Nick Diaz vs. Robbie Lawler II is a done deal for UFC 266 on September 25 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
UFC President Dana White broke the news of the fight and the fact it will be only the second non-title, non-main event fight in UFC history to be set for five rounds to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports who quickly took to social media to update his followers.
“DONE DEAL: Nick Diaz vs Robbie Lawler, five rounder, Sept. 25, UFC 266 per @danawhite, Iole wrote.”
Diaz hasn’t fought in six years and is currently riding a three-fight losing streak. The former Strikeforce champion was last seen in action when he squared off against Anderson Silva at middleweight in 2015. Diaz suffered a unanimous decision defeat in that fight but the result was later overturned due to a positive drug test from ‘The Spider’. Prior to that, he lost against Georges St-Pierre and Carlos Condit in back-to-back fights. The 37-year-old has not recorded a win since beating MMA legend, BJ Penn, at UFC 137 in 2011.
Robbie Lawler is on a four-fight losing streak. The former UFC welterweight champion has fallen to consecutive losses against Colby Covington, Rafael dos Anjos, Ben Askren, and Neil Magny. The 39-year-old’s last win came against Donald Cerrone at UFC 214.
It’s been 17 years since these two scrappers first competed against one another at UFC 47, a fight in which Diaz knocked out Lawler in the second round in one of the most infamous fights during the beginning of the sport’s rise.