UFC: Injury to Nate Diaz postpones Leon Edwards fight

UFC 262 took a hit late last night. The co-main event between Nate Diaz (20-12) and Leon Edwards (18-3, 1 NC) is off. Diaz suffered a minor injury in training and the fight has been postponed.

Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole was the first with the news last night. Diaz and Edwards were set to compete in the first five-round, non-title, non-main event fight in the history of the promotion. It appears that Tony Ferguson – Beneil Dariush will move to the co-main slot at UFC 262.

The good news is that the fight is still going to happen. It has been confirmed that the fight between Diaz is moving to UFC 263 on June 12th. The card already has two title fights. However, even with two title fights, the Diaz – Edwards matchup will remain five rounds.

For Nate Diaz, this will be his first fight since he lost to Jorge Masvidal at UFC 244. It will be Diaz’s ninth bout in the UFC‘s welterweight division. Thus far, he’s gone 4-4 in his first eight matchups at 170 pounds.

More UFC bad luck for Leon Edwards

If there’s anyone who has learned how to roll with the UFC scheduling punches, it’s Leon Edwards. In March of 2020, Edwards was a week away from fighting former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley.

However, the pandemic shut everything down and the fight was called off. The UFC then called Edwards about a title opportunity in July, but the English fighter couldn’t get out to train so he missed that opportunity.

From there, the UFC couldn’t find him an opponent. Finally, they settled on Khamzat Chimaev. Edwards and Chimaev were set to main event a card in December. However, Edwards got COVID and the fight was pushed to January.

Then, Chimaev got COVID and the fight was pushed to March. However, Chimaev still struggled with COVID symptoms and the fight was scrapped altogether. Belal Muhammad stepped in to face Edwards in March.

Leon Edwards looked sensational, but early in the second round, he accidentally poked Muhammad in the eye. Muhammad couldn’t continue and Edwards’ long-waited UFC debut ended with a No Contest.

Edwards hasn’t lost since 2015. That loss came against the current UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. Edwards is hoping to defeat Diaz and get a rematch with Usman, but he’s going to have to wait a little longer.

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