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UFC on FOX 3: Is Nate Diaz Destined for Gatekeeper Status?

Nate Diaz is his own worst enemy and a tougher opponent than Jim Miller, who he will face when he steps into the cage at UFC on FOX 3.While Miller may be an accomplished wrestler who knows how to win decisions and submit his competition, it is his pati…

Nate Diaz is his own worst enemy and a tougher opponent than Jim Miller, who he will face when he steps into the cage at UFC on FOX 3.

While Miller may be an accomplished wrestler who knows how to win decisions and submit his competition, it is his patience that will help him win in the end.

Diaz is a great fighter. He has all the ability of a top mixed martial artist and none of the patience. He could easily win against Miller if he decides to use his boxing to keep Miller on the outside and stop the talented wrestler from getting takedowns.

Diaz has a 76″ wingspan that extends well beyond Miller’s 71″. With that room, he could outbox him enough to get a decision win. The only problem is that Diaz would have to take a step back and make a fight without trying to finish his opponent.

That isn’t Nate Diaz.

In 15 victories, only two of them have been by decision. In seven losses, six have gone the distance.

Diaz is an impatient man, and to him an MMA bout is a fight that should have both men trying to knock out or submit their opponent.

While this is an admirable quality to have as a martial artist and something that is true in a fight, this is a sport. In a sport, there are rules and fighters get paid to be the best at adhering to the rules while beating their competition.

Diaz doesn’t accept that. He just wants to fight to the finish.

That may have worked 10 to 15 years ago when the sport was in its infancy, but now there are more and more competitors who are focused on being professional athletes instead of being fighters. They want to use MMA to make money and be successful instead of aiming to be called the best in the world.

If Diaz wants to make more money then he is going to have to deal with reality—but he won’t.

Nate Diaz has been a professional since 2004, and even if he is just 26 years old, it means his habits are now ingrained. He is his own character and doesn’t want to change for anyone.

The thing that has kept him relevant and winning in the UFC is the same thing that stops him from reaching the upper echelon. He is going to fight his style and with his demeanor, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

Diaz has all the talent in the world, and in bouts like the one he had with Donald Cerrone, fans get to catch a glimpse of it. If Diaz would be willing to play by the rules, fans would see more than that, but since he won’t, we can’t.

That is a shame, because for all of his faults, Nick Diaz is one of the best fighters in the sport today. He just doesn’t show it, and on UFC on FOX 3 his unwillingness to adapt will cost him his shot at the top once more.

And as long as he continues to think the way he does, it always will.

Matthew Hemphill writes for the MMA and professional wrestling portion of Bleacher Report. He also hosts a blog elbaexiled.blogspot.com that focuses on books, music, comic books, video games, film and generally anything that could be related to the realms of nerdom.

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Why the UFC Will Be More Popular Than the NBA and the NHL in the Next Decade

The UFC has the potential to become more than just a sports franchise if it continues to grow the way it has in the last few years. It can outpace other entrenched establishments such as basketball or hockey.All it needs to do is keep reinventing itsel…

All it needs to do is keep reinventing itself and continue to change while still keeping true to letting fights organically tell a tale like they have since the dawn of man.

I wrote a while ago about how the UFC has reached the point where it will have over-saturated the market unless it changes how it is seen and revamps its product. There are simply too many shows and no offseason.

Every pay-per-view and every cable TV show sounds the same with the same announcers, the same style of music in the promos, the same rules and the same packaging. The UFC needs to do something that even the NHL and the NBA have done.

They need to add a flair and a twist to their product depending on the country they are in. With that, they can make their product fresh each time.

We have already seen the UFC start to do this by adding an Ultimate Fighter show for Brazil. By adding the show to other countries, the UFC could potentially learn to change their company just enough to sell it in a different light depending on the fighters who are in each PPV and what culture they embody.

The NBA and the NHL each have different cities for different teams, which leads to different jerseys and fanbases. These differences help sustain their marketability.

But each MMA star can have crossover potential in a way other sports don’t. As much as MMA is a sport, it is about the singular man who competes and while there are rules that must be adhered to, no one needs to explain the concept of a fight.

As long as the UFC learns to sell their fighters and their PPV’s in a different manner each time, they can reach beyond the limitations the NHL and the NBA have.

The NBA has Jeremy Lin and the current epidemic of “Linsanity” sweeping the nation.

Wayne Gretzky is beloved in his native Canada when it comes to hockey.

Neither man is a worldwide phenomenon. There are exceptions like Michael Jordan, but for the most part, a player for both sports is limited in how big their star can grow. It all comes down to one thing.

Their sport and the rules that sport plays by.

Take someone who has never seen any sports and show them Jeremy Lin and while they might notice that he is an exceptional athlete, you would need to translate what can and can’t be done in a basketball game.

Just the act of dribbling a ball and how many steps a player has to take each time before he is penalized for traveling would take effort.

No effort is needed to explain what an Anderson Silva knockout includes. Not on a basic level.

The same can be said about Gretzky. He scored a vast number of points in his career, but some of what he has done will be lost without the knowledge of what a goal is and how one is scored.

