In short terms, Nate Diaz is not too dangerous to put on the UFC on FOX 3 card on May 5, despite beliefs to the contrary.
Sure, he’s straight out of Stockton, California and he represents Cesar Gracie jiu-jitsu. The notorious rule of thumb in MMA circles is that any fight against a Diaz brother (meaning either Nick or Nate) always begins when a fighter signs the contract to fight the Diaz in question.
Even in fights with fighters like Josh Neer, Clay Guida and basically any other UFC fighter that has not talked very much trash about Nate before having to fight the Stockton native, the rule has been to not try and get too friendly with Nate until after the fight.
As much of a nice and humble dude as Jim Miller is, he must know, just as past Diaz opponents have come to learn, that Diaz will not be shaking hands or giving Miller too many props before the end of the fight.
That’s not saying Miller’s a bad guy, but he’s in a cage trying to take away Diaz’s shot to prove he’s the best in the world at 155 pounds, and Miller knows Diaz is trying to do the same.
Does that mindset make Diaz too dangerous to put on FOX?
No, it doesn’t. Diaz wants the win, but he knows his fight with MIller will be televised on FOX. There’s really a limit to how far he might be able to go with getting in Miller’s face, but Diaz hasn’t spoken ill of Miller yet and Miller hasn’t spoken ill of Diaz yet.
As far as styles go, it’s possible that Diaz puts on another “Fight of The Night” bonus winner, so maybe in that respect, it might be too dangerous to put a fighter like that in the cage because of the possibility of a fight that’s better than advertised.
It may be a little bit on the violent side if Diaz works his boxing, and it may be painful to watch if Miller works his jiu-jitsu game early, just as he was able to do when he capitalized on Melvin Guillard’s mistakes when the two collided on the FX card.
All of those are possibilities, but if the FOX network execs wanted a bunch of fights that couldn’t live up to the hype, they should’ve stuck it in the contract when they did business with Zuffa.
If one fight card on FOX just happens to deliver on the hype and then some, does that make Diaz too dangerous for FOX?
Considering how Nate is before fights on a normal fight night, I should say for certain he’s not too dangerous for free TV, which is great for FOX, but if Miller makes one wrong move on fight night, it’ll be hazardous to Miller’s goal of getting back into contention for a title shot.
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