Nick Diaz's Return: What We Can Expect

By the time the legendary former Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz makes his return to the UFC octagon, it will be about a month shy of a decade since he last recorded a victory.

And look, it doesn’t matter how you scored the Condit fight, or how underwhelmed you were with vast portions of the Anderson Silva fight and its rhythm, Nick Diaz hasn’t made a walk to the octagon since January of 2015.

Ten years without a win, over six and a half without an appearance - and now, his opponent, the ageing Robbie Lawler - the guy who has achieved victory in just one of his last six outings, all of a sudden, that guy looks like spring chicken of the two.

And looking at this five round UFC 266 matchup, with all of its asterisks, all of the unknowns, and the red flags that come to mind, the main question that comes to mind is how much can we expect from Nick Diaz at this point in time?