Author: Levi Nile

If Diaz Falls to GSP, Should He Move Up and Face Bisping at MW?

It’s odd to think that a man who was so feared and revered outside the UFC could be ousted from the division he was brought in to revitalize. If Nick Diaz loses to GSP in the next fight for the UFC welterweight title, what does he do afterward? I…

It’s odd to think that a man who was so feared and revered outside the UFC could be ousted from the division he was brought in to revitalize.

If Nick Diaz loses to GSP in the next fight for the UFC welterweight title, what does he do afterward? It’s doubtful he will continue to toil among the other welterweights in order to get another shot when in all probability he would end up facing scores of great wrestlers time and again.

One option he has is to move up to middleweight, where the champion—while the most formidable in the UFC—won’t force him to engage in the kind of fight he hates: one heavy in wrestling.

Diaz has already talked openly about facing Anderson Silva, but before he gets a shot at the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world, he would need to prove he’s got what it takes to stand in the top 10.

So, if Diaz did move up to 185 pounds, it seems likely that one of the first people to call him out would be Michael Bisping.

Regardless of the outcome of Bisping‘s fight with with Vitor Belfort, he may be in a kind of holding pattern, based on the fact that Silva seems to by eying megafights more than nominal title defenses. Silva is a big name, and Dana White seems very keen on the notion of setting him up with either GSP or Jon Jones, especially now that boxing has in all probability lost Mayweather vs. Pacquiao—striking while the iron is hot, so to speak.

And a bout with Nick Diaz would probably suit Bisping just fine.

Granted, the trash talk leading up to the fight would be inspired, and the matchup could probably net a prime-time installment, should the fight headline a card, but hype aside, should the bout happen?

Bisping is not one of those fighters who lets his opponents goad him into fighting in any way that is contrary to what he believes will see him win the fight. Against Wanderlei Silva, Bisping went for many a takedown, because at the end of the day, he wants to win.

But Bisping’s takedowns are not so great that Diaz wouldn’t get more than a fair amount of time to trade leather on the feet.

Many would argue that Bisping is too high up on the ladder, and they would have a valid point.

But still, it seems to be less of a question of why Diaz should face Bisping and more of a question of why not.

It’s terribly hard to postulate the need for such a fight, save that it would entertain while it clarifies: Would Diaz be able to score enough to win, or would Bisping’s in-and-out punching style show that the brawler from the 209 just isn’t ready for 185?

Either way, it’s hard to imagine this fight not being exciting, especially if it is five full rounds.

Why not? Indeed.

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Anderson Silva vs. Jon Jones and 10 MMA Superfights We Would Love to See

Now that 2012 is almost gone, we are left with the promise of some big fights for 2013. Of course, we all hope they will live up to the hype that has been afforded them, be it by the press, Dana White, or our own imaginations and preconceived notions. …

Now that 2012 is almost gone, we are left with the promise of some big fights for 2013. Of course, we all hope they will live up to the hype that has been afforded them, be it by the press, Dana White, or our own imaginations and preconceived notions.

We can look forward to Jose Aldo vs. Frankie Edgar, Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz and scores of other fights, but we continue to wonder about those larger than life superfights becoming reality.

Aldo-Edgar is close to a superfight, as is GSP-Diaz, but they both fall short for a variety of reasons, most due to perception and status in the sport.

That is not to say they can’t be sold as mega-bouts, because they can, but Jose Aldo and GSP will be the men that bring the “super” into the notion of a superfight, and that is where they fall slightly short.

For a real superfight to be, well, super, both men need to carry that load— like Anderson Silva and Jon Jones, for instance.

Still, we shouldn’t let mere technicalities hold us back in our wanting and wondering. There are true superfights out there that could redefine the notion, or at least prove that sometimes, it is enough that one man carry the load as long as the other is willing to share it during the bout itself.

A fight is a coauthored affair, after all, and sometimes public perception isn’t as sharp as it should be, especially with the casual fan who depend on the general media to make their predeterminations.

So, here are 10 fights in that vein that we would love to see; some more than others, but all deserving in their own way of some hope of realization.

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UFC: Why Dan Henderson Should Be Fighting Jon Jones, Not Chael Sonnen

It is hard for me to believe that Chael Sonnen is still in the eye of the camera, selling his shtick and shucking his jive like it’s all brand new and never before been heard. Yet he’s very much still in the minds of casual fans, mainly bec…

It is hard for me to believe that Chael Sonnen is still in the eye of the camera, selling his shtick and shucking his jive like it’s all brand new and never before been heard.

