UFC 143: 'Diaz vs Condit' Discussion Thread

[ajmcstyles]

New intro looks nice bet some work went into that.

 

It might of been a "dull" main event but it was a near perfect game from Condit happy to see him win. Nick didnt have much of an answer of Carlos's "machica" style of approach to the fight, but why stand and bang with Diaz you know your going to end up in a world of hurt doing so, talk about fighting smart.

 

Diaz threw the teddy out of the cot with that result BUT the result never leave it in the hands of the judges. Nick would could easily go back to boxing or BJJ or better yet with his style and some more muscle and with that cardio hes be a monster at 185lbs. Basically Diaz got out smarted, GSP would do the exact same style in and out, dodge the swarm of diaz and anyone with somewhat of a chin IF Diaz fights again have just seem one big hole in his game. Shogun has a interesting approach to that style of fighting.

 

Diaz was clearly the more aggressive fighter and had octagon control pushing Condit back. Damage and style went to Condit he threw alot more strikes and fucked up Diaz's face and great defence throughout the fight.

 

GSP Vs Condit should be interesting since they both work at Jacksons MMA (well GSP works everywhere but Greg Jackson walks with him to the cage and is in his corner)

 

As for Big Country he as Joe said he need to drop to middleweight hes too small for the big guys. Verdum striking looked impressive his striking wasnt too bad either against Overeem if i remember correctly ok there was very little OF IT but Werdum was handling the reem.

 

Kos Vs Pierce was alright didnt seem like Kos was in the zone like he was with hughes but oh well.

 

A Free card with ESPN being free this weekend. Missed the prelims, did I miss anything bar that submission of the night?

 

Anyway off to sleep now SUPERBOWL tonight.

[The Natural]

I'm in the minority who thinks Carlos Condit will beat Nick Diaz by decision. The Carlos Condit/Nick Diaz, Fabricio Werdum/Roy Nelson (predicting Werdum decision) and Renan Barao/Scott Jorgensen (Barao wins by decision) are hard fights to call.

 

Allow me to take a quick bow! I also called the winners and methods right in the other two main card fights. The only prediction I got wrong on the main card was the round Herman/Starks would end in. I thought it would end by Herman submitting Starks in the first round, it ended in the second. Bugger!

[ajmcstyles]

I'm in the minority who thinks Carlos Condit will beat Nick Diaz by decision. The Carlos Condit/Nick Diaz, Fabricio Werdum/Roy Nelson (predicting Werdum decision) and Renan Barao/Scott Jorgensen (Barao wins by decision) are hard fights to call.

 

Allow me to take a quick bow! I also called the winners and methods right in the other two main card fights. The only prediction I got wrong on the main card was the round Herman/Starks would end in. I thought it would end by Herman submitting Starks in the first round, it ended in the second. Bugger!

predict me the correct 6 numbers then or 5 with the bonus im not picky.

[The Natural]

I'm in the minority who thinks Carlos Condit will beat Nick Diaz by decision. The Carlos Condit/Nick Diaz, Fabricio Werdum/Roy Nelson (predicting Werdum decision) and Renan Barao/Scott Jorgensen (Barao wins by decision) are hard fights to call.

 

Allow me to take a quick bow! I also called the winners and methods right in the other two main card fights. The only prediction I got wrong on the main card was the round Herman/Starks would end in. I thought it would end by Herman submitting Starks in the first round, it ended in the second. Bugger!

predict me the correct 6 numbers then or 5 with the bonus im not picky.

 

I usually suck at predictions so it's nice to get them right for a change. I predicted them at another board I post at.

 

What did people think about the show then? It was nice to watch a live UFC. Nelson is amazing for the punishment he can take.

[Magnum Milano]

I fell asleep during the main so can't comment on that, but didn't think much of the rest of the PPV portion of the card.

 

Clifford Starks looked good on his feet but had very little or no idea on the ground, and that lack of BJJ defense cost him the fight against Shortfuse.

 

Jorgensen again showed his durability going the distance with Barao but once troubled him, and Barao took a comfortable unanimous decision. Nice tin see 'the baddest cornerman on the planet' seconding Young Guns.

 

I had no issue whatsoever with the Koscheck/Pierce fight and scored it 29-28 Kos (giving him rounds two and three). This result saw my five fight accumulator come in, although I was worried at one point after the eye poke in the third as I was expecting Herb to take a point after Kos had already been warned twice.

 

Big Country took plenty of punishment and hung in there, whilst some of those knees Werdum threw were brutal. It's not really fun watching him take this kind of abuse, and he should certainly look at trying to drop to light heavy.

