Official UFC Thread - Part 5

[B]

Personally, I think Diaz's striking is vastly overrated. Offensively, he only really throws with his hands, rarely throws that many proper kicks, his main strength with his hands isn't handspeed, power or explosiveness, his strength is that he throws punches in volume & I feel his striking style has been made to look far too good because of how he beat BJ when Penn was imitating a human punching bag & just stood there.

GSP won't stand in front of him, he'll create angles for himself & mix up his punches with kicks. GSP will have no doubt worked with real professional boxers who possess far more dangerous hands than Diaz in the build up for this feet & I'm sure he has trained himself well to deal with a volume puncher using only had movement & hands, that's not even including his kicks that will keep Diaz at distance when GSP wants.

Diaz's striking defense is poor also, he walks guys down rarely moves his head, doesn't check leg kicks..

I feel Diaz doesn't pose GSP any threat on the feet whatsoever. GSP will more than likely feel the best place for Diaz to be, will be on his back with GSP in his guard.. so my guess is GSP will stand with him were he has a supreme advantage & perhaps take him down at the end of each round to guarantee he wins each of them.

 

[DoomsdayApex]

Overrated? No.

Nick's combinations do take a toll on every fighter that chooses to brawl with him. Say what you will about his handspeed and power, but his accuracy isn't ****. It's top-tier. Diaz could be a terror if he (and his brother) worked on checking legkicks and improved their takedown defense. GSP has a great jab but he doesn't lay out combinations like Nick can.

Of course though, Nick will do what he does best and stand in front of GSP and lose a lackluster decision.

 

[CrypticOne]

Yeah, I don't know how you can say Diaz' striking is overrated. If anything, GSP's is because he barely even uses it, as in he throws one jab and barely puts combinations together because he's scared of the counter.

It isn't just Diaz throwing alot of punches but like Doomsday said, his accuracy is top-notch. That's why he doesn't throw alot of power into his punches, but manages to hurt people. Either touching the button on your chin or body shots to put you down.

 

[Project862006]

nick is affective but boxing isn't only offense but defense nick has horrible defense he doesn't move his head,slip punches,protect his chin with his hands,has zero foot work,and he doesn't know how to cut off the cage(a big reason why condit out worked him)

 

[DoomsdayApex]

nick is affective but boxing isn't only offense but defense nick has horrible defense he doesn't move his head,slip punches,protect his chin with his hands,has zero foot work,and he doesn't know how to cut off the cage(a big reason why condit out worked him)

Fans will say that Diaz has no defense, but that's ludicrous. Nick has displayed defensive skills in the past but his style hides that ability. The Diaz Bros are the only fighters in MMA today who keep their hands low and chin out.

Nick does need to work on cutting off angles though. GSP won't be looking to brawl with Diaz.

 

[DaveMoral]

Fans will say that Diaz has no defense, but that's ludicrous. Nick has displayed defensive skills in the past but his style hides that ability. The Diaz Bros are the only fighters in MMA today who keep their hands low and chin out.

Nick does need to work on cutting off angles though. GSP won't be looking to brawl with Diaz.

There was a really good article on, I believe, Bloody Elbow a while back about Nick Diaz's style and where it could potentially come from. His stance is almost exactly the stance outlined in Daniel Mendoza's The Art of Boxing published in 1789. This was the heyday of bare knuckle, which included leg kicks and stand up grappling.

If he'd spend less time talking **** in the cage, and checked leg kicks, his detractors would back off. I hope he performs well against GSP. I don't necessarily see him coming away from this fight with his hand raised, but I hope he's trained smart and has the strategy such that he won't leave himself wide open for GSP's jab. I want to see a great fight, because Nick can give a potentially better fight than we got out of Condit-GSP.

 

[TheVileOne]

Diaz doesn't check legkicks. And he has poor wrestling and takedown defense. Most of his most recent wins were not against world class wrestlers or takedown artists.

 

[B]

Overrated? No.

Nick's combinations do take a toll on every fighter that chooses to brawl with him. Say what you will about his handspeed and power, but his accuracy isn't ****. It's top-tier. Diaz could be a terror if he (and his brother) worked on checking legkicks and improved their takedown defense. GSP has a great jab but he doesn't lay out combinations like Nick can.

Of course though, Nick will do what he does best and stand in front of GSP and lose a lackluster decision.

Yeah, I don't know how you can say Diaz' striking is overrated.

His combinations are decent, they are good by MMA's standard. When I say his striking is overrated, I'm saying this because I'm looking at his whole package from an MMA perspective. Sure he is accurate with his hands & of course taking 1 body shot followed by 2 or 3 head shots repeatedly will eventually wear down an opponent. However that's pretty much the only thing he has going for him.

