We are just a few days away from seeing Nate Diaz back in the octagon when he faces Leon Edwards at UFC 263 in front of a full house headlining Adesanya VS Vettori.
The fight between Leon Edwards and Nate Diaz was supposed to take place at UFC 262 but an injury to Nate Diaz meant that the fight was shifted to UFC’s next PPV – UFC 263. It’s almost been two years now since we saw Nate Diaz (21-12-0) step into the octagon – the last being his defeat to Jorge Masvidal. As for Leon “Rocky” Edwards, his last fight was against Belal Muhammad which ended in the second round as Edwards poked Muhammad in the eye and lost the fight via DQ. This defeat also ended one of the best streaks of his career.
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Leon Edwards, as many say, is in his prime and is a better technical fighter, and rarely makes any mistakes. The #3 Welterweight is likely to have an aggressive approach to the fight as he said, “I believe I’ll finish him in this fight, It ends with Nate out cold and I’m victorious and I can not wait. This is a great opportunity to fight Nate, but I’m leaps above him in technique, in skillset and it’s a five round fight, he has to survive for 25 minutes. This is what I love to do, this is what I chose to do.”
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But, Nate Diaz is a battler and difficult contender to knock down. In the last 15 years of his UFC career, he has only lost once via TKO, that too was due to a doctor’s stoppage against Jorge Masvidal. Even one of the greatest strikers of all time, Conor McGregor could not do that in his two fights against Diaz.
While Edwards will be looking to finish the American MMA star, Diaz will look to take things to the canvas where he is decisive and put Edwards to sleep with one of his deadly submission moves.
[Image Credit: MMA Fight Night Live]
Shashank Iyer