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Can Nate Diaz Be a Contender in the Lightweight Division?

After losing his last two fights at welterweight, Nate Diaz returned to the lightweight division at UFC 135 and put on what is arguably the best performance of his career. Facing Takanori Gomi, a former Pride champion and MMA legend, Diaz peppered his …

After losing his last two fights at welterweight, Nate Diaz returned to the lightweight division at UFC 135 and put on what is arguably the best performance of his career.

Facing Takanori Gomi, a former Pride champion and MMA legend, Diaz peppered his opponent with straight lefts and rights for the first half of the fight. Noticeably flustered, Gomi shot in for a takedown, only to find himself in Diaz’s dangerous guard. The Caesar Gracie-trained fighter quickly locked in a triangle choke before transitioning to an armbar, and ultimately forced Gomi to tap.

It was just one fight, his first at 155 lbs since January 2010, but the impressive display begs the question: Can Diaz be a contender in the lightweight division?

His record over the last two years would suggest otherwise, as he’s only won two of his last five fights at lightweight, but Diaz is still young and growing as a fighter. If he can fix a few key holes in his game, there’s evidence to believe he could be force in the division.

Diaz is a big lightweight fighter. Standing 6’0″ tall, he has a reach advantage over virtually anyone in the division. Combine that with his crisp boxing and excellent jab, and he can give most fighters fits on the feet.

Perhaps the best jiu-jitsu fighter not to hold a blackbelt, Diaz’s grappling is also world class. As he exhibited Saturday night, no one is safe while inside his guard, and with 10 submission victories to his name, the Stockton native is one of the most dangerous fighters on the ground.

Besides his skill set and potential, Diaz has also proven he can hang with the best in the division. He holds wins over top contenders Gray Maynard (during The Ultimate Fighter Season 5) and Melvin Guillard, and had an extremely close fight with Clay Guida, as well as Gray Maynard in their second fight.

Finally, there’s still lots of time for Diaz to make his mark.

Guida and Guillard are proof that all it takes is a good winning streak to rise from gatekeeper to contender status. At the end of 2009, both fighters held middling UFC records and didn’t appear to be going anywhere inside the division, but since then both have put together impressive winning streaks and find themselves a win away from possibly fighting for the title.

However, if Diaz is going to go on a similar run he needs to shore up one key hole in his game: takedown defence. The new breed of MMA fighter is well versed in submission defence and it’s becoming increasingly harder to finish fights from the bottom.

This isn’t to say it can’t be done, Diaz certainly proved in his victory over Gomi that it’s still possible. The problem is that in the judges’ eyes whoever is on the bottom is losing the fight, so grapplers either have to find a submission quickly or risk getting docked points on the scorecards.

Some people say Diaz never really loses a fight, he just runs out of time. That may be true, but unfortunately “running out of time” equates to a loss on his record, and it’s something he needs to be aware of moving forward.

So what’s next for Nate Diaz?

The UFC will likely give him another tough opponent to see where he’s at (Anthony Pettis might be a good fit if he defeats Jeremy Stephens at UFC 136). If Diaz keeps improving, and keeps putting on fights like the one against Gomi, he may have a chance to move up the lightweight ranks.

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UFC 135: Steven Seagal More Impressed with "Rampage" Than Jon Jones

At UFC 135, champion Jon Jones made the first defense of his light heavyweight title when he defeated former champ Quinton “Rampage” Jackson with a fourth-round rear-naked choke—marking the first submission loss of Jackson’s career since a 2001 b…

Jones sits far and above most in his class, solely based on skill and athleticism. At 24-years-old, he remains the youngest champion on the roster and has plenty more fight left in him.

For their efforts, both Jackson and Jones received “Fight of the Night” honors in the pay-per-view headliner, with everyone overly impressed with “Bones'” performance—all but one man.

Steven Seagal, the famed action movie star, whom has recently become a sort of mixed martial arts “guru,” was overly critical of Jones’ performance, though he praised Jackson’s efforts inside the Octagon.

