The main even of UFC 143 has split the MMA community right down the middle.The five-round interim title fight between Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit on Saturday has become a popular topic of debate among fans, fighters and reporters alike. Many feel …
The main even of UFC 143 has split the MMA community right down the middle.
The five-round interim title fight between Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit on Saturday has become a popular topic of debate among fans, fighters and reporters alike. Many feel Condit won with his flawlessly executed game plan, while others feel Diaz should’ve gotten the decision because Diaz was the more aggressive fighter, and because of Condit‘s elusiveness and unwillingness to engage in a brawl. However, it is very clear that this was a close fight and nobody was really sure who would get the decision before the scorecards were read.
I have been passionately defending Carlos Condit as the legitimate interim welterweight champion; however, I am not stubborn enough to pretend it was a dominant or convincing win. It was an extremely close fight, but the right man got his hand raised.
Having said that, giving Nick Diaz a rematch is probably the best course of action for Carlos Condit at this point, and these are some of the reasons to do it:
Silence the critics
If Condit doesn’t fight Diaz again, the crowd that feels that Diaz won will probably always feel that way, no matter how much we try to convince them otherwise. Condit wouldn’t be recognized as the legitimate winner by many people unless he convincingly defeats Diaz again. A win in a rematch would prove Condit in fact is the superior fighter and even the most hardcore Diaz fans will have a hard time making the argument that “Diaz should’ve won” if Condit wins twice in a row.
Establish Carlos Condit as a true threat to Georges St-Pierre
After UFC 143, not many people were clamoring to see GSP vs Condit, and even less were saying Condit would have a good chance of beating GSP. Two straight victories over Nick Diaz would make Condit seem like a real threat to GSP.
Staying active
It seems like Carlos Condit wants to wait to fight GSP, and that’s OK, he has earned it. However, we are still not sure when GSP will fight again, it could be by November at the earliest, but maybe it could be until 2013. Condit needs to stay active, he is in the prime of his career and wasting a year to wait around is never a good idea. Just ask Rashad Evans.
Get a better payday
Condit has the leverage to ask for a handsome payday if he were to rematch Diaz.
If Condit loses, there will be a trilogy
If Condit loses, there is almost a guarantee that he will face Nick Diaz again sometime in the future for the rubber match. This would no doubt be a huge fight, and a great payday for both men.
Give chance to build new contenders
Besides Carlos Condit and Nick Diaz, there are no clear contenders for the belt yet. Guys like Jake Ellenberger and Johnny Hendricks are coming off huge wins, but a couple of more fights would help them become more established future contenders.
These are some good reasons why this fight is a good move for Carlos Condit. I think when all is said and done Carlos Condit has more to gain if he fights Nick Diaz again.
(I got you now you son of a…wait, where’d you go?)
A great man once said that if you tweet it, they will come. Yes it seems that after days of tireless bitching reasonable pleas, we will in fact be treated to a Carlos Condit/Nick Diaz rematch in the near future. DW broke the news yesterday via his Twitter (go figure):
(I got you now you son of a…wait, where’d you go?)
A great man once said that if you tweet it, they will come. Yes it seems that after days of tireless bitching reasonable pleas, we will in fact be treated to a Carlos Condit/Nick Diaz rematch in the near future. DW broke the news yesterday via his Twitter (go figure):
Perhaps the strangest aspect of this story is that it was Condit, not Diaz, who approached White to request the rematch. After being subjected to heated public outcry in the wake of his unanimous decision win at UFC 143, Condit went against the advice of both his camp and his manager to ensure that the fight was booked. So you can say what you want about Condit’s recent performance, but you have to respect a guy who’s willing to possibly lose yetanotherchance at facing GSP, all for the sake of the fans. That’s three thus far, Shooter.
As of this write up, Diaz has yet to accept the fight, and according to Cesar Gracie, is unsure if he even wants it anymore. Here’s what Gracie had to say on the subject, via his Twitter:
@ufc@danawhite Condit vs Diaz or Gsp will not happen this year. Being interviewed by Ariel Helwanie in 5 minutes. He will break the story.
Less than an hour after tweeting this, Gracie appeared to change his mind, stating that “things are being considered.” Considered? THERE’S NO ROOM FOR THAT KIND OF TALK IN THE 209.
What will be interesting to see is how the UFC markets this rematch, granted Diaz accepts it. Yes, the decision was controversial to many (not to me), and yes, a polarizing figure like Diaz can hype a fight in his sleep, but their first meeting clearly failed to live up to the hype, and are we to believe that Condit will try all that different a strategy the second time around considering his success the first time?
