A long rumoured super fight between Nate Diaz and Khamzat Chimaev looks to have a date – September 10th at UFC 279.
ESPN’s Brett Okamoto broke the news early yesterday that both parties had verbally agreed to headline the pay-per-view event, to be held at the T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas.
The final horn in this highly anticipated match-up will signify not only an end to the bout, but an end to Diaz’s 15-year run under the UFC banner. With the 37-year-old’s ongoing contract disputes with the company, the release couldn’t come soon enough for Stockton’s native son.
Both Chimaev and a representative from Diaz’s camp provided short statements, with the former likening his contracted responsibility to that of an undertaker.
The AllStar MMA roundup
- Prospect watch: Is Kaleb Rideout Australia’s next big UFC export?
- UFC London: Charles Rosa wants to knock Nathaniel Wood ‘back down to bantamweight’
- Recovery: Casey O’Neill sees early 2023 return to UFC, targets Maycee Barber
The best of the rest
- Alex Pereira responds to Khamzat Chimaev’s callout: ‘He’s a coward seeking attention’ – MMAFighting.com
- Islam Makhachev sizable favorite over Charles Oliveira in opening UFC 280 line – MMAFighting.com
- Javier Mendez sees inconsistencies in legal system as Cain Velasquez remains in jail: ‘It makes zero sense to me’ – MMAJunkie.com
- ‘Just because you can fight doesn’t mean you’re not a b-tch’ – Strickland picking Adesanya to beat Pereira – BloodyElbow.com
- Kayla Harrison: ‘This will probably be my last season’ with PFL – MMAMania.com
The Call
He’s undisciplined, and that’s the type of fighter I’m gonna see in the cage; someone that’s too undisciplined to make their weight class, so they move up a weight class … I’m the strongest and best I’ve ever been in my whole life, in my career, and I get this nice little man coming up weightclasses.
Charles Rosa to The AllStar’s John Hyon Ko
Here are the current lines for that fight, which is scheduled to take place at featherweight – presented by Crypto sports book Cloudbet:
Charles Rosa (14-7) vs Nathaniel Wood (17-5)
The soapbox
Today, on The Soapbox: MMA Twitter reacts to the Diaz vs Chimaev booking:
The morning view
Surging light-heavyweight Dustin Jacoby breaks down Izzy vs Pereira:
Debuting UFC flyweight Charles Johnson looks to the top of his division:
Chael Sonnen reacts to the Diaz vs Chimaev booking:
Dan Hardy previews this weekends UFC co- main event:
Done deals
This week
- Khamzat Chimaev to fight Nate Diaz at UFC 279 on September 10th (per ESPN)
- Aljamain Sterling in the works to fight TJ Dillashaw for the bantamweight title at UFC 280 on October 22nd (per Yahoo Sports)
- Justin Tafa out, Don’Tale Mayes to fight Hamdy Abdelwahab at UFC 277 on July 30th (per ESPN)
- Charles Oliveira to fight Islam Makhachev at UFC 280 on October 22nd (per UFC)
- J.Andrade out, Katlyn Chookagian back in to fight Manon Fiorot at UFC Paris on September 3rd (per UFC)
On this day in MMA…
On the 20th of July, 2002 ‘The Demolition Man’ Alistair Overeem (then 10-3) would make his Pride FC debut at Pride: The Best vol.2 in Tokyo, Japan.
His opponent, Yusuke Imamura, had only competed in three sanctioned bouts prior, and had lost two of them. Overeem would finish him just 44 seconds into the opening 10-minute round with a brutal knee to the head.
There are videos online if you hunt around, however be prepared to sift through sketchy websites in order to find them. This gif pretty well sums it all up to be honest.