The same thing can’t be said about Junior dos Santos’ knockouts. The KOs scored in MMA allow it the same level of acclaim boxing once had.

The idea that two men who can’t even speak the same language and can’t interact with each other in any way can still get in a fight and prove who is the best in the world.

It is something that is innately within every human and the only thing hampering the UFC right now is a lack of competition. They don’t have any rival promotions to innovate against and without it they are going to get stale.

But if they learn how to change their product and keep it novel, they can retell the same classic story that has been around since the dawn of time.

Two men meet in battle with only one left standing.

And no one needs a rule book to figure out what is going to happen there.

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UFC Having More Events in 2012 Equals Weaker Main Events

The UFC is not equipped with an adequate enough roster to handle the amount of events they are going to put on in 2012. They are quickly outpacing the amount of talent they have under contract with the schedule they have.The new deal that the UFC made …

The new deal that the UFC made with FOX means that not only will the promotion see fights on network TV, but on cable channels such as FX and Fuel as well. That isn’t including all the pay-per-views that the UFC will put on or the Ultimate Fighter Finale cards.

The UFC is reaching a point where their brand is MMA and without any changes made to it, it is going to get stale fast. Part of that is the fact that only so many fighters can be popular in the organization at one time.

Fans can see only so many dominant fighters and exciting, but limited brawlers in one year. Injuries, layoffs and medical suspensions limit how many times a year they can fight. After those times have been exhausted, the UFC is going to put on some lackluster events.

It has happened a few times in the match where the card was less then exciting. A great example is UFC 122. Luckily, the card was free on Spike TV, but the main event was Yushin Okami versus Nate Marquardt. The match was an important one for the middleweight division just not an exciting one.

While there was supposed to be a decent fight between Alessio Sakara and Jorge Rivera, it got cancelled because Sakara got sick right before the match up.

The rest of the card underwhelmed and while part of it was a lack of names, the skill level of most of the participants just didn’t seem to rival that of basic cable cards in the past. The UFC had finally faced a new problem.

Having TV time while not having the talent to deliver the expectations became real.

Dana White can make all the claims he wants about fans not judging fights before they take place, but there is merit to this. Sometimes the fans are right and they should have a say and an impact in which fights get made. They pay to see certain fighters and few else.

When those fighters recover for a certain time, the UFC needs to keep putting on cards, but can’t do so without the help. They need marketable and exciting fighters that fans recognize if they want to sell the product effectively.

When cards like UFC 122 occur, that marketing strategy takes a hit.

The UFC may be making incredible strides and increasing their presence in today’s global sports culture, but they need to make sure they have fighters for the events they are going to be putting on.

Without the quality talent to make the events as entertaining as they have been in the past, the UFC will not only slow down their ascent to the top, but will also end up damaging themselves in the long run.

The UFC may want to move as fast as they can in solidifying their place at the top, but even they have to keep in mind that without the depth of talent, it won’t matter anyway.

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Has the UFC Reached a Point of Market Saturation or Is There Room to Grow?

As the UFC is now, they are dangerously close to giving fans too much of the same product. The UFC can still expand, but to do so they would need to make some changes.For hardcore MMA fans, it won’t matter if the product stays the same, because we love…

As the UFC is now, they are dangerously close to giving fans too much of the same product. The UFC can still expand, but to do so they would need to make some changes.

For hardcore MMA fans, it won’t matter if the product stays the same, because we love it anyway. From minor shows on Showtime to Internet streaming of local promotions, we’ll watch it all.

But the casual fan just knows about the UFC and without something novel being injected into the equation from time to time, they grow bored.

While there are franchises like the NFL that can survive the test of time, it is worth mentioning that they see an injection of new characters and talent every few years. Teams even change their colors or uniforms from time to time, and new stadiums have been built.

Even something as static as football can remain, but football also has something the UFC doesn’t have.

They have an off season. MMA is something we can see 12 months out of the year and while that is great for fans, it does leave us a little spoiled.

There is no longer a wait for weeks on end for the next pay-per-view or event. Now there are several events each month with fans angry if something doesn’t live up to their expectations or even up to last week’s fights.

There is no way to savor fights when they are given out freely all the time. The natural build up that comes from a fan’s longing to see more of the sport he loves can’t be replaced by a slew of great fights.

There is nothing that equals the UFC in MMA. They have the winning formula and everyone either tries to copy them or they are stuck in a niche in the sport.

That means that almost any televised event is going to have the same feel, music, announcers and fighters that fans have grown used to seeing.

That can get monotonous. When PRIDE existed, fans had a chance to see to different products and groups of fighters. Even the rules were different.

While the UFC should never switch their rules for certain events, they can at least take a page from PRIDE and allow their fighters to have over the top entrances along with fireworks. They need to make some tweaks if they want to keep captivating crowds.

They need to find a way to change themselves and reinvent the product, or it is going to get old fast.

And that is something no one wants to watch.

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Do MMA Fans Expect Too Much from Fighters When It Comes to Exciting Matches?

