Conor McGregor just got the biggest payday of his career. Now, Nate Diaz wants his, too.
Diaz's boxing coach, Richard Perez, told Submission Radio on Thursday that his client has to be paid significantly more to complete the trilogy with McGregor than the combined $2.6 million he earned from their first two bouts.
"At least $20 million, $30 million," Perez said, according to MMAFighting.com's Guilherme Cruz. "Come on. UFC's making a whole lot of money, a whole lot of money, and they're pocketing it. They're giving more to McGregor, so it's not fair because it takes two in that ring to draw a crowd - I mean, a good two fighters. It's just like Mayweather when he fought (Andre) Berto. It was not even sold out at all. It was embarrassing. It's because that guy couldn't draw a crowd. See, that's what I'm saying, it's the fighters that draw the crowd, and Nathan and McGregor, third one would be outstanding. Everyone knows that. So he needs to get paid at least $30 million easy."
Related: Who will Conor McGregor fight next?
McGregor and Diaz split their first two fights, which were contested at 170 pounds. The UFC lightweight champion said Wednesday that Diaz will have to come down to 155 pounds if he wants a third fight.
"I'm the 155-pound champion. I faced him at 170, he beat me, then I rematched him at 170, I beat him," McGregor said. "Now I'm the 155-pound world champion. Now if he wants that fight, he must come down - that's a fair trade. I didn't ask for the rematch at a lower weight, I asked for the rematch at the exact same weight. I thought that was a fair-play move on my behalf and I came in and I won."
If McGregor and Diaz do meet again somewhere down the line, Perez has no doubts about the outcome if his client is healthy.
"If Nathan goes through training camp with no injuries, McGregor's not gonna have a chance," Perez said. "I'll tell you that right now. If you watch some of the fights, like when Nathan fought (Donald) 'Cowboy' Cerrone and some other guys, he was in tip-top shape, he wasn't injured or anything - he went out there and did it, he boxed them. And when he's in tip-top shape, he can box. I mean, they think McGregor can box, Nathan can box.
"Right now in the last two fights he fought him, the first time was 11-day notice, so it wasn't enough time but it was enough time to get a win. Second time he got injured so he had to lay back, so it put him back as far as being in shape and being accurate in timing. And people were thinking, 'Oh, he's gonna come back and be better' - no, they don't see the outcome of it, the true outcome of what happened. It's like any fighter."
