Under många år har Vicente Luque (21-7) bett om en fight mot Nate Diaz (20-13) och nu tror han sig var närmare detta än någonsin.
Vicente Luque och Nate Diaz eniga om ett möte
Luque är känd som en av de mest underhållande fighters i UFC samtidigt som han sällan yttrar ett dåligt ord om någon, inklusive sina motståndare. Han har alltid beundrat Diaz vilket gjorde att hans yttrade önskemål att möta denne aldrig liknade en klassisk utmaning.
Istället såg brassen det som en ära att få kliva in i buren mot någon som Diaz och han har visat stor respekt när han bett om matchningen. Luque sade följande till MMA Fighting där han hyllade Diaz:
He’s a great fighter, he’s a legend. Having that on my resume, that’s huge for me. The other thing is he has that status. He is the gangster. He goes in there and he fights and he goes forward and always he will fight till the last second with all the heart he has and I want to go and step in there with a guy like that and show that I can do that and maybe I can do that even better than he does.
I think it’s about my legacy, about showing what my style is against a tough guy like Nate. Against a guy that has already proved he’s one of the toughest in the sport. That’s what this fight is for me.
Väntar nu på UFC:s drag
För ett par veckor sedan blev Luques önskemål äntligen bemött när Diaz svarade på hans meddelande med ”let’s fight”. Nu väntar Luque endast på att UFC ska säga detsamma:
So let’s fight pic.twitter.com/lN0raom82L
— Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) September 13, 2021
I’m really interested in this fight. I know that Nate is interested as well. So I think it’s the fight to make. We’re waiting. I let my manager Ali [Abdelaziz] [know], he knows that I want that fight. He’s working on it.
Nate has clearly shown he wants that fight, he wants to make it happen. I think it’s up to the UFC to make it happen, set a date for us and I think it’s a big fight. I’m sure the fans are going to enjoy it. They’re going to want to watch that one. Even though it’s the last month of the year December, we still can catch that Fight of the Year possible contender. I would love to have that fight.
Vill gå fem ronder mot Diaz
Ett önskemål som Diaz fick beviljat i sin senaste match mot Leon Edwards var att få gå fem ronder trots att det varken var en huvud eller titelmatch. Luque skulle även han vilja gå fem ronder mot den stryktålige Diaz:
I want to fight five rounds to see how it is, especially possibly fighting for the title after another fight. I would love to have a five rounder. I know Nate likes to have five rounds so let’s do that.
I even threw out there we could do 10 rounds and I’m serious about that. Maybe six, seven, eight rounds, something different if they want to throw it in just to make it special, I would be down for that as well.
Luque hoppas att få fightas innan årets slut och Diaz har sagt att han vill fightas i december så tajmingen klaffar för båda herrar. Även om inga officiella erbjudanden gjorts ännu anser Luque att UFC borde utnyttja läget när båda herrar verkar sugna på mötet.
It’s something that we both want, me and Nate want. It’s likely to happen. I mean we’ve got to wait for the UFC. At the end of the day, they’re the ones that are going to make the fight happen. I don’t know.
I think that it’s kind of like a no brainer for the UFC. Two tough guys that want to face each other and it’s going to be a banger of a fight. The fans will enjoy it. It only makes sense for it to happen so we’ll see.
