UFC president Dana White revealed to reporters in Boston ahead of UFC Fight Night 26 that he has made a fight offer to retired welterweight contender Nick Diaz: a middleweight matchup against former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida. So far, reaction to this possible fight booking has been mixed on social media with a group of fans liking the idea of a 185-pound super fight with Diaz and Machida and a group of fans thinking it will be a fight in the vein of Diaz vs. Carlos Condit, or in other words a fight where Machida is on his bike the whole time while Diaz gets frustrated and sticks his middle fingers up at “The Dragon.” Personally speaking, I think this is an intriguing matchup between two of the elite strikers in the entire UFC and I’m surprised there isn’t more fan support for the idea, but either way I do hope that Diaz’ camp accepts the bout and the UFC books it for this fall. Either way, though, I’d expect both Diaz and Machida to be fighting at 185 pounds in their next respective contests because after losses in title fights both men could use a fresh start in a new weight class. Maldonado vs. Beltran Added To UFC Fight Night 29 One of the best possible matchups the UFC can make at light heavyweight right now is coming to fruition as reporter Guilherme Cruz of MMAFighting.com today reported a fight between Fabio Maldonado and Joey Beltran has been added to UFC Fight Night 29, which takes place October in Brazil. This is an amazing fight between two of the most durable brawlers in the UFC and in my opinion could be a candidate for “Fight of the Year” as both men will likely stand in the pocket and dish out the violence for 15 minutes or less. As far as the line goes, both fighters are very similar to each other so I expect a close line, but personally I will be laying my cash down on Maldonado this fall as I will be looking to heavily fade Beltran coming off his recent steroids suspension. This fight will be a war.
