josh Thomson believes that Nate Diaz is past his days in the upper echelon of fighters, where he believes Dustin Poirier should be fighting
Josh Thomson, the first fighter to KO Nate Diaz, claims that Diaz is past his prime and would be better off fighting Conor McGregor than Dustin Poirier.
When speaking to John McCarthy on the ‘weighing in’ podcast, Thomson decided to give his take on Diaz’s current options.
“His fight with Dustin (Poirier), it’s a perfect matchup, all the shit-talking they’ve been doing back and forth.
Where were you #OnThisDay in 2016?
Nate Diaz stepped in at short notice against Conor McGregor and the rest is history ?pic.twitter.com/nwVWZEaXt6
— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) March 5, 2021
“Honestly man, I actually would kind of prefer to see the Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz 3 over the Dustin fight and I like Dustin a lot.”
With so much attention, Diaz vs Poitier seems like the fight to make at the moment but Thomson sees Poirier as being above that.
“I just want to see Dustin fight the upper echelon of fighters.
“I think Nate, right now, is not at that point anymore and I think he had his run, I think he’s getting a little bit older.”
Can you believe it’s five years since Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz had their epic rematch UFC 202?
Highlights from an amazing five-round dog fight in Las Vegas! pic.twitter.com/xDHHKAgJVN
— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) August 20, 2021
Older but not out.
Thomson didn’t claim that Diaz was washed up or finished and his belief that Poirier was a step above him doesn’t mean that Diaz can’t show up and fight.
“Here’s the other thing with him, he and his brother… there’s certain fighters that get them pumped for the fight.
“There’s certain fighters that don’t and we’ve seen them perform so-so against fighters that you could tell they’re not really motivated to fight.
“Then you see them fight guys that they were motivated to fight.”
With the idea that the McGregor trilogy was the best option for Diaz, Thomson’s view on a mutual opponent of theirs could shine a light on where Diaz still thrives.
“You go back and you watch his fight with Donald Cerrone.. he was piecing Donald up, just touching him and I think Donald had let him get into his head.”
