Exclusive | Tyron Woodley Questions Nate Diaz vs. Mike Perry Format, Reveals He Wanted That Bout
Former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley says he pushed for a fight with Nate Diaz before Diaz’s upcoming matchup with Mike Perry was made public, offering a new detail as attention builds around one of the most talked-about fights on MVP’s first MMA event. Diaz is scheduled to face Perry on May 16 at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles in a five-round welterweight bout under the Unified Rules of MMA, with the event streaming live on Netflix and headlined by Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano.
Tyron Woodley Says He Planted Seed for Nate Diaz MMA Fight
Woodley, a former UFC champion with four successful title defenses, told me in an interview with the help of TalkSPORT BET that he had already contacted people connected to the promotion side about the idea of fighting Diaz in MMA.
His comments line up with his past public interest in facing a Diaz brother, a subject he discussed in earlier media appearances, but this interview adds the clearest version yet of Woodley saying he actively tried to position himself for Nate once the possibility of Diaz returning in MMA started to circulate.
Diaz’s fight with Perry is one of the headline attractions on a card that MVP and Netflix have framed as a major event. Diaz, now 40, will be making his first MMA appearance in nearly four years when he meets Perry, while Netflix’s event page lists the matchup as a five-round fight at 170 pounds. Diaz’s last MMA bout was his September 2022 submission win over Tony Ferguson at UFC 279, a result that sent him into free agency after the fight.
Tyron Woodley explained:
“You know what’s funny? Before they even announced the fight, before they even announced Gina Carano and Ronda, I hit Jake and I asked them about me fighting Nate in MMA. I said that before the Anderson stuff, because they said they offered Nate a fight with Anderson and Nate said no. I said, ‘Well, I’ll fight Anderson, but if you do the MMA thing, let me and Nate fight in MMA.’ I already planted that seed, which probably put it on their radar.
“I’m not mad at the Mike Perry fight. I think it makes sense too. They’re brawlers. There’s not going to be a lot of wrestling. I’m not for sure why it’s a five-round fight, though, probably just because Nate wanted it to be. But now you’ve got two five-round fights, and then the women’s fight is a three-round fight, and that was the original main fight of the card. So it’s kind of confusing. Is it two co-headliners? What are they doing? The featured bout? I don’t know.”
Perry enters the bout from a different lane. Since leaving the UFC in 2021, he has built his profile in bare-knuckle boxing and now returns to MMA for a matchup built more around action than style clashes. That is part of why Woodley said the booking makes sense: Diaz and Perry are both known more for pressure and exchanges than for a wrestling-heavy approach.
Woodley also questioned the structure of the event, especially the decision to make Diaz vs. Perry a five-round fight. Netflix’s official listing confirms that format, but public reporting has offered little explanation for why Diaz-Perry gets five rounds while the card’s presentation has been discussed in terms of multiple headline-level fights, including Rousey vs. Carano and Francis Ngannou vs. Philippe Lins.
Woodley is not attached to the Diaz-Perry booking now, but his interview shows he wanted in early and believed he had already made his case. With Diaz returning, Perry crossing back into MMA, and MVP still shaping how its event model looks on Netflix, Woodley’s comments give a useful peek at how many moving parts were in play before this matchup became official.
