Carlos “The Natural Born Killer” Condit, and any other fighter for that matter, must always relish ending a fight with a finish—if and when the opportunity arises.
Your opponent’s arm dangles invitingly, then you go for an armbar; his neck gets exposed while you’re on back mount, then you clamp on a rear-naked choke. He drops his hands carelessly in the standup, then you hit him strong right on the jaw or temple for the knockout.
Is there a more unquestionable and gratifying a victory than a finish? Who doesn’t want a tap out or referee stoppage signifying that it’s all over, and the victory is absolutely yours?
Let the three judges do their job and get paid without letting their decision officially dictate who wins or loses. Heck, you may have battered your opponent to a pulp, but you then immediately go into wishful thinking mode, wringing and crossing your fingers that thou art the favored one by the gods.
Spare yourself the agony of that short but tension-filled waiting time; most importantly, spare yourself of the probable official loss. Any popular decision hailing from the court of public opinion wouldn’t change that L into a W on your fight record.
The stain will remain, unless your opponent later tests positive for PEDs. But you wouldn’t count on that, would you? That will only entail more excruciating finger crossing, and you will only get as “high” as an adjustment from L to NC (no contest). Yup, still no W-I-N.
Go for the finish if and when you get the chance.
Now, I have no issue with the way Condit won over Nick Diaz, except for one thing.
Condit’s fighting skill is beyond question. His composure and ability to stick to his brilliant game plan for 25 minutes—disregarding Diaz’s physical, psychological and verbal pressure—was, and is, worthy of edification for all MMA fighters.
It’s just that my gut feeling, as a humble fan, tells me he could’ve opened Diaz up some more and gone for the kill—especially beginning in the third round when his fists started finding their mark. In the later rounds, he started peppering the Stockton, California native’s face with punches, adding to his accurate leg kicks which had been actively on target since Round 1.
I have no reason to doubt the power behind Condit’s fists, and it registered on Diaz’s face and CompuStrike, but how many times were they actually fueled with the intent to knockout?
I believe Condit’s trainer Greg Jackson when he said that “hitting a lot without getting hit is a good idea” in an interview with Sherdog.com. But when we hit, can we not go for it?
He could’ve tried setting up and sneaking a quick KO punch or two right after any of those combos.
Instead, most probably aware that he was leading anyway, Condit felt no sense of urgency and just piled up more points to secure his UFC interim welterweight belt and future championship match with Georges St-Pierre (whenever that may be).
What many fans suffered while watching Condit (now with still a staggering 26 finishes out of 28 wins) was experiencing the inverse relationship between their collective expectation of witnessing a fighter’s proven ability to finish and his apparent reluctance to go for it.
The beauty of a victory-via-finish is that it silences everyone—well, almost everyone, as there will always be incessant whiners even right after they tap out or regain consciousness.
“It’s pretty surreal, man,” Condit told TV analyst Joe Rogan in the cage right after his victory. But what is real and not surreal is this: the fans and pundits are divided on who truly deserved the win and the title shot versus St-Pierre.
The fans have reason to think that against Nick Diaz, Condit lost the instinct suggested by his cognomen: “The Natural Born…what?”
Condit must still be partying and celebrating his recent victory, but the chances he didn’t take to win convincingly with a finish must be in the back of his mind, especially as Diaz, among others, continues to criticize what he had to do to iron out an otherwise masterful and intelligent win.
He could have punched that infamous smirk—and taunts—right out of the octagon. He could have shut him up with a lights-out strike or submission, and shut everybody else’s mouth and keyboard.
A decision win could be an ellipsis, but a win by finish is both a period and an exclamation point!
Well, Condit is no Jon Jones, and last Saturday night, he chose to fight like a natural-born winner.
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