 

Final point, I wish someone would take a hammer to Goldie's stats computer. I found him extremely annoying with all the compustat stuff last night and I couldn't care less if someone has a '43% takedown defense success rate, putting them 13th all time in the UFC'. It ain't going to happen, but I would have no problem if I never saw him again on a UFC show. Overall, nice to see one of these 'live' per se, but there was nothing that I will be watching again anytime soon.

[Kawaii Guy]

I had the first 2 rounds and the final round for Diaz, 4th round for conduit, 3rd could go either way.

Im happy for Carlos, but I think Diaz had it.

[wandshogun09]

Final point, I wish someone would take a hammer to Goldie's stats computer. I found him extremely annoying with all the compustat stuff last night and I couldn't care less if someone has a '43% takedown defense success rate, putting them 13th all time in the UFC'. It ain't going to happen, but I would have no problem if I never saw him again on a UFC show. Overall, nice to see one of these 'live' per se, but there was nothing that I will be watching again anytime soon.

 

Deffo agree with this. Goldberg irritated the balls off me last night. To be honest I'd rather replace him now aswell but like you say you know that's isn't happening as he's one of Dana's boys along with Rogan, Chuck, Forrest and Bonnar.

 

I quite enjoyed the show on the whole. The main event was a good close fight, although a totally different type of fight than I expected. Not a war at all and that's a credit to Condit for not allowing himself to be dragged into that style of fight. You could see Diaz getting frustrated at not being able to keep Condit on the fence to tee off. Condit fought a very smart gameplan.

 

I had no issue with the result, I had Condit 3 rounds to 2 aswell although I can't remember which rounds I gave to each guy I'll have to watch it again.

 

It's a shame Diaz' little outburst after the fight kinda took the shine off Condit's big moment. There might be an argument to give him the decision but he must know it was close. This 'he was the one coming forward' reasoning for giving a guy a decision is one I don't usually agree with. It's no good just coming forward of you're walking on to leg kicks and punches and not landing anything significant yourself. Aggression should earn you points but only if you do something with it imo. This is what annoyed me with Pacquiao vs Marquez 3. Pac was the aggressor but he wasn't landing nearly as many effective or eye catching shots as Marquez was going backwards.

 

Condit quote from an interview after the fight

"This is just another step toward my ultimate goal of being among the best mixed martial artists in the world. [Nick Diaz] was talking, I was landing punches, you know? I think I was winning. No matter how much he talked, I was hitting him hard, I was hitting him solid. That's what I came here to do: I didn't come here to talk. From the very beginning, I broke that leg down. I chopped his leg, chopped his leg, chopped his leg, so even if he had the cardio, he didn't have the wheels. I've got a lot of work to do, and a lot more improvements to be made. Georges St. Pierre is a true champion, he's the best in the world. It's huge."

 

Great moment for Condit, and I'll be rooting for him to beat GSP. Can't see Diaz' retirement sticking either, he'll be back I think. He's just having a sulk.

 

Rest of the main card was decent nothing amazing. I enjoyed Werdum vs Nelson more than I thought I would going in. Werdum's striking looked better than ever. Good job Nelson had that massive beard cos a couple of them knees landed flush on the chin and I don't know how he never went down.

 

Werdum vs Mir next maybe?

 

I liked the Barao/Jorgensen fight too. Barao is legit no doubt. The way he destroyed Brad Pickett and now decisively beating a top 135er like Jorgensen. His striking looked good and his takedown defence looked excellent against a good wrestler. I'd suspect Barao will get the winner of Cruz vs Faber 3 now.

 

Ed Herman vs Clifford Starks was pretty good, rough first round for Short Fuse but once he got Starks to the ground it was clear he was a level above in BJJ. Good comeback win.

 

Kos vs Pierce was a bit of a struggle early on but Kos just did enough in rounds 2 and 3 to outwork him I felt. I had it 29-28 the same as the judges. Kos was asking for the winner of the main event but obviously that isn't gonna happen as GSP is coming back. Koscheck vs Johny Hendricks seems likely to me.

 

Prelims were really good.

 

Wonderboy Thompson's KO was tremendous. Brown's KO of Chris Cope was nasty aswell and once again Kim 'The Zombie' Winslow took her fucking time stepping in. Ridiculous.

 

The Poirier duel submission was amazing. Great stuff.

 

Caceres vs Figueroa was fantastic. That was my FOTN easy although I read they gave it to Nelson/Werdum I hated Bruce Leeroy on TUF but he's been a joy to watch since the show. Figueroa's been great too and had a cracking fight with Michael McDonald on short notice last year. I was prediciting this to be the sleeper on the card and it delivered. Great fight. Track it down if you've not seen it.

