Nate Diaz content to wait and root for Conor McGregor as trilogy match beckons

It’s not so much that Nate Diaz is obsessing on Conor McGregor. It’s just that he doesn’t feel obligated to fight again until a McGregor-sized purse is on the table.

At a chance meeting Thursday night at a Manhattan hotel, Diaz told the Los Angeles Times he’s content to wait for his trilogy fight against McGregor.

“No other fight can give me what I can get from fighting him, so why should I fight until then?” Diaz asked.

Stockton’s Diaz (20-11) has staged two highly successful pay-per-view fights with McGregor, enjoying the best pay days of his career.

In March, Diaz stepped in as a replacement opponent for then-lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos and defeated McGregor by second-round submission in a welterweight (170-pound) fight.

The rematch in August’s UFC 202 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas was the bestselling UFC pay-per-view in history, and the main event justified the purchase as McGregor and Diaz produced five rounds of riveting action with McGregor claiming a narrow majority decision victory.

With that, featherweight champion McGregor (20-3) opted to accomplish what he sought in the first place – adding the lightweight belt to become the first fighter in UFC history to simultaneously wear two belts.

He’ll fight lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez on Saturday night in the main event of UFC 205 at Madison Square Garden.

Diaz came to watch and is obviously rooting for McGregor. Diaz previously fought for the lightweight belt in 2012, losing a unanimous decision to Benson Henderson, and McGregor said after winning in August that he would dictate that their third and decisive fight would be at the lightweight limit of 155 pounds.

When a reporter asked Diaz about the anticipation of making a trilogy fight, someone close to him mentioned Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier and Diaz nodded.

“Everyone,” he said, “wants to see it.”

Diaz was departing the hotel with his brother, Nick Diaz, the former Strikeforce champion and UFC title challenger to Georges St-Pierre.

Nick Diaz hasn’t fought since a loss to Anderson Silva on Jan. 31, 2015, after which he tested positive for marijuana and was slapped with a lengthy suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission that ended in August.

“I’ll fight again early next year,” Nick Diaz told The Times.

There’s interest in Diaz because of his drawing power from several fighters, including St-Pierre, should the former champion settle a contract disagreement with the UFC and return to the octagon.