Just one day after the big announcement that Georges St. Pierre will defend his title against Nick Diaz, the Diaz Brothers website already has something to say about it.Just reading the post lets you know that the hype surrounding this fight is going t…
Just one day after the big announcement that Georges St. Pierre will defend his title against Nick Diaz, the Diaz Brothers website already has something to say about it.
Just reading the post lets you know that the hype surrounding this fight is going to be amazing. St. Pierre better better be ready, because Diaz is going to give him a fight. Don’t be scared homie!
From diazbrothers.com:
Top 10 Reasons Nick Diaz Winning the UFC Belt is a Good Thing 10) Nick would take the Anderson Silva fight…anytime 9) Nick fights to finish, not win on points 8) Nick Ain’t Scared Homie 7) Nick doesn’t do gymnastics 6) Nick won’t tap to strikes 5) Nick doesn’t fight in bike shorts 4) Nick doesn’t “play the game” 3) Nick will box you up and choke you with a gogo 2) Nick doesn’t speak French 1) And the #1 reason Nick Diaz should be the new UFC Champ….he Ain’t No Bitch!
So what’s your call? Who will win?
A lot more hype is certain leading up to this highly anticipated fight. How well will Diaz be able to get into the mind of GSP?
GSP is a respectful guy, but will he retaliate to this post from diazbrothers.com? Only time will tell. Get ready for a fun five months leading up to this fight.
With the recent announcement of the GSP vs. Nick Diaz superfight, the MMA world has been set ablaze. Media and fans are jumping on every social site and outlet to share their thoughts on one of the biggest welterweight showdowns in MMA history. What ma…
With the recent announcement of the GSP vs. Nick Diaz superfight, the MMA world has been set ablaze. Media and fans are jumping on every social site and outlet to share their thoughts on one of the biggest welterweight showdowns in MMA history.
What makes this a superfight is defined simply by the two men who will face each other. On one side, you have Georges St. Pierre, UFC Welterweight Champion and one of the pound-for-pound best fighters in MMA. On the other you have Diaz, Strikeforce Welterweight Champion and one of the top welterweights in the world.
GSP has dominated his division in the UFC, and Diaz is the last opponent to truly define him as one of, if not the best, welterweights of all time.
Diaz has won his past 10 fights in a row, and he has successfully been the only person to hold the Strikeforce welterweight title. Diaz has defended the belt three times since its inception.
Now he comes for GSP’s title.
Diaz is a fighter not afraid to exchange with his opponent. He pushes forward and does not let the pace slow down. This is one of the biggest reasons why this could be a very interesting fight.
Diaz has attained 25 career wins in MMA. Impressive, but overshadowed by the fact that 21 of those wins were finishes. Diaz has shown that his striking is effective and has led to many TKOs or his pedigree. But his dominant strength comes on the ground.
His jiu-jitsu, under the study of Cesar Gracie, is at a very high level. This makes him dangerous on the ground as well as standing up.
This matters because it makes him a more well-rounded opponent for GSP, who has fought high-level wrestlers or strikers in the past. But in October, fans will see GSP being tested in all areas.
The main criticism that follows the Canadian champion is that he does not finish his fights. Some say he fights safe, while others say he just either doesn’t have the ability or get the chance. Now he faces off against an opponent who finishes his fights and has very few wins by decision. It is very much a battle of opposites being pitted against one another. UFC vs. Strikeforce, decision winner vs. finisher, Canada vs. USA.
But the fact that Diaz likes to push so much may lead to an opportunity for GSP. Instead of sitting back and avoiding GSP’s takedowns, Diaz may very well come at him and try to be the aggressor. This could give GSP the chance to grasp a finish that fans and critics alike have been clamoring for. For media relations, GSP needs a finish. Diaz could be the perfect candidate.
But not to sell the Strikeforce champion short. Iron sharpens iron, as they say, and Diaz is in no short supply. Training with the likes of his brother Nate Diaz, Gilbert Melendez, and Jake Shields does nothing but improve his own abilities. With training partner Shields having been GSP’s most recent opponent, Shields may be able to shed some light and provide helpful tactics for Nick’s match against the UFC champ.
With his own desire to please the fans and continue his legacy, GSP may very well step into the Octagon in October with a different mindset. He could see it as an opportunity to silence the media or, conversely, to permanently define himself in the welterweight division of MMA.
Come October, we will all find out.
Who do you think will win and why? (Make you predictions here: Include winner, method, which round and why you think so!)
Now that almost a day has gone by since UFC president Dana White announced that Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz would be facing UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, someone has finally gotten a hold of GSP and asked him about the fi…
Now that almost a day has gone by since UFC president Dana White announced that Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz would be facing UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, someone has finally gotten a hold of GSP and asked him about the fight.
GSP is currently in Rome, Italy with some of his amateur-wrestling training partners who are competing in a meet in the European country.