“Rampage had the best head movement he’s ever had and really impressed me tonight,” said Seagal, in an interview with Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com.

“If he would have let his hands go tonight, it would have something, for some reason he didn’t.”

It wasn’t enough though that the “Under Siege” star was taken aback by some of Jackson’s improvements, but he felt that the 33-year-old’s highlights in the bout outweighed that of Jones.

“I was more impressed with Rampage (than Jones)”, said Seagal, a 7th-dan black belt in Aikido, which in Japanese can translate to “the way of the harmonious spirit”.

“That’s the best head movement I’ve ever seen him do. If he would have let his hands go, that would have been something. Jon Jones wasn’t himself tonight.

“Jon Jones has tremendous talent and I didn’t see him do anything tonight as well as I’ve seen him do it.”

Should you question Seagal and his accolades and/or merit as a mixed martial arts aficionado?

“I’m a fighter, I fought all my life.”

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Jon Jones: Rashad Does Not Have My Number

The tension between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans has just escalated a few more notches, and to say both fighters share a mutual disliking for one other would be putting it nicely.Following his win at UFC 135 over Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Jones would le…

The tension between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans has just escalated a few more notches, and to say both fighters share a mutual disliking for one other would be putting it nicely.

Following his win at UFC 135 over Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Jones would learn that his next opponent would be none other than Evans, who was once his former teammate at Greg Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts.

The story couldn’t of been written any better as the former training partners had an ugly fallout prior to Jones’ title bout against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua that resulted in Evans leaving the camp and settling in Boca Raton, Fla. at Imperial Athletics.

Their staredown during a post-fight interview didn’t involve much communication from the two rivals, but there was a clear indication their friendship is as good as gone.

Jones continued to refrain from answering any questions regarding Evans during the post-fight press conference, however after Jackson suggested Evans was the one challenger who could pose as a threat to Jones’ title reign, the 24-year-old felt prompted to share his opinion.

“I will say this about Rashad: he does not have my number, he’s not even close to having my number,” Jones said.

Evans has opened up about his training sessions with Jones since their fallout and said he had got the better of “Bones” during sparring on several occasions. However, Jones quickly disputed the idea of Evans’ story and said it had only happened one time.

“Me and Rashad we sparred a few times, and every time we sparred I know what could have happened,” he said.

“He talks about one day at practice where he held me down, and he lives that day in his head everyday. So, we’ll see.”

The bad blood between Jones and Evans is evident and seems very real and the fact that these two competitors share a past together makes for an intriguing title bout when they meet each other sometime next year.

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Jon Jones Snubs Steven Seagal’s Advice

Martial Arts master Steven Seagal had the brakes pumped on his MMA parade at UFC 135 by light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.Apparently, Seagal was denied access to Jones’ locker room before his title bout with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.The action movi…

Martial Arts master Steven Seagal had the brakes pumped on his MMA parade at UFC 135 by light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.

Apparently, Seagal was denied access to Jones’ locker room before his title bout with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.

The action movie star was hoping to offer advice and words of encouragement to the 24-year-old champion.

Seagal has been tied to helping several world class MMA fighters in the past such as Black House members Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida.

“He called me a few days before the fight and he just told me that he felt I was going to win the fight and that he saw a lot in my skill set and he thought that he could help, and he wondered if he could come and talk to me backstage before the fight and just kind of give me some words of encouragement,” Jones said at the UFC 135 post-fight press conference.

While Silva and Machida welcomed Seagal with open arms, Jones chose to pass on the 59-year-old actor’s advice.

“I didn’t think that would be a good idea,” said Jones. “My training staff works very hard on me and I’m their prodigy and I don’t want to disrespect them by welcoming someone else’s master into our room, into our house, into my family.”

Training out of Jackson’s MMA, Jones works with a multitude of highly-respected coaches including Greg Jackson, Mike Winkeljohn and Phil Nurse.