Every fan loves to watch a back-and-forth battle where two fighters exchange blows, but there is a decent chance the fighters involved don’t care for it at all. They just want to get the win, make some money and go home.And they are absolutely right in…

And they are absolutely right in doing that.

Some fighters might say they enjoy going to war, and in the UFC the bonuses help, but in the end their job is to win and compete again as soon as possible. Some of the mixed martial artists really do just enjoy the challenge.

Some are just providing for their families.

In boxing there are fighters who are criticized for staying in their home countries and taking easy fights where they win lots of money. The same thing happens in MMA, but it isn’t widespread. Any critiques of in mixed martial arts comes from the strategies certain UFC fighters employ.

But you know what? They should do that.

Fans may grow rabid and attack a fighter like Jon Fitch for winning “boring decisions,” but he has been able to feed and house his family and himself by doing just that. Fans do pay for a fighter’s paycheck by buying pay-per-views and tuning in, but they won’t do so if he gets cut from the UFC.

A fan may cheer for fighters like Keith Jardine or Leonard Garcia, but when they get cut or face the chopping block they do it alone.

There is no pension in fighting. There usually isn’t a medical plan either.

Fighters just make the money they can while getting injured with the potential risk of taking enough damage that they can no longer make a living that way.

If they can find a way to minimize the risk and win, then they should. That doesn’t mean that it won’t come with consequences. Those fighters that choose not to will not get moved along as fast, get fewer main card slots and are marketed less aggressively.

Just like high-stakes gambling, those that take the larger risk can meet an equal reward.

But if a fighter feels that he has the technical skills to slowly and surely climb the ladder and snatch the title, that is his prerogative. If he wants to take as little of a chance, ironically while competing in a risky job, he can do so and should do so without negativity.

He may have to face the facts that he won’t get the adoration his more fan-friendly counterparts do, though he may not get cut as fast either.

As long as the fighters accept the trade that such a style of fighting demands, then they deserve to do it without ridicule.

Because when a fighter gets cut from the UFC or finally retires, the fans don’t follow them. They don’t continue to pay to see them at meet and greets or cover their rent or hospital bills.

They move on to the next fighter and cheer him.

That may sound callous, but it is true. Fans are fickle. The second a fighter doesn’t deliver they say that fighter is done. After a fighter doesn’t deliver for a while they dismiss him and forget about him.

Only fighters like Wanderlei Silva, Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture, who have been top fighters for years, are saved from this phenomenon.

But most fighters don’t have that luxury and don’t reach that level of acclaim.

They just fight to survive. It would be nice if fans realized this and let them.

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UFC on FUEL 1 Results: Recapping the Fight Night Bonuses

The bonuses for the inaugural UFC on Fuel card totaled $200,000 with $50,000 going to each fighter in the fight of the night, knockout of the night and submission of the night.The easiest choice was for submission of the night. In w…

The bonuses for the inaugural UFC on Fuel card totaled $200,000 with $50,000 going to each fighter in the fight of the night, knockout of the night and submission of the night.

The easiest choice was for submission of the night. In what has become a disappointing trend, there was a lack of victories, thanks to tapouts. Most fights either ended in knockout or decision wins.

Only one fighter was able to buck the new trend, and that was Ivan Menjivar who was able to submit John Albert by rear-naked choke. Menjivar battled back from a bad spot with Albert having kicked and punched him badly.

He was then able to find the opening and slapped the choke on. It not only got him the come from behind win, it got him some extra pocket money as well.

Before that, fans got the treat of seeing a submission battle with both men grappling on a high level and showing different Brazilian jiu-jitsu moves. It was one of the better fights of the night, and if not for the eventual winner, might have taken the prize home.

The winner of fight of the night was already a safe bet when Diego Sanchez was announced for the main tilt. He, just for all his wrestling credentials, loves to stand and trade.

He did just that, and while he lost the majority of it, he was able to crack Ellenberger with a few left hands while they were in the final stanza. It wasn’t enough to win the decision, but he did do enough to win the bonus.

With the financial problems that Sanchez has had recently, it is a great consolation prize.

The last bonus was the knockout of the night, and while a decent amount of fighters got a KO, none did it better then Stipe Miocic. Not only did he knock out his opponent, he did it in the first round.

Miocic didn’t let the bull rush of his opponent, Phillip De Fries, faze him, keeping calm even when he had a few punches land against his head.

His patience paid off as he landed a straight right which damaged De Fries and then quickly followed up. The bonus is great, and the short amount of time it took Miocic to get it along with the win means he will probably be stepping into the Octagon soon.

Now with a win over Joey Beltran and a knockout of the night bonus, Miocic should gear up for the level increase he is bound to be subjected to. Especially after doing so on the main card of a TV fight.

At the end of the night, the bonuses were given out fairly, and the best bonus went to the fans who got to see every fight on TV instead of potentially missing them on Facebook.

It’s too bad there isn’t a cash prize as well.

Matthew Hemphill writes for the MMA and professional wrestling portion of Bleacher Report. He also hosts a blog elbaexiled.blogspot.com that focuses on books, music, comic books, video games, film and generally anything that could be related to the realms of nerdom.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com