Yet he’s very much still in the minds of casual fans, mainly because he’s never stepped out of the spotlight. He went from talking about how he was going to destroy Anderson Silva to beating Silva for four rounds before tapping out to spinning his defeat into a rare species of victory to losing to Silva again. Then he’s suddenly filming the next season of TUF, and from there will fight for the light heavyweight title.

So, I guess the formula for repeated title shots is talk trash, fight well while losing your first title shot, talk some more trash, win a few comeback fights, talk even more trash and insult an entire nation, lose in your next title shot, then talk some more trash and become a reality television star and then fight for another title in a division that hasn’t seen you victorious in over four years.

And what is worse is that the man who should be fighting Jon Jones—Dan Henderson—is going to be playing second fiddle to Sonnen on TUF as his “assistant” coach.

The tail is officially wagging the dog, ladies and gentleman. Anytime the superior fighter, who has actually been a champion, is playing Robin to Chael Sonnen’s Batman, it becomes crystal clear that when all is said and done and a hard decision needs to be made, Dana White will go with the fighter who is more quotable than notable.

Everyone knows that Sonnen talked his way into his current situation, but now it is slowly starting to sink in: The window of opportunity for Dan Henderson to take his final shot at UFC gold has officially closed, right on his fingers.

And Dana White was more than happy to be the one slamming it shut.

This only makes “sense” from a sensationalistic standpoint, because no one in their right mind believes that Sonnen is any kind of challenge for Jones in any area.

When Jones steps into the cage against Sonnen, the champion will not be defending his belt against the top opposition available—he’ll be fulfilling a thinly veiled media obligation and nothing more.

The belt isn’t being served, and that cheapens it, no matter how good Sonnen may be for TUF.

This could have been avoided, and quite easily.

Henderson could have been scheduled to coach against Jones, and both men could have been filming the show while nursing their injuries. Henderson could have had Sonnen as his assistant—which is far more fitting. TUF still would have gotten all the clever smack talk and hype Sonnen could provide, and it would have also served to set up a Sonnen vs. Jones fight later on down the line, after Jones fought Henderson.

Instead, Sonnen is tapped to fight for the title, and Henderson gets thrown into another fight that could see him further injured. The cycle keeps repeating, and Henderson keeps getting older.

It would be different if Sonnen was selling something he could actually deliver, but he’s not, and when that becomes the case, then everything else is just hollow—manufactured smoke where there is no fire.

Henderson should be fighting Jones for all the reasons why Sonnen shouldn’t: He actually has a far greater chance of winning than Sonnen, he has experience as a champion and Sonnen doesn’t, he has a proven fan-pleasing style that has seen him in highlight reels while Sonnen’s only notable for his sound bites, and for Henderson this actually means something, whereas for Sonnen this is just a really great-paying gig that lets him be the center of attention.

Of course Sonnen said “yes” to fighting Jones on short notice. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

He knew after getting beaten by Silva twice that he’d have to get very lucky in order to get another title shot in the very near future, and when Henderson got hurt, he saw the winning lottery ticket lying on the ground at his feet. All he did is pick it up and run with it, showcasing the Sonnen swagger along the way.

It’s clear that White values that swagger over Henderson and his Fight of the Year performances and highlight-reel knockouts any day of the week.

And to think I used to laugh at the WWE.

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BJ Penn: An In-Depth Analysis of His UFC on Fox 5 Performance

Once again, BJ Penn has been roughed up and run over by another legitimate welterweight, and once again we are left to ponder if such a loss will send him into retirement, perhaps permanently this time. When looking at Penn’s performance against …

Once again, BJ Penn has been roughed up and run over by another legitimate welterweight, and once again we are left to ponder if such a loss will send him into retirement, perhaps permanently this time.

When looking at Penn’s performance against Rory MacDonald, we see much that has remained the same over his past few outings, and that seems to be a vast contrast to his fights at lightweight.

So, when looking at it under the microscope, so to speak, how do we think Penn did? Granted, he was in there against a rising star that enjoyed the advantages of reach, youth, strength and perhaps even hype, but in the end, Penn held his own future in his hands.