Seagal may have kicked ass in Under Siege, but when it comes to MMA, Jones did himself a tremendous favor in putting his faith in a coaching staff with a proven track record of breeding world champions.

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UFC 135: Nate Diaz Says "Jake Shields Motivated Me"

At UFC 135, Nate Diaz looked every bit of the promising lightweight contender he was just a couple of years ago. After winning the fifth season of The Ultimate Fighter, the Stockton native has received many accolades for both his fightin…

At UFC 135, Nate Diaz looked every bit of the promising lightweight contender he was just a couple of years ago.

After winning the fifth season of The Ultimate Fighter, the Stockton native has received many accolades for both his fighting style and submission prowess, which is responsible for victories over the likes of notables Josh Neer, Kurt Pellegrino, Melvin Guillard and now lightweight legend Takanori Gomi.

The former PRIDE champion is known to have perhaps the heaviest hands in the 155-pound class, though Diaz was not afraid to engage Gomi on the feet, knocking down the bruiser with a hook early in the bout.

Eventually, it was the 26-year-old Diaz who was able to dictate the bout with his boxing, which prompted Gomi to take the action to the mat, where the Cesar Gracie Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu brown belt submitted the Japanese fighter with an armbar, inside of the first round.

It was perhaps Diaz’s most impressive performance to date inside the Octagon, though the lead-up to the match wasn’t without its distractions.

Outside of the recent debacle with the TUF vet’s older brother in Nick Diaz, who was recently removed from a title match with champion Georges St-Pierre, it was another teammate that perhaps needed the most consoling.

Former Strikeforce champion Jake Shields recently lost his manager and father in Jack Shields, who had become a fixture of the team, constantly providing support to the core group of fighters, including the young Diaz.

In their loss, Diaz says he found the motivation to continue fighting through Jake’s determination. A little over two weeks before his last outing with Jake Ellenberger at UFC Fight Night 25—which took place just over a week ago—Shields’s father Jack died in his sleep. The former world champion opted to continue fighting as a means for distraction from the painful passing.

“It sucks, man”, said Diaz of the loss, post-fight at UFC 135.

“Jack Shields was the man. He was a friend of the team too, not just—he was Jake’s dad, but he was always, he was at my last fight, we were hanging out after the fight and he’s a great guy. With their loss, Jake stayed busy. We all got to stay strong and stay busy together. He took the loss and kept training through it pretty well.”

The Strikeforce transplant suffered a knockout loss opposite of Ellenberger, though Diaz praises his teammate for merely stepping into the cage against a top-flight competitor, which speaks volumes of his character, and more for Diaz who remained strong beside his friend during such a tumultuous time.

“Their family is a real tough family,” continued the TUF vet.

“I know them all, his brother Clement and his mom..they’re all just really good people. They are real strong, so I was like ‘alright, you guys aren’t going to let it get you down, then we’re not going to let it block us.’ My man Jake stood strong, he went out there and fought last week.

“He stayed strong, we gotta fight. We gotta fight through life, right? Jake’s a (savage) man, he ain’t going to let it slow him down, so everybody just keeps on.”

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UFC 135 Jones vs. Rampage: The Fallout

At UFC 135 this past Saturday, we witnessed a true passing of the torch.Champion Jon “Bones” Jones defended his title for the first time when he met with ex-titleholder, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.The two were taking headlines in the weeks leading up to…

At UFC 135 this past Saturday, we witnessed a true passing of the torch.

Champion Jon “Bones” Jones defended his title for the first time when he met with ex-titleholder, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.

The two were taking headlines in the weeks leading up to the fight with the verbal barbs they lashed against one another, though in the end Jackson was humbled by a stellar Jones performance, which resulted in a fourth-round submission win for the Greg Jackson product.

We also saw Mark Hunt build up to a two-fight win streak, Nate Diaz savagely reentering the lightweight division and Travis Browne looking overly unimpressive in his decision win over Rob Broughton—so what’s next for all fighters?

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