A previously cancelled fight between Nick Diaz and Vicente Luque appears to now be getting rebooked for UFC 310 in Las Vegas on December 10th.
Not many fans had appeared to be enthused by the idea of this fight when it was first announced, and so if anything there was a collective sigh of relief when it was scrapped from the UFC On ABC 7 card in Abu Dhabi back in August due to ‘travel issues’.
The reason the match-up hasn’t generally not been well received is that the 41-year-old Diaz hasn’t fought in over three years, and has in fact only made one appearance in the Octagon in the past nine years – a lackluster showing against Robbie Lawler at UFC 266 in 2021 that ended in the third round by TKO when he verbally submitted to strikes.
With that in mind the idea of diaz making another UFC comeback in his early-40’s doesn’t seem like the best idea, but if it had to happen then it seems like common sense to at least give him some kind of tune-up fight, perhaps against a fellow late-career veteran.
Instead the UFC seems to have their heart set on him going up against a ranked welterweight who is still technically in his prime years in the shape of the 32-year-old Luque.
Now admittedly Luque is going through a difficult spell as he’s lost three of his last four fights and hasn’t quite seemed himself in the Octagon since a KO loss to Geoff Neal in 2022 led him to suffer a brain bleed post-fight that resulted in him taking a year out of the sport.
To his credit Luque did rebound with a decision win over former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos last year, but the toughness that had been a big part of his style in earlier years seemed gone in his next fight against Joaquin Buckley after eating some heavy punches, leading to a TKO loss.
Nevertheless, Luque is still a dangerous striker who could yet turn things around and fight his way back into the top 10 rankings at 170lbs, so it’s remains a bit puzzling why he’s being paired up against Diaz.
The fight joins a UFC 310 card that doesn’t yet have a main event, but does also feature a rescheduled heavyweight fight between Ciryl Gane and Alexander Volkov as well as Anthony Smith vs. Dominick Reyes and Tatiana Suarez vs. Virna Jandiroba.
