Buckle your seat belts fight fans, as we are about to get the first staredown between Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal ahead of their highly-anticipated fight at UFC 244 on Nov. 2, 2019, in New York, New York. Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) today announced that “Gamebred” and the Stockton slugger are set to attend a special pre-fight presser — which also includes UFC President Dana White — this Thursday (Sept. 19, 2019) at The Rooftop at Pier 17 in New York City at 7 p.m ET.
Indeed, the presser is sure to draw a crowd, That’s because these two men entertain inside the Octagon, as well as outside of it, as they’re not exactly known for biting their tongues when a microphone is put in front of them. That said, there does appear to be plenty of mutual respect for each other here, so don’t expect things to go overboard.
The five-round Welterweight scrap came to fruition after talks of booking Colby Covington vs. Kamaru Usman — and then Masvidal vs Usman — fell flat, leading the promotion to give the fans what they really wanted by staging the fight for the “BMF” title.
This will be the first time in a long time that a non-title fight headlines a pay-per-view (PPV) event, with the last one going down at UFC 202, which was a rematch between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz. The winner of this match up could very well sneak himself into a shot at the Usman’s title ... especially if Covington continues to play hardball.
The rest of the card isn’t too shabby, either, as Johnny Walker takes on Corey Anderson at Light Heavyweight, while Stephen Thompson and Vicente Luque collide in Welterweight action. In addition, Kelvin Gastelum will face Darren Till, while Derrick Lewis takes on Blagoy Ivanov.
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 244 fight card this weekend RIGHT HERE, starting with the Fight Pass/ESPN+ “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. ET, then the remaining undercard balance on ESPN 2 at 8 p.m. ET, before the PPV main card start time at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
To check out the latest and greatest UFC 244: “Masvidal vs. Diaz” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.
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