Last night at UFC 143, Carlos Condit defeated Nick Diaz to become the UFC interim welterweight champion. With UFC champ Georges St-Pierre on the shelf until the end of the year, Condit now has an important choice to make. Take…
Last night at UFC 143, Carlos Condit defeated Nick Diaz to become the UFC interim welterweight champion.
With UFC champ Georges St-Pierre on the shelf until the end of the year, Condit now has an important choice to make.
Take a fight and risk injury or losing his opportunity to face St-Pierre, or sit out and wait for the unification bout.
While neither Condit nor UFC president Dana White know what the next move will be yet, if Condit does take a fight, there are some interesting fights for him to take.
Lets take a look at five fights he could take to defend his title.
Carlos Condit is the UFC’s new interim welterweight champion, after defeating Nick Diaz at UFC 143. It was a close fight, but Condit was ultimately able to enforce his game plan and walk away with a decision victory.As the new interim champ, Condit has…
Carlos Condit is the UFC’s new interim welterweight champion, after defeating Nick Diaz at UFC 143. It was a close fight, but Condit was ultimately able to enforce his game plan and walk away with a decision victory.
As the new interim champ, Condit has earned the right to face the undisputed welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, when GSP returns to action later this year.
It is not set in stone that the two will face each other, though. Condit has said that he would be okay with defending his interim belt before facing St-Pierre, who may not be able to return until November.
However, it seems likely that the two will face each other, as the welterweight division is currently void of a clear contender for Condit’s interim belt.
On paper, Condit vs. GSP has all the makings of a great fight.
Condit is known as the “Natural Born Killer” because of how aggressive he is when he fights, and he’ll be eager to prove that he really is the No. 1 welterweight on the planet. GSP is a proud champion who will have been on the injured list for over a year and will want to return in style.
Unfortunately—and I hate to be the bearer of bad news here—this fight is more likely to be a snoozefest than anything else.
Anyone remotely familiar GSP knows that his style is to bring the fight wherever he has the best chance of winning. Against Condit, his best chance for victory lies on the ground.
Now, a battle on the ground does not necessarily make for a boring fight, but Condit has a crafty guard, which will likely lead to St-Pierre being cautious with his ground and pound.
As far as Condit’s strategy goes, he will want to keep the fight standing, but he won’t be overly aggressive on the feet because he’ll be worried about getting taken down.
Expect to see Condit fight similarly to how he fought Diaz. A lot of moving back and trying to soften his opponent up with kicks. He might be even more tentative, in fact, because he didn’t to worry much about Diaz taking him down.
If you enjoy a good chess match between two great strategists, then this fight might be for you, but don’t go into it expecting a dog fight.
Andrew Barr is a Featured Columnist for BleacherReport.com. For updates on what’s happening in the world of MMA, follow him on Twitter @AndrewBarr8
After Nick Diaz’s loss to Carlos Condit at UFC 143, a fight between Diaz and Georges St-Pierre was dashed to pieces.Many fans and most of the media were hoping that Diaz would walk away victorious, but Condit was able to fight from the outside and walk…
After Nick Diaz’s loss to Carlos Condit at UFC 143, a fight between Diaz and Georges St-Pierre was dashed to pieces.
Many fans and most of the media were hoping that Diaz would walk away victorious, but Condit was able to fight from the outside and walk away with the decision.
Diaz lost, no matter how controversial some might see it being, and now he is going to have to get back in line and win some bouts if he wants another chance.
But will he do it?
After his fight with Carlos Condit, Diaz announced that he might be done with MMA. In an article written on Yahoo Sports, he mentioned his frustration with the fact that Condit ran and he pushed the fight.
As fans who paid good money to see the fights, it’s hard to not sympathize with Diaz. Fans want to see spectacular finishes and exciting moments. Instead they got five rounds of one fighter pedaling backwards while the other chased him.
Diaz is talented and with enough effort, a fight with Georges St-Pierre would be possible. He would have to get some serious wins over top contenders under his belt and St-Pierre would have to keep the title, but it isn’t unthinkable that it could happen.
It all comes down to Diaz.
He is a young man plagued with problems and doesn’t seem to be able to control them. If he feels his time as a fighter is up, then he will walk away.
If Diaz even wins one more fight in the Octagon, the UFC will make the match. There is simply too much money involved for it to not happen.
Even if Condit does beat St-Pierre for the title, the UFC could still make money from the animosity that both fighters have shown each other, but if the fight is going to happen, Diaz needs to keep competing.
It isn’t in Diaz’s nature to give up, though he is erratic enough to throw away an opportunity like the ones he has before him.
So the real question isn’t if Diaz will face St-Pierre, but if he will grow up enough to let the match happen down the road.
And that is only something that Diaz knows the answer to.
Matthew Hemphill writes for the MMA and professional wrestling portion of Bleacher Report. He also hosts a blog elbaexiled.blogspot.comthat focuses on books, music, comic books, video games, film and generally anything that could be related to the realms of nerdom.
Fight night is finally upon us, and the stakes couldn’t be higher as headliners Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit prepare to duke it out for the interim welterweight crown.Although a new champion will be crowned tonight, the title will be short-lived; the re…
Fight night is finally upon us, and the stakes couldn’t be higher as headliners Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit prepare to duke it out for the interim welterweight crown.
Although a new champion will be crowned tonight, the title will be short-lived; the recovering Georges St. Pierre continues to rehab as he prepares himself for a return to action late in 2012.
