Diaz Pulled From DREAM Event

by Robert Sargent

EliteXC President Gary Shaw has pulled Nick Diaz from this Sunday's Dream.3 battle with Katsuya Inoue in Japan due to scheduling conflicts with Diaz's upcoming bout with Muhsin Corbbrey on June 14th at an EliteXC event.

Shaw had originally allowed Diaz to compete for the Japanese promotion when Diaz was scheduled to fight on April 29th, but Diaz's bout was later changed to May 11th.

When Saw learned of the change, he decided that Diaz's participation would be too close to his June 14th bout with Corbbrey and removed Diaz from the event. It marks the second straight time that Diaz has been removed from an event, after being taken off of the March 29th EliteXC/Strikeforce event by the California State Athletic Commission.

The match with Inoue was scheduled to be a title eliminator bout for the newly-created DREAM Welterweight Championship. Diaz will no longer be in line for the title, but will still compete against Corbbrey on June 14th.

After suffering an upset loss in Shooto, Hayato "Mach" Sakurai may now take on Inoue for the DREAM title, rather than facing the winner of Inoue vs Diaz, but likely not this Sunday.