When Nick Diaz steps into the cage to face UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, he’s going to be facing the greatest fighter in the history of the welterweight division.
If that wasn’t enough, he’s going to be facing a fighter who is the best where Diaz is the weakest—takedowns vs. takedown defense—and if that wasn’t enough, there’s more problems ahead.
St-Pierre is much stronger, more explosive, faster, seasoned and arguably the more well-rounded fighter between the two of them.
Still, all is not lost for the brawler from the 209—he still has some areas of advantage over the champ, but he can’t rest on the notion that those alone will carry him to victory.
Diaz needs to be imposing his will as much as possible. In a title bout against a man like GSP, if you are not giving him things to think about (and ideally worry about) then you are inviting him to be bold—a bold St-Pierre is nearly impossible to overcome in 25 minutes, no matter how tough you are.
The things Diaz normally does—throw punches in bunches, sprawl and brawl—he will be doing off hand in this fight; it just is part of his style and he will need to do them all night long if he wants to have any kind of success.
It’s the questions about the other areas of the fight that Diaz needs to be able to address, because it is certain that the champ and his camp have poured over countless hours of Diaz footage looking for weaknesses.
While these areas are not new to anyone in the fight game, they are nonetheless available to anyone who wants to use them, and in the biggest fight of his life, Diaz should use anything he can.