What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? At UFC 137 Nick Diaz, one of the more technically sound boxer-brawlers, will help us find out when he goes up against Georges St.Pierre, a man who’s take-down defense rivals none. T…
What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? At UFC 137 Nick Diaz, one of the more technically sound boxer-brawlers, will help us find out when he goes up against Georges St.Pierre, a man who’s take-down defense rivals none.
The following is an analysis of Nick Diaz’ real world chances and methods of victory. Don’t take the suggested gameplan as fact, it is speculation based on watching hours of film and comparing statistics from FightMetric and CompuStrike.
If you disagree with anything please comment, I’m more then willing to butt heads for a little bit each day, but please keep it calm. Debate, don’t argue.
It’s too bad we didn’t notice this charity auction item until after bidding on it ended, because we know a few of you may have been interested.
WWE wrestler-turned MMA hopeful Dave Bautista (AKA “Batista”) was offering a one-hour training session with him and a Cesar Gracie black belt (please let it be Nick Diaz) at his newly-opened gym in Tampa Bay and a follow-up lunch as part of a charity auction for Ovarian cancer. Now, I’m not sure if our valuation skills are a bit skewed, but we’re guessing that the deal isn’t quite worth the $2,500 they estimated — especially when the winning bidder had to provide his or her own airfare and accommodations for the lesson.
(Video courtesy of MyFoxTAMPABAY)
It’s too bad we didn’t notice this charity auction item until after bidding on it ended, because we know a few of you may have been interested.
WWE wrestler-turned MMA hopeful Dave Bautista (AKA “Batista”) was offering a one-hour training session with him and a Cesar Gracie black belt (please let it be Nick Diaz) at his newly-opened gym in Tampa Bay and a follow-up lunch as part of a charity auction for Ovarian cancer. Now, I’m not sure if our valuation skills are a bit skewed, but we’re guessing that the deal isn’t quite worth the $2,500 they estimated — especially when the winning bidder had to provide his or her own airfare and accommodations for the lesson.
A one-hour private with Royce or Renzo Gracie or Loyd Irvin doesn’t even cost that much, but then again you don’t get to watch any of those guys eat afterwards, so maybe it is worth it.
In the world of mixed martial arts, Nick Diaz may very well be the ultimate Not Ready for Prime Time Player, often coming across as aloof at best and hostile at worst when dealing with the media.However, the UFC may be willing to take a chance on featu…
In the world of mixed martial arts, Nick Diaz may very well be the ultimate Not Ready for Prime Time Player, often coming across as aloof at best and hostile at worst when dealing with the media.
However, the UFC may be willing to take a chance on featuring him and his UFC 137 opponent, welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, in their next installment of the “UFC Primetime” television series.
The news that St-Pierre and Diaz may be the featured fighters on the next edition of the three-part special was broken by MMAJunkie.com following UFC 133.
The last edition of “UFC Primetime” featured St-Pierre and Diaz’s training partner, Jake Shields, as they prepared for their bout at UFC 129.
St-Pierre is a veteran of three editions of “UFC Primetime,” while Diaz should have some familiarity with the show from appearing in some of Shields’ training clips.
St-Pierre, the long-time UFC champion, has seemingly grown accustomed to the media spotlight that comes along with his status in the UFC. Diaz, on the other hand, often seems like he would rather be somewhere else when participating in media events and interviews.
That’s not to say that Diaz would be an ill-advised choice for “UFC Primetime.” The show focuses on the fighters as they train, following them and their teams as the prepare for an upcoming fight card.
Diaz is a notorious gym rat, so that aspect of the show seems to suit his personality much better than a straight question-and-answer session.
That being said, UFC president Dana White still seemed like he was not totally sold on the idea of featuring Diaz on the show,
“It’s going to be very unpredictable,” White told MMAJunkie. “I don’t ask him to say anything special, to change who he is or whatever, but you’ve heard me say it a million times: ‘Give me [a little]. Just play the game. Do what you’re supposed to do professionally, and this will all work out.'”
St-Pierre and Diaz will meet on Oct. 29 at UFC 137. St-Pierre’s UFC welterweight title will be on the line when the two face off at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nev.
Wow, I could never keep my sneakers that white [see pic above]. Well, the mystery over Brittney Palmer‘s status as a UFC Ring Girl ended this weekend as she was noticeably in the stands with.
