Nate Diaz will (finally) return to combat sports action when he collides with welterweight phenom Khamzat Chimaev in the upcoming UFC 279 pay-per-view (PPV) main event on Sept. 10 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Diaz remains a huge betting underdog against “Borz” in what could be the Stockton slugger’s final appearance under the UFC banner. But not everyone is expecting this to be the one-sided mismatch the betting lines reflect.
“I don’t really think Khamzat is as good as they say he is,” welterweight contender Jorge Masvidal told MMA Fighting. “I haven’t seen anything that makes me a believer in this guy yet. They probably wanted to pair Diaz with someone, stylistically, that’s not the best when I think of fucking Khamzat, so they gave him a boring ass wrestler who is going to try and hug his legs, and sniff his crotch.”
Diaz, who turned 37 back in April, fell to 20-13 with a unanimous decision loss to top contender Leon Edwards at UFC 263 back in June 2021. It was the second straight loss for The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 5 champ, who’s now dropped three of his last four.
The 28 year-old Chimaev improved his undefeated record to 11-0 by outlasting former title challenger Gilbert Burns in their “Fight of the Night” war at UFC 273 last April. The victory over “Durinho” was enough to land “Borz” at No. 3 in the official welterweight rankings.
“That was supposed to be his coming out party and it didn’t go according to plan,” Masvidal said. “A lot of people felt Gilbert won that fight — a lot of people still think Gilbert won that fight. I think Khamzat probably wins, but I can see Nate putting him away in rounds four or five because Khamzat doesn’t have that gas tank. He doesn’t have that experience, and I think he gets too in the moment where he’s wasting energy doing stupid shit. Nate is going to conserve all of that energy and get in his face when it counts. I think Khamzat should win, but I won’t be surprised if Nate stops his ass.”
We’ll find out in roughly one month.