Perhaps one of the glaring holes in his showing against MacDonald is that he chose to fight the wrong fight against a man so much longer and younger than himself. Perhaps this is just a matter of hubris for a man with as much talent as Penn, but it’s clear that he’s not learning from his mistakes.

Penn didn’t use nearly as much movement as he should have. Against MacDonald, he should have been constantly circling and giving angles instead of plodding forward or backward.

He never really gave MacDonald anything other that a mainly stationary target when he should have been giving him a great deal of movement and feints. It seems obvious that he’s come to expect that he’s not going to get to land the heavy leather unless he is planted and can thus explode from there, and given the reach disadvantage he had, that simply wasn’t going to work.

Then, he didn’t respond with energy or desperation due the moment whenever he was pinned against the cage. It’s very good not to panic, but you have to get out of any spot that would be found in your opponent’s wheelhouse, and the clinch game clearly favored MacDonald.

After his last loss to Nick Diaz, this should have been obvious to Penn and he should have done damn near anything to get out of those positions, even if it looked like he was running for a moment.

Another opportunity for improvement for Penn is more defensive head movement to go along with constant circling when his opponent is at range. Penn is small for the division, and MacDonald was basically able to hit Penn with many kicks and jabs, mainly because Penn wasn’t doing enough to make himself anything other than a predictable, stationary target.

Then, of course, comes the question of commitment. Penn knew MacDonald was going to have many advantages while the bout was standing, but he didn’t commit to attacking like a man who knows it is better to give than receive.

He should have come in conditioned enough to throw at least 100 strikes per round, if not more. You can’t keep anyone on the defensive if you don’t give them anything to worry about, and Penn seemed to be either trying to keep MacDonald at bay or to play catch up on the score cards; neither of those plans speak very well for being aggressive toward the end of finishing a fight with strikes.

Lastly, it has become clear in Penn’s time at welterweight that he is slowly beginning to show his inner Quinton “Rampage” Jackson—never mixing things up with kicks and knees and elbows to go along with the punches. That simply won’t win him any fights in a division where his opponents are going to be bigger than he is, and it certainly failed him against MacDonald.

If Penn honestly wants to contend at welterweight, he must make drastic changes that include a brand-new conditioning program and a devotion to smart game plans. In short, he needs to start training with a group of fighters in a camp where he isn’t in charge; learning new things and new ways to apply them requires a student’s mindset, not that of a teacher.

He could always go back and spend some time with Randy Couture or perhaps even throw convention to the wind and train with someone like Frankie Edgar, who knows all about constant movement, effective counters and the like.

Over all, Penn’s performance was typical of the Penn that fights at welterweight, and that’s not the best Penn he can produce.

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Nate & Nick Diaz: Until the 209 Gets Wrestling 101, They’ll Never Get UFC Gold

For anyone who’s been following the careers of Nate and Nick Diaz, the results of tonight’s title fight should not be surprising, because we’ve seen it before. Benson Henderson employed his own twist on a tried-and-true game plan that…

For anyone who’s been following the careers of Nate and Nick Diaz, the results of tonight’s title fight should not be surprising, because we’ve seen it before.

Benson Henderson employed his own twist on a tried-and-true game plan that has been known to defeat the Diaz brothers in the past, and it worked like a charm, allowing him to shut down the challenger, reducing him to empty taunts and nothing more.

And what is boggling is that no one in “The Skrap Pack” camp seems at all interested in fixing the glaring hole in their fight preparations for either brother: good wrestling.

Yes, just that simple, really—and it doesn’t even have to be “great” wrestling, just good, because that is many steps above what they have now.

Tonight, we saw a well-rounded fighter give Nate Diaz a thorough thumping, and much of it can rightly be attributed to the fact that Henderson knew he could take Nate to the ground anytime he wanted.

The second part of the equation became clear as the fight went on; that Nate knew it too, and was helpless to do anything about it.

Of course, no one can say that Nate didn’t try, or that he gave up, because he was game until the end. But the simple facts are that neither he, nor his big brother, have come to understand that without some serious attention devoted to learning some wrestling 101, the 209 will never know UFC gold, at least not around the waist of the brothers Diaz.

It didn’t have to be that way, but that was their choice.

Next up is Nick Diaz, who will be facing one of the best wrestlers in the sport in GSP, and as bad as Nate looked tonight, his brother could end up looking much worse. Scores of 50-45 or 50-44 on all cards are a very real possibility, and if Nick loses like that, what is next?