“I’m excited,” GSP told The Canadian Press from Rome, “because it’s been a long time he’s been talking about me, saying like he’s the best, he was saying I was avoiding him and stuff. But I never avoid anybody.”
The talk of this fight has finally come to fruition and it is still not known if Diaz will vacate his Strikeforce welterweight belt or if he will keep it under his new contract. The new contract Diaz signed allows him to fight both Strikeforce fighters and UFC fighters.
“For me, I don’t care about the other title,” GSP said. “The title that means the most to me is UFC. It’s the most prestigious one. The UFC is [like] the NFL of football, the Stanley Cup of hockey. That’s the one that everyone’s wants to have.
“I don’t care about gaining the Strikeforce title. I’m a UFC guy and I want to stay in the UFC the rest of my career. That’s where I belong.”
To some, Diaz is a top welterweight and is considered the biggest threat to GSP’s throne. Both fighters hold impressive win streaks with Diaz’s at 10 straight victories and GSP’s at nine straight.
“Right now I’m champion. I don’t care about fighting for a title. I care about fighting the name and Nick Diaz, he’s the guy to beat right now,” said GSP. “He’s the guy that a lot of people rank him even No. 1 so that’s why I want to fight him.”
Like in his last fight against Jake Shields, a teammate of Diaz’s, GSP says it will be an interesting, exciting fight, but stopped short of saying “Don’t blink” again.
“I don’t know him as a person but he’s a very exciting guy to watch,” said GSP. “I’m happy to fight him. He’s going to bring the best out of me, because he’s always putting on a good fight, going forward. It’s going to be a good fight for me.”
– Diaz has signed a new eight-fight deal with Zuffa, which allows him to fight for both the UFC and Strikeforce. But the plan for Diaz isn’t necessarily to jump back and forth between promotions. Asked if the new deal marked the end of Diaz’s run in Strikeforce, Gracie replied, “Hopefully. If he’s back in Strikeforce, I would imagine that’s because he lost his next fight.”
(Post-fight press conferences are about to get even more uncomfortable for Ariel Helwani. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle)
– Diaz has signed a new eight-fight deal with Zuffa, which allows him to fight for both the UFC and Strikeforce. But the plan for Diaz isn’t necessarily to jump back and forth between promotions. Asked if the new deal marked the end of Diaz’s run in Strikeforce, Gracie replied, “Hopefully. If he’s back in Strikeforce, I would imagine that’s because he lost his next fight.”
– Diaz won’t be able to pursue a boxing career while under contract. “He obviously had to be compensated for not boxing and taking this fight instead,” Gracie said. (Points on the pay-per-view, perhaps?)
– There’s still no word on what, if anything, will happen with Diaz’s Strikeforce welterweight title in the aftermath of the GSP fight.
So, will Diaz be able to “play the game” enough to last eight fights under the stricter watch of Dana White and the UFC? Or will it be hospital fights and in-cage riots until he’s eventually booted? Personally, I wouldn’t expect Diaz to suddenly cheer up just because he’s been given everything he’s wanted. Can’t wait to see the next installment of this storyline…
It’s hard to imagine it now, but back when UFC president Dana White first used the phrase “business as usual” (many, many times) to describe what life would look like for Strikeforce after the Zuffa purchase, it wasn’t a punchline. He meant it. Sort of…
It’s hard to imagine it now, but back when UFC president Dana White first used the phrase “business as usual” (many, many times) to describe what life would look like for Strikeforce after the Zuffa purchase, it wasn’t a punchline. He meant it. Sort of. Maybe he even believed it, or at least he expected us to believe it.
That lasted about fifteen minutes.
Now, with the announcement that Strikeforce champ Nick Diaz will face Georges St. Pierre at UFC 137 this fall, we can finally put it to bed for good and forget we ever even considered taking it seriously. Snatching Strikeforce’s champ and signing him to a new contract so he can fight the UFC champ? Not business as usual. Not even close. And we should all be very, very glad.
After UFC 129, when White was asked whether a GSP-Diaz fight was even possible under the current contracts, the big bossman replied that he could probably do whatever he wanted to do with Diaz – if he wanted it badly enough.
Translation: if fans get vocal enough about wanting to see this fight and no other, we’ll move mountains to make it happen if we have to.
Fans were, so the UFC did. While a GSP-Anderson Silva superfight might get some people’s motors running, putting it off in order to allow St. Pierre a chance to cement his welterweight status once and for all is the move that makes more sense. GSP-Diaz is the fight that feels like it absolutely has to happen, and now it will.
Sadly, such is not always the case in combat sports.
For instance, remember back when Diaz versus “Mayhem” Miller seemed like the bout that made the most sense for Strikeforce? You know, since Miller was an MTV star who’d been jumped by Diaz and crew on live network television, and since the two couldn’t be in the same building without wanting to murder one another?
That fight would have promoted itself, but Strikeforce couldn’t make it happen. Between discrepancies over the weight the two would fight at, and CBS’ irrational hatred for Miller, nothing ever got done. It was a perfect moment, but the moment passed with nothing to show for it.
