Significant update on three big UFC 310 card changes, including Nick Diaz's return fight against Vicente Luque

There has been a major shake-up on the UFC 310 card, which is the final pay-per-view event of the year. It includes the news about fan favorite Nick Diaz's octagon return against Vicente Luque.

UFC 310 takes place on Dec. 7 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. In the main event, Alexandre Pantoja will defend his flyweight title against debutant Kai Asakura.

The co-main event will feature a title eliminator bout between Shavkat Rakhmonov and Ian Machado Garry, as they attempt to hand each other their first loss in professional mixed martial arts.

Despite having a stacked card, UFC 310 has seen some significant changes. According to MMA Mania, the promotion has canceled the heavyweight showdown between Martin Buday and Rizvan Kuniev after Buday pulled out due to unknown reasons.

Buday vs. Kuniev wasn't the only heavyweight clash that was scrapped as Tallison Teixeira's matchup against Lukasz Brzeski won't take place for undisclosed reasons. As a result, Brzeski will now face Kennedy Nzechukwu, who stepped in as a short-term replacement for Teixeira.

UFC 310 underwent another change, as Diaz's bout with Luque would not take place after all. The Stockton native was not officially injured. Instead, he was pulled out from the fight for unknown reasons.

In his last octagon outing at UFC 266 in 2021, Diaz faced former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler and suffered a third-round knockout defeat.

The promotion recently announced that Luque will now face Themba Gorimbo in a welterweight bout in the prelims of UFC 310. The 33-year-old Brazilian is 2-3 in his last five octagon visits.

Luque is coming off a second-round knockout defeat against Joaquin Buckley at UFC Atlantic City. Meanwhile, Gorimbo secured a unanimous victory over Niko Price at UFC Vegas 98.

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Vicente Luque reacts to Nick Diaz's withdrawal from UFC 310

Vicente Luque and Nick Diaz were supposed to fight at UFC 310 next month, but their bout was called off. Notably, a concerning video showing Diaz trying to set fire to some shrubs on the side of the road surfaced a few weeks ago.

The 41-year-old's girlfriend verified it by tagging Diaz in an Instagram post that suggested his struggle with drug addiction. In an interview with Inside Fighting, Luque, who will now take on Themba Gorimbo, shared his thoughts on Diaz.

He stated:

''It started with that video that showed up of [Nick Diaz] on the street... It is a crazy video when you see it. At the time I was really concerned, more than anything for Nick. You never want to see somebody in that condition.''

Check out Vicente Luque's comments below (1:52):