He's back.
On Tuesday night, it was reported that Nate Diaz is scheduled to fight Leon Edwards at UFC 262.
That will be the first-ever fight of that nature in the history of the UFC.
Diaz just does things differently.
For every single fan of the fight game, there is a fighter or two that you connect with. When they fight, you are hooked and when they talk, you listen.
For me, that fighter is Nathan Diaz.
The reality is that he was the first fighter I was ever a fan of. In 2007, season five of The Ultimate Fighter aired on Spike. I was 10 years old, so it was probably an ill-advised program for me to get into, but hey - that's life.
Ever since that season of the show, I was all-in on Nate Diaz. You will never hear me claim that he is the perfect fighter or that he deserves a title shot out of place... but when his fights get announced, I get pumped.
Leon Edwards is coming off of a somewhat bizarre matchup against Belal Muhammed. It was his first fight in almost two years, so fans were eager to see how he looked.
Well, in what we saw, he looked good. Until it didn't. Early in the fight, Edwards poked Muhammed in the eye, and the bout was stopped. It wasn't your run-of-the-mill eye poke either. This one was nasty.
A lot of fans, including myself, thought that the fight should be rebooked. And while I'm thrilled about the Nate Diaz news, I do feel for Muhammed.
When you step back and look at the bigger picture, this fight makes tons of sense. For Edwards, he gets a big name and payday. For Diaz, he gets a fight where he doesn't have to cut weight and if he wins, I have no doubt that the UFC would try to give him a push for a title shot.
Damn, I can't wait. The UFC just continues to deliver exciting fights.