While Nick was fighting outside of the UFC, he built up a rabid following with an impressive winning streak that saw him engage in some incredibly exciting, dramatic fights…but not one of those opponents possessed any kind of credible offensive wrestling game, and they posed little to no takedown threat.

Basically, they were tailor made, and Nick wore them out like a cheap suit.

But now, all of that is ancient history because in GSP, Nick will be hard-pressed to avoid any takedown the champion throws at him.

Watching Henderson ragdoll Nate all around the cage, attacking his legs and then throwing hard upstairs, it became clear that while much seems to have changed over the past years for the Diaz brothers, the song their opponents listen to remains the same: takedown and top position, over and over.

Nate worked his way to his title shot, fighting with passion and poise and that is something all fans love, but when you get to a certain level, it’s like the saying about the game of poker: “If you can’t spot the sucker inside of 10 minutes at the table, then you are the sucker.”

Maybe it’s time to start having their training camps led by Jake Shields and Gilbert Melendez rather than Cesar Gracie, because as of now, they really need to shake things up.  

Both of the Diaz brothers know full well what their opponents will be looking to do when the stakes are high, and complaining about it afterwards will not see them live up to their fullest potential.

It will just see them lose and from there be exposed as two-dimensional fighters that, while exciting as hell in a slugfest, will never be champions until they can keep fighters like Benson Henderson, GSP and countless others—all with strong bases in wrestling—from taking easy advantage of their hubris and mopping the canvas with their backs.

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Swick vs. Brown: Mike Swick Will Knock out Matt Brown

This is one fight I never thought about, which is odd for me considering how much I like both of these fighters.On one hand you have Matt Brown, a guy who has never been KO’d in professional competition. He’s tough as a coffin nail, has inc…

This is one fight I never thought about, which is odd for me considering how much I like both of these fighters.

On one hand you have Matt Brown, a guy who has never been KO’d in professional competition. He’s tough as a coffin nail, has incredible power in his fists, loves to fight and is a serious threat to anyone standing across from him.

Then you have Mike Swick, a fighter with incredibly fast hands who will let his hands go often, has unappreciated submission skills and knows how to finish a fight.

At first glance, this looks like a “Fight of the Night” candidate hands down, no questions asked. We know most of this bout will be contested with both men standing, throwing bombs.

But at a second look, one thing becomes clear: Matt Brown is much too slow for Mike Swick.

As good as Brown is, there are still some basic deficiencies in his overall game: subpar submission skills, leaves his chin out way too much, average hand speed and perhaps worst of all, he seems to act as if improving upon these areas will diminish his stature as a crowd pleasing action fighter.

And Brown would rather die than labor under that yoke.

Men like Brown are easy to watch and appreciate; they nearly always march forward, wearing their faults on their sleeves, daring the other guy to step into the pocket and do something about it.

Against Swick, he’ll find someone willing to painfully point out those errors, and by the time he realizes that he’s just been tagged four times Swick will be out of range, ready to counter with even heavier shots as Brown swarms in to get some payback.

This is a matador against a bull in every sense, and Swick isn’t going to let himself linger in too many bad situations for too long unlike Brown, who would pull out his own heart and eat it if it would keep the crowd on their feet.

Of course, Swick has probably never had to scrap against anyone as resilient as Brown, save for his losing effort against Chris Leben way back when. Brown is a more polished version of Leben, who moves so slow it’s almost painful to watch.

Swick has grown a great deal as a fighter since he lost to Leben, training hard and smart to evolve into a very slick craftsman. It’s doubtful he possesses the same kind of granite in his chin that Brown does, but as he is better defensively when punches are flying, that probably won’t matter.

If Swick has his cardio up to snuff and isn’t injured, his fists will be finding Brown’s jaw and chin frequently. If a man like Swick can stagger Brown just once, he can step through the doorway and deliver a barrage of punches that will eventually see Brown fall, and from there will come the finish in short order.

It’s hard to root for either man in such as fight as they both are a pleasure to watch. But speed kills in the fight game, and Mike “Quick” Swick has more than enough of that to earn the victory and mount a serious comeback in his career.

As for Brown, should this come to pass, he will no doubt simply dust himself off, go right back into training, ready to swing heavy leather all over again, secure in the fact that he will always have a home in the UFC as long as he’s willing to go to war every time he steps into the spotlight.

And I would rather see Brown fighting than many others out there.

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