Carlos Condit might have spoiled a future bout between Georges St-Pierre and Nick Diaz at UFC 143, however the champion still intends on facing Diaz in the Octagon and he will go to extreme lengths to do so.According to FiveOuncesofPain.com, UFC feathe…
Carlos Condit might have spoiled a future bout between Georges St-Pierre and Nick Diaz at UFC 143, however the champion still intends on facing Diaz in the Octagon and he will go to extreme lengths to do so.
According to FiveOuncesofPain.com, UFC featherweight Kenny Florian revealed during a segment on UFC Tonight that St-Pierre said he would be willing to relinquish the UFC welterweight in order to face Diaz. Florian said the conversation was held over a private dinner this past weekend between the two teammates after St-Pierre watched the main event at ringside.
St-Pierre is currently rehabilitating a knee injury, which forced him to pull out of his bout with the Stockton, CA native at UFC 137.
Condit would fill in as his replacement and capitalized on the opportunity when he out-struck Diaz throughout five rounds to be awarded the victory via unanimous decision. It was seen as a somewhat controversial decision, and Condit has also took a considerable amount of criticism for his strategy during the bout.
However, with a possible rematch on the horizon, St-Pierre may still get his shot at facing Diaz later this year.
Carlos “The Natural Born Killer” Condit, and any other fighter for that matter, must always relish ending a fight with a finish—if and when the opportunity arises. Your opponent’s arm dangles invitingly, then you go for an armba…
Carlos “The Natural Born Killer” Condit, and any other fighter for that matter, must always relish ending a fight with a finish—if and when the opportunity arises.
Your opponent’s arm dangles invitingly, then you go for an armbar; his neck gets exposed while you’re on back mount, then you clamp on a rear-naked choke. He drops his hands carelessly in the standup, then you hit him strong right on the jaw or temple for the knockout.
Is there a more unquestionable and gratifying a victory than a finish? Who doesn’t want a tap out or referee stoppage signifying that it’s all over, and the victory is absolutely yours?
Let the three judges do their job and get paid without letting their decision officially dictate who wins or loses. Heck, you may have battered your opponent to a pulp, but you then immediately go into wishful thinking mode, wringing and crossing your fingers that thou art the favored one by the gods.
Spare yourself the agony of that short but tension-filled waiting time; most importantly, spare yourself of the probable officialloss. Any popular decision hailing from the court of public opinion wouldn’t change that L into a W on your fight record.
The stain will remain, unless your opponent later tests positive for PEDs. But you wouldn’t count on that, would you? That will only entail more excruciating finger crossing, and you will only get as “high” as an adjustment from L to NC (no contest). Yup, still no W-I-N.
Go for the finish if and when you get the chance.
Now, I have no issue with the way Condit won over Nick Diaz, except for one thing.
Condit’s fighting skill is beyond question. His composure and ability to stick to his brilliant game plan for 25 minutes—disregarding Diaz’s physical, psychological and verbal pressure—was, and is, worthy of edification for all MMA fighters.
It’s just that my gut feeling, as a humble fan, tells me he could’ve opened Diaz up some more and gone for the kill—especially beginning in the third round when his fists started finding their mark. In the later rounds, he started peppering the Stockton, California native’s face with punches, adding to his accurate leg kicks which had been actively on target since Round 1.
I have no reason to doubt the power behind Condit’s fists, and it registered on Diaz’s face and CompuStrike, but how many times were they actually fueled with the intent to knockout?
I believe Condit’s trainer Greg Jackson when he said that “hitting a lot without getting hit is a good idea” in an interview with Sherdog.com. But when we hit, can we not go forit?
He could’ve tried setting up and sneaking a quick KO punch or two right after any of those combos.
Instead, most probably aware that he was leading anyway, Condit felt no sense of urgency and just piled up more points to secure his UFC interim welterweight belt and future championship match with Georges St-Pierre (whenever that may be).
What many fans suffered while watching Condit (now with still a staggering 26 finishes out of 28 wins) was experiencing the inverse relationship between their collective expectation of witnessing a fighter’s proven ability to finish and his apparent reluctance to go for it.
The beauty of a victory-via-finish is that it silences everyone—well, almost everyone, as there will always be incessant whiners even right after they tap out or regain consciousness.
“It’s pretty surreal, man,” Condit told TV analyst Joe Rogan in the cage right after his victory. But what is real and not surreal is this: the fans and pundits are divided on who truly deserved the win and the title shot versus St-Pierre.
The fans have reason to think that against Nick Diaz, Condit lost the instinct suggested by his cognomen: “The Natural Born…what?”
Condit must still be partying and celebrating his recent victory, but the chances he didn’t take to win convincingly with a finish must be in the back of his mind, especially as Diaz, among others, continues to criticize what he had to do to iron out an otherwise masterful and intelligent win.
