UFC lightweight contender Nate Diaz (10-2 MMA) will be sidelined until 2009, due to his formerly scheduled opponent Clay Guida suffering a foot injury. GracieFighter.com, the official site of Cesar Gracie’s fight team, has posted confirmation of the aforementioned.

Both Diaz and Guida are coming off impressive victories over their opponents. In fact, Nate has put together a five-fight win streak in the UFC, since winning The Ultimate Fighter season 6. He looked to push the number of consecutive victories to six in December, but now hopes to fight on the same night welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre takes on current lightweight champ BJ Penn.

“With every viable UFC contender having already been paired for fights in the next couple of months, it became clear that Diaz would not have an opponent ready for the rest of 2008,” the GracieFighter.com report stated. “Nothing has been signed as of yet. However, we are hoping to see Nathan fight early in 2009 possibly on the same card as [Georges St. Pierre] vs. (B.J.) Penn in Las Vegas.”

If the UFC brass grants such a wish, we’d see the 23 year old Jiu-Jitsu specialist back in action on Jan. 31 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena at UFC 94.