Nate Diaz’s highly anticipated return against Leon Edwards has been pushed back to next month after the American suffered a minor, undisclosed injury.
The clash, originally set for UFC 262 on May 15 in Houston, has now been moved to UFC 263 on June 12, according to multiple news outlets on Tuesday morning. Yahoo were the first to report the rescheduling, although the UFC has yet to make an official announcement. The welterweight bout will be a five-round, non-title fight.
UFC 263 boasts an already stacked card, with middleweight champion Israel Adesanya defending his title in a rematch with Marvin Vettori, while flyweight belt-holder Deiveson Figueiredo goes up against No 1 challenger Brandon Moreno following their Fight of the Year contender in December. It will take place at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, with a full crowd in attendance.
One of the most popular fighters in the UFC, Diaz has not fought since his TKO defeat to Jorge Masvidal in November 2019. His professional MMA record stands at 20-12. Never far from headlines, Diaz's two fights against Conor McGregor in 2016 – one a win, the other a loss – remain among the top-selling pay-per-view cards in the promotion's history.
Edwards, meanwhile, sits currently as the world's No 3-ranked welterweight contender. The British-Jamaican fighter made his long-awaited return to the octagon in March, following a 20-month hiatus, but his comeback against Belal Muhammad ended in a no-contest because of an unintentional eye poke from Edwards. Edwards, whose pro record reads 18-3, was riding an eight-fight win streak, dating back to 2015.
Although UFC 262 no longer features Edwards-Diaz, it is headlined by the battle for the vacant lightweight title between Michael Chandler and Charles Oliveira. The belt is up for grabs following champion Khabib Nurmagomedov's retirement in Abu Dhabi last October.
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'Young girls thinking of big ideas'
Words come easy for aspiring writer Afra Al Muhairb. The business side of books, on the other hand, is entirely foreign to the 16-year-old Emirati. So, she followed her father’s advice and enroled in the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s summer entrepreneurship course at Abu Dhabi University hoping to pick up a few new skills.
“Most of us have this dream of opening a business,” said Afra, referring to her peers are “young girls thinking of big ideas.”
In the three-week class, pupils are challenged to come up with a business and develop an operational and marketing plan to support their idea. But, the learning goes far beyond sales and branding, said teacher Sonia Elhaj.
“It’s not only about starting up a business, it’s all the meta skills that goes with it -- building self confidence, communication,” said Ms Elhaj. “It’s a way to coach them and to harness ideas and to allow them to be creative. They are really hungry to do this and be heard. They are so happy to be actually doing something, to be engaged in creating something new, not only sitting and listening and getting new information and new knowledge. Now they are applying that knowledge.”
Afra’s team decided to focus their business idea on a restaurant modelled after the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Each level would have a different international cuisine and all the meat would be halal. The pupils thought of this after discussing a common problem they face when travelling abroad.
“Sometimes we find the struggle of finding halal food, so we just eat fish and cheese, so it’s hard for us to spend 20 days with fish and cheese,” said Afra. “So we made this tower so every person who comes – from Africa, from America – they will find the right food to eat.”
rpennington@thenational.ae
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
Stormy seas
Weather warnings show that Storm Eunice is soon to make landfall. The videographer and I are scrambling to return to the other side of the Channel before it does. As we race to the port of Calais, I see miles of wire fencing topped with barbed wire all around it, a silent ‘Keep Out’ sign for those who, unlike us, aren’t lucky enough to have the right to move freely and safely across borders.
We set sail on a giant ferry whose length dwarfs the dinghies migrants use by nearly a 100 times. Despite the windy rain lashing at the portholes, we arrive safely in Dover; grateful but acutely aware of the miserable conditions the people we’ve left behind are in and of the privilege of choice.