He could have punched that infamous smirk—and taunts—right out of the octagon. He could have shut him up with a lights-out strike or submission, and shut everybody else’s mouth and keyboard.
A decision win could be an ellipsis, but a win by finish is both a period and an exclamation point!
Well, Condit is no Jon Jones, and last Saturday night, he chose to fight like a natural-born winner.
(‘The Mazz’ making sure things don’t get started before the bell Saturday night.)
With all the talk of how the judges scored last weekend’s UFC 143 main event between Carlos Condit and Nick Diaz, CagePotato thought it would be interesting to shift the focus and speak with the man charged with mediating the fight – referee Steve Mazzagatti. In this exclusive conversation, the veteran top ref and occasional owner of one of the best mustaches in all of MMA, talks about Dana White’s hate for him, bitch slaps, shit talking and much more.
By Elias Cepeda
(‘The Mazz’ making sure things don’t get started before the bell Saturday night.)
With all the talk of how the judges scored last weekend’s UFC 143 main event between Carlos Condit and Nick Diaz, CagePotato thought it would be interesting to shift the focus and speak with the man charged with mediating the fight – referee Steve Mazzagatti. In this exclusive conversation, the veteran top ref and occasional owner of one of the best mustaches in all of MMA, talks about Dana White’s hate for him, bitch slaps, shit talking and much more.
Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit have had some intense staredowns before. When you know you’ve got to bring two guys like that together moments before they fight for final instructions, how do you approach it? Do you ready for yourself for any extracurricular activities between them, so to speak?
No, you know they are both very intense fighters. That’s what it is all about. It was a great stare down and those are part of the sport. Both guys are extremely fair fighters as well. I don’t think I’d ever seen them break one rule. Plus, they are not stupid. They were not going to push each other and all that. They didn’t ‘hook ‘em up,’ like I say to do. But they hooked you guys up [with a great fight] and that’s what it is all about. When I say, ‘hook ‘em up,’ it’s not just not just about touching gloves, it’s about those guys hooking it up in the fight and hooking up the fans with a great bout.
In the UFC 143 main event, we saw more slaps. Nick Diaz slapped Carlos Condit at least once with an open hand. What is the deal with slaps? We’ve seen fighters warned by referees about having their hands open during fights to prevent against eye pokes. But at the same time, a guy like Diaz or Fabricio Werdum back in his fight with Andrei Arlovski, have gotten away with slapping their opponents. Is it against the rules to slap your opponent in MMA or not?
Absolutely not; slapping is perfectly legal. We’ve seen it a lot. We’ve had some fighters slap the ears of their opponent while in full mount. Bas Rutten was a huge palm striker. MMA is an open-hand sport. What we are concerned about is fighters leading with their fingertips. That’s what Herb [Dean] was doing [in the UFC 143 bout between Josh Koscheck and Mike Pierce]. And exactly what he realized could have happened, did happen. It is just part of the sport. I’ve dealt with a lot of situations where guys got poked in the eye. I called a fight against Anthony Johnson for it [at UFC Fight Night 14 in 2008). In fact, had we had the ability to look at instant replay at that time, my call would have been overthrown. But in large part because of that fight, now we have instant replay in state of Nevada. It does help in those types of situations. Right call bad call.
So pokes to the eye are bound to happen. Obviously, a fist knuckle to the eye is legal – that can happen with a punch. But we have to be able to judge if it was a finger in the eye or a knuckle. I can understand why guys keep their hands open – they want to parry punches out of the way. What we are trying to keep from happening is them leading with the finger tips. The same thing can happen with heads. We see it in boxing all the time, where fighters lead with their heads and head butts happen. It’s not allowed and its called that — leading.
In other sports, like football and basketball, there are now all sorts of rules about so-called taunting and the like. One of the most interesting things about a Nick Diaz fight is how he talks trash to his opponent while they are fighting. What are the rules under unified MMA rules and did you during the UFC 143 main event or have you ever come close to penalizing fighters for any type of talking during a fight?
The rule states that fighters are not allowed to use foul language. That’s where I would use a warning. Fights are chess matches. These guys are trying to take each other out of their respective games and there’s a lot of talking that go on, not just with Nick Diaz. Believe me these guys have interesting conversations on the ground. I’ve seen and heard a guy get tagged hard by an elbow while on the bottom and tell his opponent, ‘that was awesome!’ I’ve also had guys say they were sorry to their opponent after hitting them with a big shot. I’ve seen guys apologize for putting a whooping on a dude (laughs) So these guys talk a lot and it’s just part of the game. Sometimes, like with Diaz, they want to get under each other’s skins.
That’s really interesting. But you said the rule states that no foul language is allowed by the competitors. Are you saying that Nick Diaz didn’t use any foul language with Carlos Condit at UFC 143?
