Nate Diaz signals return on Instagram: ‘I’ll see you around May, June’

He used many words not fit for print here, but the gist of what Nate Diaz was saying in a Tuesday night Instagram post was this:

“I’ll see u around may, June. Sincerely, The Real Champ.”

Stockton’s Diaz, who has been out of the UFC octagon since his narrow, dramatic August 2016 loss by decision to UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor, has been reluctant to return without the right, multimillion-dollar deal.

Late last year, he balked at the UFC’s offer to fight welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, perhaps rightly reasoning that a third fight with McGregor is the best way to maximize his purse money.

Woodley proceeded to undergo shoulder surgery, and McGregor is deciding whether early summer or September is the best time to take his first UFC fight since November 2016, with the UFC pointing the winner of the April 7 Tony Ferguson-Khabib Nurmagomedov fight toward him.

In his Instagram post, Diaz spoke not only for himself, but for many viewers of the gamesmanship, topping the words with a photo of himself shooting two middle fingers toward the octagon.

“Sick of sitting around waiting for you [guys] to do this [stuff]. There’s no excitement in this fight [game]. Step your games up … ,” Diaz wrote.

Diaz sat in front of The Times on Saturday at the Bellator 192 card at the Forum.

He asked about some fighters in the cage and was told, “They’re lightweights. Your weight.”

He responded, “I ain’t lightweight.”

He twice fought McGregor at the 170-pound welterweight limit, but McGregor has said after winning the second meeting that Diaz should have to fight him at the lightweight limit of 155 pounds in closing the trilogy.

When told there’s speculation McGregor would return to fight Diaz, not the lightweights, Diaz answered, “Yeah, I know. … I’m just training to get ready for war nowadays.”

lance.pugmire@latimes.com

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