LAS VEGAS – It’s been more than two years since former Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz has stepped into a UFC cage, and if Dana White is right, the perennial fan favorite may never do it again.

While MMA fans have been holding out hope that Diaz might soon make a return, White said he’s not nearly as optimistic.

“I highly doubt it,” White told MMAjunkie. “I don’t know. I honestly don’t think that, and I can’t speak for him, you’d have to speak with Nick himself, but if you ask me – people ask me, ‘Do you think Ronda (Rousey) is coming back?’ No. I think Ronda’s going to retire. Ronda hasn’t retired, but my opinion is, I think she will. I don’t think Nick Diaz will ever fight again. I just don’t think he has the desire anymore.”

Diaz (26-9 MMA, 7-6 UFC) hasn’t fought since a January 2015 fight with Anderson Silva. “The Spider” originally claimed a decision win in that matchup, but the result was later overturned when both fighters tested positive for banned substances – Silva for performance enhancers and Diaz for marijuana metabolites.

Diaz, 33, hasn’t tasted victory in the UFC since an October 2011 win over B.J. Penn, and White believes that the fiery welterweight has lost the passion needed to compete at the sport’s highest level.

“The thing about fighting, first of all it’s a young man’s game,” White said. “You’ve got to be young, hungry. You’ve got to be an animal to jump out of bed every day and go in there and train the way that you do.

“The things that you have to do to get to the UFC, let alone break into the top 10 or the top 5 or be a world champion, you have to love it. I just don’t think that Nick loves it anymore.”

White previously told MMAjunkie that both Nick Diaz and brother Nate Diaz (19-11 MMA, 14-9 UFC), who has been out of action since an August 2016 rematch with Conor McGregor, have been offered fights but have thus far turned them down.

However, he does seem cautiously optimistic that Nate will again see action in the octagon – though he admits that when it comes to MMA’s favorite scrapping siblings, anything is possible.

“Nate, I think that Nate probably will (fight) if something popped up,” White said. “But that’s just my opinion. If you ask the Diaz brothers they might have a different opinion.”

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