UFC fans will have to wait a little longer to see Nick Diaz return to the cage.
The bout between Diaz (26-10 MMA, 7-7 UFC) and Vicente Luque (22-10-1 MMA, 15-6 UFC) has been removed from UFC on ABC 7 in Abu Dhabi due to “travel issues,” the promotion announced during Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 60 broadcast.
UFC analyst Brendan Fitzgerald said the team would reschedule the bout for later in the summer, without specifying a date, and the travel issue was on Diaz’s side, not Luque’s.
A welterweight bout was scheduled as the co-main event of the card, but the promotion changed it to new booking: Shala Magomedov (13-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) vs. Michael Oleksiejchuk (19-8 MMA, 7-6 UFC).
If the bout had gone ahead, it would have been Diaz’s first fight since his third-round TKO loss to Robbie Lawler in September 2021. That bout was Diaz’s first in four years since his no-contest against Anderson Silva.
Luque was looking to bounce back from a loss to Joaquin Buckley in March, which was his third loss in his last four fights.
But two fighters’ losses are also two fighters’ wins, with rising star Magomedov facing the ever-retentive Olekseychuk in his biggest fight yet.
Magomedov last competed in June, defeating Antonio Troccoli by third-round knockout, improving him to 2-0 in the UFC and leading the way in his UFC debut against Bruno Silva in October.
Oleksiejczuk could be putting his UFC career on the line in this bout, and while his fights have always been exciting, he’s had mixed results. He’s 1-3 in his last four bouts, including a submission loss to Kevin Holland back in June.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie.
