Nate Diaz and Leon Edwards
Nate Diaz vs Leon Edwards is one of the fights that features in the stacked UFC 263 card, this weekend
Nate Diaz will be returning to action after a hiatus of almost two years. ‘The Stockton Slugger’ will be taking on Leon Edwards at UFC 263, in the first-ever non-title 5 round fight in the history of the promotion.
Diaz is coming off a TKO (doctor stoppage) loss against Jorge Masvidal at UFC 244. Edwards, on the other hand, is coming off a no-contest against Belal Muhammad, earlier this year in March.
Ahead of their fight this weekend, UFC President Dana White spoke to Submission Radio and revealed if the winner of the Diaz-Edwards bout will go on to challenge Kamaru Usman for the welterweight title.
White was quoted as saying:
“Colby [Covington] is the number one contender…It’s the fight to make…Whoever wins [between Diaz and Edwards] is next after Colby.”
Covington hasn’t fought since his win against Tyron Woodley, last year. Usman is currently uninterested in fighting ‘The Chaos’ since he finished him the last time they met in 2019.
In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Edwards claimed that Diaz would succumb to his firepower and wouldn’t last the entire five rounds.
Edwards seemed very confident while speaking about his cardio and going the full five rounds against Diaz.
‘Rocky’ told MMA Fighting:
“As far as preparation goes, five rounds, I’ve been preparing for a long time and I’m confident in my cardio, confident in my skillset and [it’s] going to be even worse for him going in there…I’m going in here to stop him. I don’t think he can take as much as they think he could over five rounds.” [via MMA Fighting]
This is a big claim from Edwards, since it is not that easy finishing Nate Diaz. He has just been TKOed once in his unbelievably long career.
Follow our dedicated UFC page for instant UFC news and updates
