Bleacher Report’s Bryan Levick:The subject of Zuffa’s recent purchase of Strikeforce came up and what that meant for the current crop of UFC heavyweights and Strikeforce’s big men. There has been a lot of talk of super-fights since the acquisiti…
Bleacher Report’s Bryan Levick:
The subject of Zuffa’s recent purchase of Strikeforce came up and what that meant for the current crop of UFC heavyweights and Strikeforce’s big men. There has been a lot of talk of super-fights since the acquisition was announced, but what is the reality of any of those potential match-ups coming to fruition?
“It now means that pretty much every single top 10 heavyweight is under one promotion. I have been with the UFC since 2001 and there was the argument about which organization had the better group of heavyweights, the UFC or Pride,” said Mir.
“Then those guys came over and I beat Nogueira and Mirko and got to lay those arguments to rest in my mind.” “Strikeforce has a pretty solid group of fighters and the argument started between our guys and theirs. I said if their guys are better why are we getting paid more, now that the UFC bought Strikeforce maybe we can find out which organization has the better group of fighters. I look at Overeem as their top guy and I feel as though I would be his best match-up in the UFC. Guys like Brock, Cain and Carwin would expose his weakness which is his wrestling.”
“He has good submissions and is obviously a solid striker so if we fought there would be a lot more action than if he fought one of the wrestlers,” Mir said. “The three guys I mention would look to keep him down and control him to avoid his striking. There’s not a lot of room to move around so if Brock wants to take him down he is going to have a good shot at doing so. Overeem is a K-1 champion and has a really good guillotine, but I think I’d be a really good match-up for him.”
Bleacher Report’s Nick Caron:Zuffa’s new pro-Twitter campaign has been getting quite a bit of publicity lately, this time in the form of consensus No. 2 welterweight Jon Fitch bashing Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz. The former UFC …
Bleacher Report’s Nick Caron:
Zuffa’s new pro-Twitter campaign has been getting quite a bit of publicity lately, this time in the form of consensus No. 2 welterweight Jon Fitch bashing Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz.
The former UFC No. 1 contender took to the social networking website on Saturday, where he tweeted at his AKA trainer Dave Camarillo as well as some fans.
@FitchFigher: @DaveCamarillo why would that fight be good. Diaz got title cause Shields vacated the belt. Paper champ.
@FitchFigher: @DaveCamarillo for realize. GSPvsDiaz=bullshit
@FitchFigher: @NotMrRendo I will be ok to fight by the time they are saying Diaz gsp will fight.
@FitchFigher: @MMAf0rum I’ll fight anyone. I’m out till dec. But I’ll fight anyone hopefully gsp in dec.
The Strikeforce welterweight champion since the belt was created in January 2010, Nick Diaz has been tentatively scheduled to be the next challenger to Georges St-Pierre’s UFC Welterweight Championship.
The situation surround that potential fight has been surrounded by controversy, as not only has Diaz been toying with the idea of a professional boxing fight in the near future, but the rumors of a potential Georges St-Pierre vs. Anderson Silva superfight continue to swirl around.
Bleacher Report’s Michael Evans:UFC 130 is set to take place May 28th. On Thursday May 19th, the UFC media call took place with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Matt Hamill, Frank Mir and Roy Nelson. All four men were asked various questions about their res…
Bleacher Report’s Michael Evans:
UFC 130 is set to take place May 28th. On Thursday May 19th, the UFC media call took place with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Matt Hamill, Frank Mir and Roy Nelson. All four men were asked various questions about their respective bouts and different aspects of their games.
Mir was first asked why he thought he could beat Junior dos Santos. Mir said he thinks he matches up well with dos Santos because he feels Junior relies too heavily on his boxing and might forget about the ground game. Mir feels this will enable him to work on the feet until he can utilize his jiu jitsu game on JDS. Apparently, if Frank Mir beats Roy Nelson and Junior was to lose to Carwin, this would be a fight he would want.
Mir was asked the interesting question of whom did he think would have won the fight between Brock Lesnar and Junior dos Santos. Frank surprisingly said that he felt that Brock would have gotten Junior down with his wrestling and would have been successful. Many people would disagree with that assessment.
The next question he was asked was who he would want to fight after Roy Nelson. Frank was very noncommital on this topic, saying that was focused on the task at hand and could not worry about the next fight yet.
Frank was asked what it would be like to fight someone he likes such as Roy Nelson. “Some people I train with, eat dinner with afterwards and they hang out at my house,” Mir said. He and Roy admitted they are loyal to their friends but they know this is business and things have to be done to accomplish goals.
Bleacher Report’s Weekend News Recap:UFC 130: Rampage Jackson talks Matt Hamill fight.UFC 130: Frank Mir reveals why he is the man to beat Cain Velasquez.Jon Jones’ management team offers Rashad Evans an October fight.Tim Kennedy takes shots at Michael…
Bleacher Report’s Weekend News Recap:
UFC 130: Rampage Jackson talks Matt Hamill fight.
UFC 130: Frank Mir reveals why he is the man to beat Cain Velasquez.
Jon Jones’ management team offers Rashad Evans an October fight.
Tim Kennedy takes shots at Michael Bisping.
UFC 130: Video of Roy Nelson versus Frank Mir in a grappling match.
UFC 130: Frank Mir talks Roy Nelson.
UFC 130: NSAC approves video monitors for Las Vegas event.
Chael Sonnen gets good news on his suspension.
Ricco Rodriguez arrested.
UFC 130: Roy Nelson putting family first.
UFC 140: Odds Emerge for possible bout between Georges St-Pierre and Nick Diaz.
Jon Fitch claims Nick Diaz is a “paper champion.”