 

Good show all in all. I'm gonna miss UFC 144 cos I'm going to Canada to see family with the girlfriend but I might try and sneak out and catch it in a bar with the Canadians

[Dai]

Im a Diaz fan, but you cant argue about the decision. Even though Diaz was walking Condit down, Condit was easily getting in the better shots for the vast majority of time. Diaz must have been speaking the truth in his "I thought I was winning" promo, due to the fact he didnt change his approach at all. In Rounds 4 and 5 especially, Diaz looked completley lost (excusing the last minute of Round 5), and had absolutley no answer to Condits tactics.

[mikey]

I can see a Condit win, I can see the idea that he kept nicking the rounds through just outworking Diaz but it was never a 49-46. Again, it's abysmal judging.

[TildeGuy~!]

Man, I'm pissed at that result.

 

I can see where Diaz is coming from after the decision was made. Condit kept his distance for 5 full rounds.

 

I was a huge fan of Nick before the Countdown shows but after seeing the final one I was desperate for him to pull of the win he really is the face of the Welterweight division and I hope he doesn't retire I say Condit/Diaz rematch.

[Rey_Piste]

Condit really deserved that win, I'm honestly suprised that Diaz didn't try to take Condit down sooner. Nelson proved he has one hell of a chin, it was also a very good show of stand up from Werdum. When Werdum took Nelson's back I thought it was the end of the fight, so that was good for Nelson. He does need to move down to Light Heavy though, He's not muscular enough for that that weight and he's not that tall either.

[Egg Shen]

i scored the main event 49-46 for Condit (gave Diaz round 5), it's all well and good walking forward but Condit landed the cleaner more damaging strikes all night. Diaz has gotten so accustomed to have guy just stand in front him and trade that when a guy actually moved he couldn't do anything about it. It was a poor performance from Nick, but credit has to goto Condit, he executed a perfect gameplan...it prevented the fight from being the 'classic' we were expecting but it was sensible and it made him (in my opinion) the clear winner. It always gets on my nerves when fighters don't adapt in the cage, its probably due to the fact that Diaz clearly thought he was winning, but in MMA there's so many tools to use and when a guy just continues to do the same thing when it isn't working it just grates.

 

Diaz is a terrible loser so i expected an outburst at the end, but retirement was a bit much...he'll be back.

 

I'll talk the other fights tomorrow.

 

...and who the fuck is picking these Fight of The Night's recently??

[the_mole]

Nick Diaz has been protected from wrestlers since he left the UFC the first time and now you have to stand and bang with him now? Condit outstruck him, winning at least 3 rounds, I wanted him to win but he has to grow up a little and realise that MMA is a Sport with judging and not some street fight.

 

Werdum's striking looked the best i've ever seen him and Big Country is as tough as nails but take away the belly and he could easily make 185, he would get slaughtered at that weight class, so no point dropping at his age as he's doing alright at HW.

[Trevor]

Bare in mind that I am relatively new to UFC and this was the first time I've ever stayed up to watch it live. First off, the opening titles are REALLY impressive, although they do show quite a lot of spoilers for past fights, which was a tad annoying. Another thing that quickly stuck out was just the sheer relentlessness of the adverts by Mike Goldberg. There was an advert for Harley Davidson, an advert for some program on the History Channel, an advert for some peanuts, there was an advert for the Japan show. Some of these took place whilst the fight was actually still taking place!

 

I found the fans last night to be a dissapointment too, they seemed very quiet, a strange thing to be I've always found, considering they've paid quite a lot of money for those tickets. When they weren't sitting on their hands, they were booing the (in my opinion) entertaining Koscheck/Pearce fight, seemingly because they weren't just standing there trading punches in the middle of the ring. This seems to be a reuccuring theme in the UFC, where the fans seem to really not have any desire to see any mat wrestling. Personally, despite it's overt homoerotic undertones, I enjoy the mat based wrestling just as much as the striking. It doesn't really paint a great picture of the UFC fans, their behaviour is that of the stereotype redneck drunk, desperately wanting to see some guys beat the shit out of each other, not interested in seeing any displays of impressive athelticism.

 

Anyway, rant over. I was incredibly shocked that Pearce lost that fight, I was sure he'd won that one. Just in order to give a bit more positivity to my thoughts on the show, I thought it was an entertaining show and look forward to watching the next event.

[the_mole]

It was was in Vegas and the Casino usually buys a large amount of tickets for any given card and hands them out as comps, to their visitors in the hope they will be entertained and then go back to the Casino and spend a fortune. The crowd noise usually just depends on where they hold a card, Brazil & Canada are noisy as fuck and so are the cards over here.