The UFC should have booked Nick Diaz vs. Tony Ferguson instead

On Wednesday, May 29, UFC president Dana White announced several new fights for UFC Abu Dhabi which will take place on August 3. The event, headlined by Cory Sandhagen vs. Umar Nurmagomedov will also feature two UFC veterans returning to action ... but they won't be fighting each other.

Nick Diaz is returning to the Octagon to fight Vicente Luque at 170 pounds and Tony Ferguson is moving up in weight to fight Michael Chiesa, also at 170 pounds.

The match-ups are incredible as-is, don't get me wrong, but why not just book Diaz and Ferguson to fight each other? It would be an incredible showdown between two fan favorites with similar personalities. Their careers are in similar places as well. Both of them are on the decline with Ferguson on a seven-fight losing streak and Diaz fighting just once in nearly 10 years.

Diaz is looking for his first win since 2011. In that last winning performance, he defeated BJ Penn via decision. Ferguson has been winless for almost as long. His last victory came via a doctor's stoppage in 2019 versus Donald Cerrone. We would have loved to see two legends duke it out in what could be both of their final fights. Imagine the trash talk, imagine the wild antics, imagine the action. It would have been incredible.

But I guess we can't be greedy because we are still getting some insane match-ups with the opponents the UFC selected for them. Here's how the rest of the card shakes out, so far.

UFC Abu Dhabi fight card (updated)

• Cory Sandhagen vs. Umar Nurmagomedov
• Nick Diaz vs. Vicente Luque
• Michael Chiesa vs. Tony Ferguson
• Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Marlon Vera
• Mackenzie Dern vs. Loopy Godinez
• Alonzo Menifield vs. Azamat Murzakanov

The card will take place at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi and will air on ABC for this event. Perhaps the UFC didn't want a bloodbath to air on network TV.