Exclusive: UFC strawweight Diana Belbita outlines timeline for octagon return, discloses injuries that have kept her sidelined

Diana Belbita recently outlined when fans could expect to see her return to the octagon and disclosed the injuries she has been dealing with. Belbita noted that the injuries have forced her to adjust her training and resulted in her being sidelined for the remainder of the year.

'The Warrior Princess' most recently competed at UFC Vegas 85 this past February, where she was submitted by Molly McCann in the last second of the first round. Unfortunately, she sustained a torn ligament as a result of the gruesome submission loss and has since sustained other injuries after making adjustments in her training, and so it has been quite a setback.

During an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda MMA, the UFC strawweight competitor laid out a timeline for her octagon return and confirmed that it will likely be in 2025. Belbita mentioned that she is improving but is still limited in what she can do in training. She said:

"The ligament that got torn in February is still not healed...I had a really long time where I couldn't [straighten my] arm...I still cannot wrestle...cannot brush the push kicks...cannot block a body kick or a hard head kick, so I have a lot of things that I cannot do...I overtrained my legs, so now my knees are bad so I have something like tendonitis...I really hope I'm going to be able to fight in the spring [2025]." [27:20 - 28:18]

Check out the full exclusive Sportskeeda MMA interview with Diana Belbita below:

---

Diana Belbita names UFC fighters she enjoys watching

Despite being out of action due to injury, Diana Belbita is still a big fan of MMA and named her favorite UFC fighters.

During the aforementioned interview, Belbita mentioned that she enjoys watching the veterans that have competed at the highest level for years including Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje as well as a surging lightweight contender. She said:

"Of course, [I like watching] those guys that are the OGs. Dustin Poirier, [Justin] Gaethje, you know, those guys...[Charles] Oliveira that you love to see. And now it's this new [contender] Arman Tsarukyan...I didn't expect him to beat Oliveira to be honest but he did it and he went through some really hard moments in the fight and still won...Of course, I like Rose Namajunas...Weili Zhang." [30:43 - 31:34]

Check out Diana Belbita's tweet reacting to Arman Tsarukyan's win over Beneil Dariush below: