Diaz (20-13 MMA, 15-11 UFC) will fight the final fight of his current contract tonight when he takes on Tony Ferguson (25-7 MMA, 15-5 UFC) on Saturday night at UFC 279 in a welterweight headliner at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPNews and ESPN+. It wasn’t an easy road to get to this point for Diaz. He was forced to the sidelines, offered absurd fights and had to weave the UFC’s tactics to reach the threshold of free agency. He was supposed to fight undefeated wrecking machine Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 279, but the card was remade after Chimaev missed weight by 7.5 pounds. Still, Diaz is here and McGregor (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) – who has two fights left on his own contract – twice congratulated his opponent and said even though Diaz is on the road of leaving, their competition is not done (via Twitter): Congratulations to Nate Diaz for fulfilling his contractual obligations with the UFC and being a bona fide superstar player. An incredible feat. Fair play. Our trilogy will happen. McGregor and Diaz fought in two of the most memorable fights in UFC history. Diaz pulled off a shocking turnaround in short order and handed McGregor his first loss in the Octagon at UFC 196 in March 2016, only for “The Notorious” to come back and win a majority in the rematch at UFC 202 in August of 2016. A third meeting has been talked about for years, and both men have said it will happen before their careers are over. For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 279.