(Laughs) I’m not going to say that. I didn’t feel there was any reason to intercede there. Everything that happened was part of the sport. He wasn’t foul.
Did Carlos Condit say anything back or was it just Diaz talking?
They had their ‘lil conversations.
As a referee, you’ve got so many things that you’ve got to be paying close attention to. Through all that, do you still develop a sense, or I should say, opinion, on who is winning or who has won, when it goes to a decision?
No, not at all. When I see the stuff go down, I can just appreciate all that goes into them being able to do what they do.
There are rules against timidity in MMA, correct? Fighters have to engage with one another. In the UFC 143 main event between Condit and Diaz, we had an interesting situation where, on the one hand, Condit literally turned his back to Diaz and ran away from him on multiple occasions. But on the other hand, he landed many strikes each round — enough to win the fight, in fact. Did it cross your mind at all, at least the first couple times you saw Condit turn his back and run away from Diaz, that you might need to tell him something or get involved in some way?
No, not at all. It never even crossed my mind. At worst, he was tactfully timid. Like you said, Condit landed a ton of shots, even though he was being elusive. We have lots of fighters that use that style. It’s a part of the evolution of the sport of MMA.
Not to harp on Diaz as if he is a ticking timebomb, but given that he’s been involved in at least one post-fight, in-ring brawl, were you preparing yourself in any way for one guy or team reacting poorly to the decision after it was announced and any ruckus breaking out? Expecting at the end, if any guy reacted poorly to decision?
I can’t say that I didn’t think about it, but I wasn’t worried about it at all. You’ve got to go with the flow in there. When you start thinking that certain things are going to happen you get caught off guard. Anything can happen at any time. You might get assigned a fight with two wrestlers and expect it to be a grappling battle and then they end up striking on their feet the whole bout.
With Condit and Diaz, as soon as the final bell rang, I could tell that they had emptied their cups. Very seldom does that sort of thing — an after fight scuffle, ever happen. MMA is an extremely respectful sport.
This isn’t a new topic but UFC President Dana White has been publicly critical of you in the past. How does it feel to know that the people who matter to you — your actual bosses, have enough confidence to still put you in charge of important fights like the UFC 143 main event, despite the protests of an influential person like Dana White?
We don’t work for the promoters; we work for the state in which the event is being held. I can understand his feelings. He’s got outcomes he wants to see. He’s a promoter. It’s just the way it goes. I’m in there to enforce the rules. I do that the best I can. Do we like actually enforcing the rules? No, we hate it. It throws a wrench in to the whole game. No one wants to see the referee get involved. I don’t want to stand fighters up; I don’t want to break them off cage. All I want to do is tell them to start and stop, and that’s exactly what happened in the Condit and Diaz fight. If every fight was like that I’d be extremely happy. Unfortunately, referees are not there to be liked. We are there to enforce rules, and when is that ever going to popular?
Nick Diaz finally got his rematch with Carlos Condit.The outspoken Diaz was unhappy about his loss to Condit at UFC 143, publicly criticizing the judges’ decision, and threatened to retire from the sport altogether. The loss also prevented him from bei…
Nick Diaz finally got his rematch with Carlos Condit.
The outspoken Diaz was unhappy about his loss to Condit at UFC 143, publicly criticizing the judges’ decision, and threatened to retire from the sport altogether. The loss also prevented him from being awarded the UFC interim welterweight title, but more importantly, an anticipated title bout with Georges St-Pierre.
Fans also seemed to side with Diaz on the controversial outcome, labeling Condit’s performance as “boring.”
Now, after Diaz’s camp immediately requested a rematch, it looks as if a second bout will commence, as UFC President Dana Whiteconfirmed on Twitter that Diaz has agreed, and that Condit is expected to sign later this week.
Diaz will now get another opportunity to avenge his loss to Condit, and challenge St-Pierre later this year.
The UFC is taking a risk at rescheduling a rematch between the two welterweights, but the company also sees a more lucrative opportunity in the bout, especially if Diaz emerges as the winner.
The former Strikeforce welterweight champion’s stock couldn’t be any higher at this point, and the UFC will have an easier time selling Diaz and St-Pierre than before.
The UFC made the right decision to setup a rematch between Diaz and Condit, but they also made a smart decision at keeping Diaz in the title picture.
Realistically, Condit does not have the image nor the personality to appeal to fans as a recognizable fighter, but Diaz does.
And as a result, Diaz has found himself back in the Octagon against Condit one more time, in hopes of earning his long awaited title shot, in a matchup that he, St-Pierre, and the fans have been desperately seeking.
The main even of UFC 143 has split the MMA community right down the middle.
