At UFC 137, Nick Diaz has finally legitimized himself on the big stage.
For a long time, Diaz has been regarded as one of the best in his class, though few gave him the credit he deserved whilst he was under the Strikeforce banner, where he became the organization’s welterweight champion.
He defended his title on three separate occasions, lastly against UFC veteran Paul Daley, knocking out the knockout artist inside of the first round.
Diaz was originally slated to take on Georges St-Pierre, the UFC’s long reigning welterweight champion; however, the Stockton native opted to no-show several pre-fight press junkets leading into the bout, which ultimately left the promotion with no choice but to tip their hat to Carlos Condit, who replaced Diaz in the the title headliner.
A subsequent knee injury scratched St-Pierre from the card altogether, and the re-booked Diaz now took on friend and former training partner BJ Penn in the main event.
In arguably his biggest fight to date, Diaz truly shined. Though he has shown promise in the past, nobody thought he could manage to dominate Penn the way he had. From the jump, the Cesar Gracie fighter showed his superior boxing prowess, ripping shots to the head and body of “The Prodigy,” wilting him against the fence and nearing a finish on several occasions.
In the end, Diaz earned the well-deserved decision victory after battering and bruising the former two-time world champion. With the win, Diaz earned the evenings “Fight of the Night” award while simultaneously reclaiming his shot at the welterweight title.
St-Pierre is considered the consummate favorite in almost all of his fights and for good reason. The Canadian has displayed a well-adept striking acumen in the past, though he now relies on his staunching wrestling skills, which has rifled the likes of Matt Hughes, Josh Koscheck and Jake Shields in the past.
However, Diaz—whom St-Pierre meets next February for Superbowl weekend—represents one of the toughest challengers that the pound-for-pound great has faced as of late.
Diaz is a well versed striker, whom Penn has described as “the best boxer” in mixed martial arts. To go along with those accolades, Diaz is also a well-accomplished Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under the aforementioned Cesar Gracie—who has only awarded the honor to the likes of former UFC title challengers David Terrell and Jake Shields.
St-Pierre has already left behind a run of dominance in the division which is unmatched. The 30-year-old has defended his title six consecutive times—a record at 170-pounds—against some of the best in the division, making him the undisputed number one fighter in the weight class.
Should Diaz pull the upset, it would do little to tarnish the legacy that St-Pierre has already cultivated inside the Octagon. As we’ve seen before, once the Greg Jackson product suffers defeat, he comes back that much stronger, which would be no different if the enigmatic Diaz can pull off the amazing feat.
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