He doesn't throw many knees or kicks, doesn't check leg kicks, doesn't have great head movement, doesn't have good enough footwork to cut people off instead opting to bait them into trying to take his head off by holding his arms out, doesn't have great handspeed, doesn't have massive power.. His striking overall doesn't impress me simply due to his lack of defense. A good striker will pepper him with shots for the entire fight.

 

[TheVileOne]

Yup look at the Carlos Condit fight. He got all frustrated that Condit wouldn't just come in and be a target for him to hit. Condit came in and out and with angles.

 

[CrypticOne]

 

[Mace Bloodstone]

 

[Mace Bloodstone]

Overeem before and after the fight.

http://thereem.com/news/39/23/The-Reem-episode-3-Knockout.html

 

[B]

Spoiler

Very interesting argument you make there for proving me wrong that Diaz is as elite a striker as he is portrayed as..

 

[CrypticOne]

Very interesting argument you make there for proving me wrong that Diaz is as elite a striker as he is portrayed as..

Alright. If GSP stands with him and knocks him out, you'll prove me wrong. But I'm predicting a first round flash knockout for Diaz, baby! CAN'T WAIT! Until I GSP face down on the canvas. And your NEW WELTERWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD! NICK DIAZ!

 

[TheVileOne]

 

[B]

Alright. If GSP stands with him and knocks him out, you'll prove me wrong. But I'm predicting a first round flash knockout for Diaz, baby! CAN'T WAIT! Until I GSP face down on the canvas. And your NEW WELTERWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD! NICK DIAZ!

He doesn't have to stand with him & knock him out, he just has to stand with him & do what he did to Condit, Koscheck, Shields.. or basically anyone he has stood with in the past. Something he is more than capable of, GSP has went toe to toe with better & more dangerous strikers with far more tools than Diaz.

You don't actually think GSP is going to get into a Nick Diaz scrappy fight do you?

 

[CrypticOne]

He doesn't have to stand with him & knock him out, he just has to stand with him & do what he did to Condit, Koscheck, Shields.. or basically anyone he has stood with in the past. Something he is more than capable of, GSP has went toe to toe with better & more dangerous strikers with far more tools than Diaz.

You don't actually think GSP is going to get into a Nick Diaz scrappy fight do you?

HAHA! Nah, I think GSP is gonna lay on him for 20 minutes. I know GSP will still be champion after this fight, I'm just rooting for Diaz.

 

[B]

HAHA! Nah, I think GSP is gonna lay on him for 20 minutes. I know GSP will still be champion after this fight, I'm just rooting for Diaz.

Why would GSP want to take Diaz down other than to insure he wins a round near the end?

Diaz's best chance of winning is off his back, GSP will stand with him for the majority of the fight & pepper him with shots.

 

[TheVileOne]

Diaz no showed today's open workouts.

Is the pressure getting to Nick Diaz? Just seems like he can't handle the spotlight and looming threat of Georges St-Pierre. This is what you asked for Diaz. Life-changing money is on the line here. Why do you want to throw it away? Every other fighter has no trouble going to these public events including ones that get paid less than you.

 

[CrypticOne]

I've never understood the point of open workouts. Is it just for press? The fighters barely even do anything at them. Just some flashy stuff.

All I care about is the fight on Saturday.

 

[TheVileOne]

The open workouts are open to the public and its great for local publicity and also for local fans. Fans want to see and interact with these guys. You may not understand CrypticOne, but its important because UFC is trying to build their reputation in these cities. UFC and MMA offer unprecedented access to their fighters and superstars unlike other professional sports. That's a big part of UFC's appeal.

It's in his contract. This is part of his job. Does it matter in the long scheme of things? Probably not. But yet every other fighter is able to fulfill these obligations without all the headaches that Diaz provides.

These are public appearances that are scheduled and advertised ahead of time for fans. If you wait to see someone and they don't show, would you not be upset about it?

 

[CrypticOne]

I personally wouldn't be upset. You don't really see a lot of the public at these things anyway. Just camera dudes and press interviewing the fighters. But I understand why the general public would like to see it. They're kinda boring though. To me, at least. But yeah, if its in his contract, he should be there. Can't the UFC just deduct it from his paycheck?

 

[TheVileOne]

To put it simply, Nick Diaz is scared of GSP homie.

They can do a lot more than that. Legally they could remove him from the fight, strip him of the title if he wins it and pulls it again, or even fire him.

 

[CrypticOne]

Well, the UFC had to know what they were getting into when signing Nick Diaz. So, they really have no one to blame but themselves.

 

[TheVileOne]

On one hand I see that. On the other, I think Diaz needs to act like an adult and start taking some responsibility.