Neither the love spilled from the Arizona crowd nor the legendary status that adopted him into the Octagon on Saturday may save Nate Diaz from the wrath of welterweight contender Leon Edwards.
Boy, did Diaz come shut, nonetheless, from pulling off nothing wanting a last-minute miracle.
After being bloodied and brutalized by means of four-plus rounds, Diaz (20-13) badly wobbled Edwards (19-3, 1 NC) within the remaining minute of their five-round battle and appeared on the verge of stopping him on the remaining horn in a featured struggle on the UFC 263 card inside Gila River Area in Glendale, Arizona. Edwards held on for a unanimous choice through equivalent scores of 49-46 and simply barely averted the form of heart-breaking defeat that will’ve been par for the course in his latest run of unhealthy luck and fights falling aside.
“Nate is a veteran. I hit him within the head with every thing however the kitchen sink,” Edwards mentioned. “Truthful play to him and he will get my respect in there tonight.”
Diaz, 36, ended a two-year layoff by curiously asking for a struggle towards Edwards when seemingly nobody else was. Diaz additionally requested or not it’s contested over 5 rounds, which made the 170-pound struggle the primary of its type for a non-main occasion or title bout.
Though the chance didn’t repay ultimately as Diaz hoped to catapult himself to the entrance of the road in a crowded welterweight title image, the mercurial Stockton, California, native was capable of retain his status as a blood-and-guts warrior and impossibly erase the picture of seeing him so badly dominated by Edwards for a lot of the struggle.
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“I had a tough time getting going all evening lengthy,” Diaz mentioned. “I bought reduce in coaching a couple of month in the past. I feel it slowed my complete momentum down. Congratulations to Leon. I used to be near taking his ass the f— out.”
Diaz was crushed to the punch repeatedly by Edwards, a 29-year-old native of England, and dropped a number of occasions over the ultimate two rounds earlier than the rally. Diaz was additionally dominated on the bottom all through and was badly reduce in two locations — above his left eye and on the facet of his head — from Edwards’ elbow strikes on the bottom in Spherical 3.
However simply when it seemed as if the elite degree of the game had badly handed Diaz by within the remaining spherical, his determined surge almost linked when a two-punch mixture wobbled Edwards. Diaz initially pointed at his opponent to mock him and might need value himself an opportunity at a end. Nonetheless, Diaz stored the stress on earlier than the ultimate bell and continued to harm Edwards earlier than operating out of time.
“He caught me with a [combination] and it’s what it’s,” Edwards mentioned. “It was exhausting sufficient to wobble me. I’ve solely been wobbled most likely as soon as in my profession. It got here by means of the guard and caught me up the center.”
Diaz didn’t lure Edwards right into a brawl over the primary three rounds and was resigned to taunt his opponent with varied items of efficiency artwork together with almost turning his again on Edwards and protruding his rear finish. Edwards, to his credit score, stayed poised and chipped away at Diaz with leg strikes that appeared to begin compromising Diaz’s motion by Spherical 3.
“It’s the Nate Diaz military,” Diaz mentioned. “We’re lions out right here, my complete workforce.”
Though Edwards was booed after the struggle, the victory might be sufficient to land him a long-awaited shot at Kamaru Usman’s welterweight title. Edwards improved to 9-0 (1 NC) since a 2015 non-title loss to Usman by unanimous choice.
“I form of put myself in there mentally. I’ve been watching Nate… I’ve seen the stats in the present day on Instagram,” Edwards mentioned. “Once I was at my professional debut, he was headlining a UFC occasion. I’ve watched Nate Diaz for a very long time so I do know precisely what he does. I simply thought he was attempting to speak shit. I went to my nook and my nook simply instructed me to remain composed, don’t play into his recreation, simply do your factor and that’s what I did. I stayed composed.”
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