Five Rounds: Nurmagomedov-Sandhagen is perfect; Mokaev's future ... not so much

It was shocking when the UFC announced earlier this year that the 40-year-old Diaz would be fighting Vicente Luque in his first appearance in three years. It was less shocking when the UFC later announced the bout was off, allegedly due to travel difficulties on Diaz's side. Diaz's last Instagram post was on May 29, when the fight was announced. He has not been publicly heard from since. Luque said he hoped the fight would be rebooked, but White admitted last weekend that he was not confident Diaz would fight in 2024. Nothing substantial has been reported on Diaz's situation. At this point, any "true" Diaz fan should be hoping for his physical, mental and emotional health -- rather than a comeback. The last time he fought was in 2021, and in a candid pre-fight interview with ESPN, he basically said he was dreading it. "Do I feel confident? I never do," said Diaz during the sitdown. "I never have. I always feel like I'm going to get trashed out there. Every fight I've ever done." He was supposed to start preparations in Texas and then move camp to California, but it doesn't sound like they ever reached the level required at the top of the sport. I don't believe we'll ever get another Nick Diaz in a UFC fight announcement, and that's not necessarily bad. There have been some unfortunate chapters in the later parts of his career. We don't need to add to that by sending him into a fight against a ranked opponent when he's an essentially retired fighter. 4. Muhammad Mokaev's next options The UFC's decision not to re-sign Mokaev, who has won seven in a row in the Octagon, was some of the biggest news to come out of UFC 305. There have been instances in which White has changed his mind after publicly writing off an athlete. This doesn't feel like one of those times. You can even sense that reality from Mokaev's social media timeline. He went from offering apologies to joking about the situation to a post on Thursday about moving on. Mokaev suggested the split was due to his wrestling-heavy style, but White said it was "much more than that." White said the PFL would get an undefeated flyweight, but he might be wrong about that. The PFL isn't in a position to have much natural interest in a 125-pound fighter, when its lowest male weight class is 145. Mokaev will eventually find something, but I think it will be something other than the UFC or PFL. 5. Who will headline UFC 307 in Salt Lake City? The UFC's fall schedule is falling together mostly as expected. After Max Holloway's unbelievable BMF win over Justin Gaethje at UFC 300, the UFC had multiple discussions about when and where to do his title fight against Ilia Topuria. UFC 306 at the Sphere and UFC 307 in Salt Lake City were each more or less penciled in at one point, but now that fight is likely headed to UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi, after lightweight champion Islam Makhachev threw the first curveball with a lingering hand injury. With O'Malley and Dvalishvili main eventing UFC 306, the delay of Topuria vs. Holloway to UFC 308 on Oct. 26 leaves a lot of real estate on the UFC 307 card. A women's bantamweight title fight between Raquel Pennington and Julianna Peña will likely land on that card, but the UFC will need to surround that title fight with more name value. I wouldn't be surprised if the UFC goes into a "creative mode" for that event. They added a BMF fight to beef up the Salt Lake City card in 2023. Would they consider an interim title fight, with no real recovery timeline for Makhachev? Will they find an opponent for a name we haven't seen in a while, such as Kamaru Usman or Michael Chandler? It's shaping up to be one of those cards that does not have an obvious main event, which leads to curiosity on how they'll put together.