An anticipated five-round welterweight bout between Leon Edwards and Nate Diaz has been moved from UFC 262 on May 15 to UFC 263 on June 12, the organization announced Thursday.
This news comes after Yahoo Sports reported earlier this week that Diaz sustained an undisclosed injury during his training camp.
UFC 263 is expected to feature a pair of title fights with middleweights Israel Adesanya and Marvin Vettori at the top of the card and flyweights Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno in the co-main event.
Edwards vs. Diaz will remain a five-round matchup despite being a non-title fight.
Diaz (20-12) is 36 and hasn’t fought since losing to Jorge Masvidal at UFC 244 in 2019.
Edwards (18-3, one no-contest) made his anticipated return to action in a March main event against Belal Muhammad that ended in a no-contest after an inadvertent eye poke from Edwards rendered Muhammad unable to continue.
The Birmingham, England native hadn’t fought since beating former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos in July 2019 and a win over Muhammad was supposed to earn him a title shot against reigning welterweight titleholder Kamaru Usman, the last fighter to defeat Edwards when the two met back in 2015. Usman fought Masvidal instead.
Edwards is the No. 3-ranked welterweight contender at the moment and Diaz has only one win in the past five years so it was little surprise to see Edwards open as a -275 favourite and Diaz as a +220 underdog on the betting lines.
UFC 262 is scheduled to take place at Houston’s Toyota Center with fans in attendance. It’s headlined by a lightweight title fight between Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler. The 155-pound division’s title was officially vacated in March when the UFC formally acknowledged Khabib Nurmagomedov’s retirement. Top-10 lightweight contenders Tony Ferguson and Beneil Dariush meet in the co-main event.
