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Leon Edwards disputes a prior report that he was in place to step in for Nate Diaz at UFC 244
When all the confusion went down about Nate Diaz testing for “elevated levels” of something yesterday, it appeared that the UFC 244 main event was in great jeopardy. One thing that was reported was that if Diaz couldn’t (or wouldn’t) fight, that contender Leon Edwards would step in to face Masvidal.
Not so, says the man himself.
Bad news Regarding Nate, I did offer when the fight was made to stay ready but the UFC unfortunately said no. So I won’t be making the trip to NYC. But I will be ready for December 14th
— Leon ‘Rocky’ Edwards (@Leon_edwardsmma) October 25, 2019
The UFC does sometimes have another fighter that they’ll pay to make weight for the fight in case something goes wrong at the last minute with one of the combatants. That is usually only for title fights though, and while the “BMF” belt is up for grabs here, it’s obviously not an official title. So it doesn’t seem like they used a shadow fighter at all for this.
It’s still unclear if a replacement will be needed at all, since USADA has stated that Diaz isn’t provisionally suspended despite testing positive for trace levels of a SARM.
Meanwhile, Edwards (18-3, 10-2 UFC) will just keep calling everyone else out to try to extend his eight-fight winning streak.