Guest Ring Girl Chrissy Hubbard with Arianny Celeste & Chandella Powell
Wow, I could never keep my sneakers that white [see pic above]. Well, the mystery over Brittney Palmer‘s status as a UFC Ring Girl ended this weekend as she was noticeably in the stands with the TapouT crew and not performing ring girl duties. Dana explained there was no drama surrounding her departure as a ring girl and that she is pursuing her dreams as an art student.
UFC 132: Faber vs. Cruz this past Saturday night was the culmination of back to back events put on by the UFC or Strikeforce over the last six weeks and what a finale it was to a great series of fights.There wasn’t a boring fight on the main card …
UFC 132: Faber vs. Cruz this past Saturday night was the culmination of back to back events put on by the UFC or Strikeforce over the last six weeks and what a finale it was to a great series of fights.
There wasn’t a boring fight on the main card as every fighter came to put on a show. Three out of the five fights ended in finishes.
Despite Dominick Cruz winning a decision over Urijah Faber in a fight for the bantamweight title, it was a back and forth affair that deservedly earned fight of the night honors.
Out of the three finishes that saw Tito Ortiz fend off retirement with a first round guillotine choke of Ryan Bader, Chris Leben knock Pride legend Wanderlei Silva in to what will probably be retirement, the only finish that launched a fighter into title shot territory was Carlos Condit’s flying knee knockout of previously undefeated welterweight Dong Hyun Kim.
Condit, the former WEC welterweight champion before the division was collapsed into the UFC has been fighting to prove his worth in a division that has some of the best fighters in the world including the current welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre.
Condit’s rise in the UFC welterweight division had a slow start.
At the time of his UFC debut, a split decision loss to Martin Kampmann and split decision victory over Jake Ellenberger was nothing to write home about and certainly not the performances one would expect from a champion.
However, hindsight tells us that Condit’s win over Ellenberger was maybe worth than what people originally thought. Since the loss, Ellenberger has won four straight and finished three fights in decisive fashion, he is regarded as one of the UFC’s rising stars at 170 pounds and this speaks volumes about how good Condit really is.
After the Ellenberger fight, Condit really launched himself forward in the division with three stellar performances.
Against another rising star in Canadian Rory MacDonald, Condit was beaten decisively through out the fight. In the dying seconds of the third round he miraculously stole the fight from MacDonald via technical knock out.
Next up was former number one contender, Dan Hardy. A first round knockout using a left hook, something Hardy is known for, is what Condit served up for the Brit.
Geoges St-Pierre defended his title against Hardy, but took all five rounds and the judges’ decision to do it.
Finally came last night’s fight against Kim. With a mixed martial arts record of 14-0 and one no contest, along with black belts in Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Kim was highly regarded as an up and comer until meeting Condit last night.
Kim known for utilizing his superior grappling to grind his opponents out utilized the same game plan from the get go against Condit last night. Unfortunately for Kim, Condit was able to get up from the bottom and for the third time in a row Condit finished an opponent in spectacular fashion, this time with a flying knee that buckled Kim followed up by vicious ground and pound forcing the referee to step in.
Even before last night’s victory Condit was in the title mix, but the spectacular finish over Kim really places Condit in the forefront of the welterweight division.
Condit was vocal in asking for his title shot shortly after his arm was raised.
“How about it Joe, Joe Silva, am I ready for a title shot or what?” Those were the words Condit had for UFC matchmaker Joe Silva during the post fight interview with Joe Rogan.
Obviously Condit looks ready for a title shot, but the question is when and how long will he have to wait?
Nick Diaz relinquished his Strikeforce welterweight belt in order to fight Georges St-Pierre for the UFC title and that will only be happening on Halloween weekend at UFC 137.
This would mean that Condit will most likely have to wait until March 2012 for his chance at the title which is a long wait for any fighter especially for Condit who was already inactive since October of last year due to injury.
Condit is now faced with a decision that two fighters in different deivision had to face recently and that is whether he should wait for his title shot or take another fight in between.
Rashad Evans chose to wait for Mauricio Rua to heal up from knee surgery for his title shot and just weeks before his shot was supposed to come he too suffered a knee injury that forced him out of the fight.
Evans pulling out resulted in his teammate Jon Jones getting the shot and taking the title from Rua. From there bad blood boiled and Evans left his camp to get away from Jones and prepare for a fight with his former teammate.
