Nate Diaz vs Leon Edwards postponed until UFC 263 due to injury
The long-awaited return of Nate Diaz which was set to take place next weekend at UFC 262 in Houston, Texas, will have to wait according to reports. Diaz had been scheduled to return from over a year-long layoff and was matched up against Leon Edwards in a high-stakes welterweight fight. Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports was first to report that the fight is being pushed back from UFC 262 to UFC 263 in June.
According to the report, Diaz has suffered an injury in training which is being reported as minor, but no exact injury was given. The fight was scheduled to take place as a five-round co-main event and it is still scheduled to be a five-round fight as well.
The fight was set to be Diaz’s first fight since late in 2019 when he fought Jorge Masvidal for the ‘BMF’ belt at UFC 244, a fight that Diaz lost due to a doctor’s stoppage after a cut above his eye.
For Leon Edwards, it’s another postponement in a long stretch of fights since 2020 that have seen either his fights get cancelled, postponed, or have an opponent change due to different circumstances each time. Currently riding an eight-fight winning streak, Edwards was last seen inside the Octagon in February of this year when he took on Belal Muhammed and the fight ended in a no-contest due to an accidental eye poke suffered by Muhammed.
UFC 263 is set to take place in Glendale, Arizona and will feature two title fights that were officially confirmed and announced this past weekend. Here’s a look at the current UFC 263 card as it stands:
- Israel Adesanya vs Marvin Vettori 2 (middleweight title)
- Deiveson Figueiredo vs Brandon Moreno (flyweight title)
- Nate Diaz vs Leon Edwards (still to be confirmed by UFC)
- Paul Craig vs Jamahal Hill
- Demian Maia vs Belal Muhammed
- Carlos Felipe vs Jake Collier
- Fares Ziam vs Luigi Vendramini
- Hakeem Dawodu vs Movsar Evloev
- Karol Rosa vs Sijara Eubanks
- Lauren Murphy vs Joanne Calderwood
- Drew Dober vs Brad Riddell
- Steven Peterson vs Chase Hooper
