Nick Diaz vs. Vicente Luque scrapped from UFC Abu Dhabi, new co-main event announced

Nick Diaz won’t be making his UFC return as originally scheduled.

Diaz’s fight against Vicente Luque has been pulled from the upcoming UFC Abu Dhabi card on Aug. 3 due to “travel issues,” although it’s unclear which fighter was actually affected. The news was announced during the UFC Vegas 94 broadcast on Saturday.

The hope is to re-book the fight between Luque and Diaz at a later date, but nothing has been determined yet.

The fight was supposed to serve as Diaz’s first UFC appearance since 2021, when he fell to Robbie Lawler by third round TKO. Diaz hasn’t tasted victory since a 2011 win over former two-division UFC champion B.J. Penn by decision.

With Diaz vs. Luque off, a new co-main event was announced for the card as Shara Magomedov takes on Michal Oleksiejczuk in a middleweight bout.

Magomedov comes into the fight with a perfect 13-0 record, including two UFC wins.

As for Oleksiejczuk, he looks to bounce back from two straight UFC losses after falling to Kevin Holland and Michel Pereira in consecutive fights.

The UFC Abu Dhabi main event features a top bantamweight showdown as Cory Sandhagen takes on Umar Nurmagomedov in a five-round fight, with the winner undoubtedly moving closer to a potential title shot.