UFC 130: Frank Mir on Strikeforce, teaching kids MMA.
Speculation continues to mount surrounding a potential showdown between UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre and Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz at UFC 140 this December in Montreal. MMAWeekly even reported that the fight could be an…
Speculation continues to mount surrounding a potential showdown between UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre and Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz at UFC 140 this December in Montreal. MMAWeekly even reported that the fight could be announced as early as this coming week for the event.
But is that what Zuffa actually wants, or is it just a product of the current lackluster situation within the welterweight division?
The UFC 127 main event between Jon Fitch and BJ Penn was supposed to essentially set the No. 1 contender for St-Pierre’s crown, but a draw and subsequent injuries prior to the rematch have put the kibosh on that.
When St-Pierre took care of business against Diaz’s training partner and friend Jake Shields at UFC 129, fans and experts alike began calling for the champion-versus-champion contest.
But why?
Sure, Nick Diaz has shown that he can beat up quality fighters like Paul Daley, but that is really the only top-25 welterweight who Diaz has fought since leaving the UFC in 2006 following his third straight loss.
Diaz is on a 10-fight win streak, but the competition just hasn’t been anywhere in the same atmosphere that it would have been if he were in the UFC. Is it that Nick Diaz is making them look that bad, or is it that he’s just a big fish in a small pond?
Whatever the case, this is simply the UFC’s only option at the moment for a logical opponent for their welterweight champion.
Dong Hyun Kim and Carlos Condit could make for quality opponents down the road, but they will be fighting one another at UFC 132 in July. Even then, there’s no guarantee that either fighter will be ready to fight the champion, especially by the end of 2011.
Jon Fitch and BJ Penn obviously still have a score to settle between one another.
Josh Koscheck and Jake Shields got dominated by St-Pierre in their opportunities.
There just isn’t anyone else other than Nick Diaz.
But given all of the negativity that surrounds Diaz, it’s just extremely hard to imagine that the world’s top mixed martial arts promotion wants him as its welterweight poster boy.
Diaz is abrupt and abrasive in interviews, he’s a rumored pothead, he isn’t a proven pay-per-view draw, he complains about his contract despite having signed it himself and he has even shown the desire to quit the sport of mixed martial arts entirely.
Imagine what a train wreck it’d be for the UFC if Diaz won the Welterweight Championship and then retired with the title to go into professional boxing. Or worse yet, what if he kept the title and boxed, only to get knocked out in embarrassing fashion by a mid-level opponent?
But realistically, Georges St-Pierre is a massive favorite in a fight against Nick Diaz. If Zuffa were to keep the UFC and Strikeforce titles separate, as rumored, imagine what a loss would do for Diaz and the Strikeforce title’s credibility. Especially if he gets lit up like almost all of St-Pierre’s recent opponents.
There would still be those who would defend Diaz as a top welterweight, but it’s hard to promote that when he has only beaten one guy (Daley) who is even arguably a top-10 welterweight in the past five years.
Zuffa might as well take the title and bury it in the desert because no one would care any longer.
The UFC is simply stuck between a rock and a hard place, and Nick Diaz is the only fighter they have that could realistically sell a big fight with Georges St-Pierre.
“GSP isn’t down to fight me,” Diaz told MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani in an interview last year.
I’m not sure that’s the case, but perhaps St-Pierre realizes what other people seem to be neglecting—the only real positive outcome of a GSP-Diaz fight is a one-night pay per view payoff.
And there’s no guarantee that the buy-rate would be anything spectacular anyway.
Last week, UFC Director of Canadian Operations Tom Wright appeared on Montreal Radio station The Team 990 during their Ringside Report show. Wright stated that as far as UFC events in Canada go, “We’ll do Vancouver (UFC 131) on June 11, and…
Last week, UFC Director of Canadian Operations Tom Wright appeared on Montreal Radio station The Team 990 during their Ringside Report show. Wright stated that as far as UFC events in Canada go, “We’ll do Vancouver (UFC 131) on June 11, and then most likely we’ll be back in Montreal on December 10.”
As far as a main event for that card, Wright said, “Well I’ve heard about the Nick Diaz-GSP fight but it is too early (to tell).”
The rumors of a fight between St-Pierre, the UFC welterweight champion and Diaz, the Strikeforce welterweight champion, heated up a bit on Thursday, when MMAFighting.com’s Mike Chiappetta took to Twitter and announced, “A little birdy tells me Nick Diaz just walked into a meeting with Dana White at the UFC offices.”
As the rumors began to swirl, UFC president Dana White took to the Underground posting, “There is no deal done with Diaz to fight.”
The fact that the bout is, at this point, a fantasy fight has not prevented BetonFighting.com from posting odds for the potential bout. The website has St-Pierre as a -425 favorite, while Diaz comes in at +325.
St-Pierre (22-2) has not lost a bout in the UFC since Matt Serra took his title in April 2007 via first round TKO. St-Pierre’s winning streak stands at nine fights. After defeating Matt Hughes for the interim welterweight title at UFC 79, St-Pierre defeated Serra at UFC 83, regaining the title he has defended six times since that win.
Diaz (25-7-0-1) is on a winning streak of his own, putting together 10 straight wins since losing to KJ Noons in November 2007. Noons was awarded the victory when the doctor stopped the fight due to cuts to the face of Diaz. Diaz captured the Strikeforce welterweight title with a win over Marius Žaromskis in January 2010. Since that victory, he has defended the title three times.
Zuffa’s new pro-Twitter campaign has been getting quite a bit of publicity lately, this time in the form of consensus No. 2 welterweight Jon Fitch bashing Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz. 