Photo by Esther Lin/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
A look back to an era when Nick Diaz held welterweight gold.
This week’s buzz was all about the comeback of Stockton’s original bad boy.
After a five-year absence from the sport, Nick Diaz will try to defy Father Time and return to elite competition at 37 years of age. A lot are thrilled. Some have their concerns, and for good reason.
I’d rather save my judgments until he finally steps back inside that cage. What I do know for a fact is that Nick did put on one of the most impressive runs in the sport in the last decade and a half.
I could’ve gone back to his bangers with Takanori Gomi, K.J. Noons, and Robbie Lawler among many others, but this one stood out for me. It was a 2011 classic with at least three momentum shifts within a five-minute period.
“Semtex” already established himself as a solid knockout artist at this point. With 90 seconds left in the opening round, he dropped Diaz with one of his patented left hands. For that brief moment, the Strikeforce welterweight title was his for the taking.
But lest we forget, he was fighting a Diaz brother. That meant “kill or be killed” is part of the contract clause. Nick shook off the cobwebs from absorbing Daley’s ground-and-pound, buttscooted his way back up to his feet, and pressed the action.
Daley took a few hard punches before doing the drunk uncle dance on his way down to the canvas, face first. He ate a few more shots from up top before John McCarthy finally saw enough and intervened.
Nick Diaz successfully defended the Strikeforce 170-pound title for the third and final time. It was a fitting exit performance for one of MMA’s most polarizing fan-favorites.