Jones pulled out of the fight with Evans due to a hand injury and finally Evans had to take a dangerous fight against light heavyweight up and comer Phil Davis.
The funniest thing to come out of this mess was that Evans’ last fight and win which came in May 2010 was over Quinton Jackson who oddly enough is slated to fight for the title against Jones at UFC 135 this September.
On the other hand, former WEC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis was slated to face off against the winner between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard to unify the titles. Unfortunately Edgar and Maynard fought to a draw and were scheduled for a rematch until both fighters suffered injuries delaying the rematch.
Pettis chose to fight as oppose to wait and much to his dismay he lost his fight against Clay Guida which was supposed to hold him over until the title shot against Mayanard or Edgar.
As one can see, Condit’s decision is a tough one because both guys who were in a situation similar to his made the opposite choices and both guys were burned by their decisions.
Later on at the post fight press conference Condit spoke a bit to the fact that his shot might not be for a while due to the timing.
“Yeah, that’s you know a bit of a dilemma I do want to fight again in 2011 and I know that the time frame may not work out for me to get the next [title] shot. So I want to fight again before the end of the year, so I don’t know.” Condit told the press.
Condit seems torn between waiting for the title shot and wanting to stay active, but it appears as if he is leaning more towards staying active.
If the welterweight does decide to stay active there is really only one fight that makes sense, Jon Fitch.
The problem with the Fitch fight is that Fitch and BJ Penn are supposed to have a rematch following their majority draw at UFC 127 this past February.
Unfortunately both fighters suffered injuries and were forced to withdraw their rematch which was supposed to happen last night at UFC 132.
Of course both Penn and Fitch still want a rematch in the hopes that it gives them their shot at welterweight gold. However, if the UFC brass is saying Condit is the next guy in line, Fitch might have second thoughts about fighting Penn again if it means that a win over Condit will give him that shot.
Fitch, 13-1-1 in the UFC, with the lone loss being a title fight against St-Pierre, questions and is quite vocal about why he hasn’t received another shot after going 5-0-1 since the loss. The main reason is the fact that he has a grinding style that wears opponents out and wins fights, but never results in a finish.
Fitch has said that he would be ready to fight in San Jose for UFC 138, this would work out perfectly for Condit or Fitch as St-Pierre and Diaz fight just a few weeks before.
Fitch would be the best matchup for Condit in the sense that it would prepare him well for St-Pierre or Diaz. Fitch is a well rounded fighter who has the skill-set to beat the best in the division, something Condit needs to be able to do should he want to topple St-Pierre or Diaz.
Fitch’s style is particularly similar to current champion St-Pierre’s and if Condit can beat Fitch it says a lot about the kind of fight he would be able to bring against St-Pierre should St-Pierre beat Diaz in October.
Condit showed in the Kim fight that despite not being the best wrestler, he is active enough to search for submissions, escapes and reversals while he is on his back and he is skilled enough to get them against experienced grapplers, something that is of utmost importance against guys like St-Pierre or Diaz.
Spectacular knockouts over guys like Dan Hardy, Dong Hyun Kim and Rory MacDonald show that he knows what he is doing in the stand up and any fighter that can fight no matter where the fight goes is the kind of fight the welterweight champion needs whether it be St-Pierre or Diaz.
Leon Horne has been contributing to Bleacher Report for three years now. He focuses mainly on mixed martial arts, but he has also written about tennis, football and hockey. Just send him a message if you want to talk sports or discuss any opportunities. You can follow him on Twitter for updates: https://twitter.com/Leon_Horne
Bleacher Report MMA catches up with “The Natural Born Killer” Carlos Condit discussing his upcoming fight with Dong Hyun Kim at UFC 132. We also talk about a future fight with GSP, and his thoughts on Nick Diaz.UFC 132 will take place on July 2 at the …
Bleacher Report MMA catches up with “The Natural Born Killer” Carlos Condit discussing his upcoming fight with Dong Hyun Kim at UFC 132. We also talk about a future fight with GSP, and his thoughts on Nick Diaz.
UFC 132 will take place on July 2 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, NV. The fight card will close out a run of six straight weekends of UFC/Strikeforce fight cards.
In the world of mixed martial arts, Nick Diaz may very well be the ultimate Not Ready for Prime Time Player, often coming across as aloof at best and hostile at worst when dealing with the media.
