Nick Diaz is going to be fighting Robbie Lawler

The legendary leader of Diaz’s army, Nick Diaz, is officially returning to the octagon. He will share the octagon with his one-time opponent, former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler at UFC 266.

Dana White announced this fight on Tuesday via Kevin Iole. This will be the second 5 rounder fight in UFC history, which will not be a main-event or title fight.

The first one was a welterweight clash between Nate Diaz and Leon Edwards at UFC 263.

17 years ago, at UFC 47, two young rising stars, Nick Diaz and Robbie Lawler, shared the octagon for the first time. On that night, Nick Diaz served the “Ruthless” second loss in the UFC via KO at 1:31 of the second round.

After that fight, Robbie managed to win EliteXC middleweight and UFC welterweight titles, and Nick won his titles in Strikeforce, WEC, and IFC. Both had a great career after their first bout, but the last fights were not beneficial for their reputations.

The last time Nick Diaz (26-9-0) graced a UFC octagon 6 years ago, against The Spider, Anderson Silva.

Nick Diaz was defeated in that fight via unanimous decision, but both fighters failed their drug tests, overturning the fight to a no contest.

Robbie is still an active fighter, but that does not give him an advantage. After Tyron Woodley dethroned Robbie at UFC 201 via first-round KO, “the ruthless” lost 4 fights out of 5. The 39-year-old fighter did not look like himself in his previous fights. The last time he won against Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone at UFC 214 via unanimous decision.

The card is not finalized yet, but we can say that the Co-main event is going to be 5 round fight between Nick Diaz and Robbie Lawler, and Main-event of the evening will be the Featherweight title fight between current champion Alexander Volkanovski and #2 contender Brian “T-city” Ortega, both with only 1 career loss.

For this moment, UFC 266 looks like this:
• Featherweight – 145lbs: (C)Alexander Volkanovski vs. Brian Ortega
• Welterweight – 170lbs: Robbie Lawler vs. Nick Diaz
• Flyweight – 12lbs: Erin Blanchfield vs. Sarah Alpar
• Lightweight – 155lbs: Jalin Turner vs. Uros Medić
• Flyweight: Jéssica Andrade vs. Cynthia Calvillo
• Bantamweight – 135lbs: Marlon Moraes vs. Merab Dvalishvili
• Heavyweight – 207-265lbs: Curtis Blaydes vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik
• Flyweight: Roxanne Modafferi vs. Tatiana Suarez