When St. Pierre finally makes it back to the Octagon, neither possible opponent will stand a chance against the reigning welterweight king. Both Diaz and Condit would be tough challengers, but the Canadian champion is just on another level.
To the chagrin of fans, St. Pierre’s grinding style of fighting would negate any attack plan that Diaz or Condit could conjure up. Both challengers would be forced to work off their back, a huge disadvantage. espcially for Condit. Without the jiu-jitsu skills that Diaz has, Condit would be thrust into unfamiliar territory with no tools to contend with the champion.
Diaz would have a better shot on the ground because of his tricky guard, but one must not forget that St. Pierre is also a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt. When coupled with his wrestling, this makes for a very aggressive top game as well as a near-impenetrable submission defense game.
Standing, both fighters have a better shot at defeating St. Pierre, but his world-class boxing skills would be a clinic in how to stick a punch and move, avoiding any damage. St. Pierre has the uncanny ability to dissect his opponent’s weakness and exploit it, making his stand-up deceptively dangerous.
Regardless of who he faces, the recovering welterweight champ has all the skills he needs to defeat both Diaz and Condit.
On every UFC fight card, there are fighters who stand to gain a lot. But at UFC 143, no one has more to gain than the unheralded Carlos Condit.Condit is the proverbial dark horse in the welterweight division and not through any fault of his own.He’s an…
On every UFC fight card, there are fighters who stand to gain a lot. But at UFC 143, no one has more to gain than the unheralded Carlos Condit.
Condit is the proverbial dark horse in the welterweight division and not through any fault of his own.
He’s an exciting fighter who finishes yet, he’s not the one people want to see.
Instead, the people want to see the brash, fiery Nick Diaz take on his dramatic foil, the clean-cut, well-spoken, cordial (although some would say bland) UFC welterweight champion Georges St.Pierre.
So anticipated was this fight that a St.Pierre-Condit meeting was actually scrapped to allow St.Pierre-Diaz to happen.
UFC brass even insisted that Condit himself understood that this fight needed to happen so he supposedly stepped down of his own volition. The truth was later revealed; Condit did NOT give up a title shot just for the novelty of seeing a true “good guy vs. bad guy” fight at welterweight.
Thus, Condit is going into his fight with Diaz with a massive chip on his shoulder; he’s the guy who’s supposed to lose so that one of the biggest feuds in the sport can finally be resolved.
But what if this doesn’t happen? What if a wrench gets thrown into the machinations of matchmaker Joe Silva and Condit actually defeats Diaz?
He will have stolen the considerable amount of thunder that Diaz has acquired over the last few years and will have instantly made himself into a name.
Diaz vs. Condit is the most high-profile fight on the card and is the most important fight in terms of implications on MMA as a whole.
If Condit wins, he’ll go from being a WEC guy who got lucky a few times to being a legitimate contender for St.Pierre’s title.
A new UFC welterweight champion will be crowned at UFC 143 on Saturday night, and it won’t be Georges St-Pierre. The legendary welterweight and future UFC Hall-of-Famer has been sidelined with a knee injury that could keep him out of action for most of…
A new UFC welterweight champion will be crowned at UFC 143 on Saturday night, and it won’t be Georges St-Pierre.
The legendary welterweight and future UFC Hall-of-Famer has been sidelined with a knee injury that could keep him out of action for most of 2012.
Now, former Strikeforce champion Nick Diaz will take on former WEC champion Carlos Condit to determine an interim UFC champion.
“I respect Carlos Condit, but I want Diaz to win. I want this fight with Diaz so badly, as badly as I wanted the title shot when I got down on my knees,” St-Pierre said in a UFC interview on Thursday. “He needs to hold up his part and beat Carlos Condit on Saturday to make this fight happen.”
Diaz and St-Pierre were originally slated to fight one another in October 2011, but the Stockton native was pulled from the bout after failing to appear at multiple mandatory press conferences. He was instead matched with BJ Penn, who he defeated soundly in a memorable three-round battle at UFC 137.
Immediately after the bout, Diaz accused St-Pierre of ducking and dodging fights. The UFC were planning for St-Pierre to face Condit on Super Bowl weekend, but angered by Diaz’s post-fight comments, the French-Canadian begged and pleaded for the UFC to reconsider the main event.
UFC President Dana White gave in and decided to book the super fight between St-Pierre and Diaz.
Unfortunately, the bout was called off again in December when St-Pierre was forced off the card with a torn ACL.
“I am ahead of schedule. I can already train and even kick, but I am remaining calm and not rushing. I won’t train properly until July,” said St-Pierre, when asked about his rehab.
With St-Pierre on the shelf, Diaz and Condit will battle it out for the interim title.
Depending on his recovery, St-Pierre will face the winner down the line to determine the undisputed UFC champion, but until that day comes, he believes a true champion is nonexistent.
“The way I see it, I am not the champion anymore on Saturday night. You have to put the belt on the line in order to call yourself champion, the best in the world. Right now, I am not the best in the world. I am injured,” St-Pierre stated.
“The winner of this fight on Saturday will be more than just the new No. 1 contender, but he won’t be the new champion either. The winner of this fight will have to beat me to become the true world champion, and I will have to beat the winner of this fight in order to call myself the best in the world again. We have to beat each other to be the undisputed champion.”
Carlos Condit is the UFC’s new interim welterweight champion, after defeating Nick Diaz at UFC 143. It was a close fight, but Condit was ultimately able to enforce his game plan and walk away with a decision victory.