We learned Tuesday that Daniel Cormier will defend his heavyweight title against Derrick Lewis at UFC 230 on Nov. 3, but another fight reportedly has been scratched from the card.
Dustin Poirier had to pull out of his scheduled lightweight fight against Nate Diaz because of an undisclosed injury, sources told ESPN. MMAFighting.com confirmed the news late Tuesday night.
It’s unclear at this point whether Diaz will remain on the UFC 230 card, but the pride of Stockton offered a suggestion for his next fight to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani after Poirier pulled out.
Don’t expect to see Diaz fight Khabib Nurmagomedov anytime soon, as the latter currently is under investigation by the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) for his role in a crazy brawl that took place after he successfully defended his lightweight title against Conor McGregor at UFC 229 this past weekend. Nurmagomedov jumped over the cage after winning via submission in the fourth round and attacked a member of McGregor’s team, sparking a huge melee in Las Vegas.
That said, Diaz is one of UFC’s most popular fighters, hence his originally scheduled fight against Poirier in the co-main event of UFC 230 at Madison Square Garden in New York. So the company might want to find another opponent for him in short order.
Diaz hasn’t fought since losing to McGregor via decision in the fighters’ much-anticipated rematch at UFC 202 in August 2016. He defeated McGregor via submission at UFC 196 in March 2016.