Or take Diaz’s recent boxing ultimatum. Unless the UFC gave them St. Pierre, Diaz’s manager, Cesar Gracie, told MMA Fighting in early May, his fighter was going to take his talents to the boxing ring for a bout with Jeff Lacy. Whether you think trading leather with the big gloves would have been a good idea or a horrible one for Diaz, in the end it was his decision to make. Strikeforce had given him a contract that allowed for it, so who was going to stop him?
Obviously, it doesn’t serve Zuffa’s interest to let Diaz get punched in the face by a washed-up former boxing champ while the UFC welterweight champ suffers from a dearth of compelling challengers, so it did what it had to do to talk him off the ledge. As Gracie put it in an interview with USA Today, the UFC “compensated [Diaz] for not boxing,” and in the end it got what it wanted.
More importantly, the fans got what they wanted. The cross-promotional champion-versus-champion fight that seemed so unrealistic that it was hardly even worth talking about a year ago was now a reality with a date and a venue. While we can’t pretend there are no down sides to having so much power in the MMA world consolidated under one Las Vegas roof, it’s moves like this that remind us of the considerable upsides.
If Strikeforce were still its own, independent organization, sure, that would make for better negotiating positions for fighters. It would give them more options, especially in the early or late stages of their careers (see also: Dan Henderson).
At the same time, then we’d probably never see Diaz fight St. Pierre. We’d probably never get a chance to find out who the best welterweight fighter in the world was. We’d just guess and speculate and argue, which is what we’ve been doing for the past few years, and – honestly? – I think we’ve gotten all the fun we’re going to get out of that exercise.
That was the old business as usual. This is the new one. And while it’s not without its potential pitfalls, so far there’s also a lot to like.
For as long as many can remember, Georges St-Pierre has been on top in the welterweight division. He is a three-time UFC welterweight champion (once was interim), and is currently riding a nine-fight winning streak. He has defeated everyone put in fron…
For as long as many can remember, Georges St-Pierre has been on top in the welterweight division. He is a three-time UFC welterweight champion (once was interim), and is currently riding a nine-fight winning streak. He has defeated everyone put in front of him and has literally cleaned out the entire UFC welterweight division.
There is one thing that GSP has not encountered, a man that will bring the fight to him. A fighter that has the ability to not only test his cardio, but also every aspect of the fight game.
On June 1, UFC president Dana White made the announcement that GSP’s next opponent would be Nick Diaz.
Diaz brings all of those problems to the table.
Diaz is the current Strikeforce welterweight champion and is on a 10-fight winning streak. He is overlooked by many and is truly an unappreciated fighter. Diaz is known for finding out what his opponent is best at and defeating them at their own game.
Has Diaz faced the level of fighters that GSP has faced? No. One thing is that most recently Diaz scored a TKO on Paul Daley, and though people say who cares, it has a significant meaning to it.
If people think back, Daley fought Josh Koscheck and if he won, he would face GSP for the welterweight title and also be a coach on The Ultimate Fighter. Daley has had one TKO loss in his career, and it was due to a thumb injury.
Daley is a power-puncher and is overall a very good striker and everyone remembers what he did to Martin Kampmann. Diaz beat Daley at his own game, and was the first man to win by the method of TKO.
Should Diaz have had to face a couple of guys in the UFC welterweight division before getting this fight? In all truths, yes, but this fight is such a marketable fight that at this moment putting this fight at risk at not taking place is not a smart business move.
The fans wanted this fight and the UFC delivered. That being said, is this the fight that opens the door to more crossover fights? It almost has to mean that.
There is virtually no reason to leave some of these bigger names in Strikeforce waiting on an opponent. Zuffa, LLC, in a whole, is in a great position at the moment because the fights and money that can be made is just literally a fantasy that can now come true.
Diaz vs. St-Pierre, is more of a marketed fight than a deserved fight, but how will it go?
St-Pierre is an extremely talented technical striker. His kicks are top notch, and his punches are spot on. His main problem is that he really doesn’t possess the one-punch knockout power, but good thing for him, neither does Diaz.
Diaz possesses very good boxing, he always pushes the pace in fights and his cardio is never in question. GSP has the advantage in the wrestling department, but does he really want to risk Diaz being on his back?
In the Shields fight, St-Pierre kept it standing, the only problem is that Diaz is a much better striker.
Every fight it is stated that this opponent is the guy that will dethrone GSP, but in this case, Diaz is truly the biggest threat. How will GSP be able to handle all of the vocal taunts that Diaz will throw his way?
This fight is just overall a great matchup and has many potential outcomes.
Anyone can call a winner for this fight, but let’s keep it real. Actions speak louder than words. Prepare for war everyone, because this fight will not disappoint.
Just one day after the big announcement that Georges St. Pierre will defend his title against Nick Diaz, the Diaz Brothers website already has something to say about it.
It’s hard to imagine it now, but back when UFC president Dana White first used the phrase