Diaz won via TKO in the first round. The stoppage earned him his first "Knockout of the Night" bonus. On May 5, 2014, both Nate Diaz and fellow UFC fighter TJ Grant were removed from the UFC's lightweight rankings after being deemed inactive by the UFC. After over a year away from the sport, Diaz returned from his self-imposed hiatus and faced Rafael Dos Anjos on December 13, 2014 at UFC on Fox 13. Diaz missed weight, coming in at 160.6 pounds. He was given additional time to make the lightweight limit, and cut down to 155.2. However, he was still fined 20 percent of his purse, which went to Rafael dos Anjos. Diaz, who seemed unmotivated and annoyed for most of the fight, lost the one-sided fight via unanimous decision (30–26, 30–26, and 30–27). Diaz was briefly linked to a welterweight bout with Matt Brown on July 11, 2015 at UFC 189. However, in mid-April, Brown announced that the pairing had been scrapped. After sitting out again for over a year, Diaz returned to face Michael Johnson on December 19, 2015 at UFC on Fox 17. He won the fight by unanimous decision after putting forth an absolute boxing clinic over Johnson and went on to give one of the most infamous profanity laced post fight call outs on national television. Both participants were awarded "Fight of the Night" honors. Diaz was set as a replacement to face Conor McGregor on March 5, 2016 at UFC 196, filling in for an injured Rafael dos Anjos. With Diaz only having eleven days notice, the fight took place at welterweight (170 lbs) due to lack of time to cut weight. Diaz won the fight via submission in the second round. This gave Diaz his ninth submission victory in the UFC, tied for the second-most all-time behind only Royce Gracie. Both fighters were awarded "Fight of the Night" honors and Diaz was also awarded with the "Performance of the Night" bonus. A rematch with McGregor was scheduled for July 9, 2016 at UFC 200. However, on April 19, the UFC announced that McGregor had been pulled from the event after failing to fulfill media obligations in Las Vegas related to the fight. In turn, the fight with McGregor was rescheduled and took place the following month, contested again at welterweight, at UFC 202. Diaz lost the rematch via majority decision. The contest was once again awarded "Fight of the Night" honors.