Georges St. Pierre Vs Nick Diaz: IN THE WORKS
By Siri Karri
With all due respect to Georges St. Pierre, he has become one of those fighters that are too good for his own good. Let me clarify.
In 2007, GSP was brutally knocked out by Matt Serra and many assumed that GSP was a one-hit wonder; the Vanilla Ice of the MMA world. He then came and outwrestled fan favorite (or pariah, depending on your view) Josh Koscheck. He then won the title by beating Matt Hughes again at UFC 79 and GSP has dominated the division ever since. That’s part of the problem.
Just like what the Lakers and Patriots did to the NBA and NFL in the early 2000’s, the majority of sports fans don’t like knowing whose going to win. Many fighters such as BJ Penn and Anderson Silva had stretches of dominance that definitely dulled interest in a lot of their title defenses, but they at least TRIED to finish their fights; GSP’s last finish was a doctor stoppage in which BJ Penn essentially got bored of the fight and quit at UFC 94.
Georges St. Pierre hasn’t been an underdog in his fights for four years . . . he has no reason not to try and finish his fights. Every time he lays and preys on his opponent for five rounds or essentially jabs them to death, his “I tried to finish the fight” spiel gets more and more irritating. It’s no wonder that fans are clamoring for a Georges St. Pierre vs. Anderson Silva super fight; either Georges St. Pierre is going to get finished or he’s going to score an upset victory. But there is an opponent that GSP must face first:
Nick Diaz.
The older Diaz brother has flown under the radar of casual MMA fans barring the Strikeforce brawl last year, and you can hardly blame them. Diaz dropped his last 3 fights against legitimate fighters during his last stint in the Octagon in Sean Sherk, Joe Riggs, and Karo Parisyan. He then finished 2 mediocre fighters before opting out of a contract renewal and leaving the UFC. Since the casual MMA fan probably wouldn’t recognize the majority of fighters in Strikeforce, it’s only natural that Nick Diaz’s unprecedented win streak is often overshadowed by his boorishness and that he be dismissed as no threat to Georges St. Pierre.
Those people could not be more wrong.
To put it bluntly, Nick Diaz is the 2nd best mixed martial artist at 170 lbs behind Georges St. Pierre. I am making that statement fully knowing that Nick Diaz’s greatest MMA achievements have come outside of the UFC, and that the welterweight division includes the likes of Jon Fitch, BJ Penn and Josh Koscheck.
For starters, his striking is unorthodox yet supremely effective. To the naked eye, Diaz’s boxing style is akin to that of a drunken man attempting to catch a fly; wide and loopy. Yet nearly opponent of recent memory has found themselves either badly hurt or flat out finished by Diaz’s drunken flailing. Part of it is the very subtle technique behind his striking.
Conventional wisdom says that a person who primarily uses wide punches leaves himself open to counterattacks, yet Diaz has several qualities that more than compensate for this strategic flaw.
You know how when a fighter takes a lot of shots, he is said to eat “a buffet of punches”? Well to elaborate on that metaphor, Nick’s opponents are eating at the breakfast buffet at Golden Corrall when kids eat free; his punch volume is so high that it’s very difficult to counter him. Scott Smith and Paul Daley are two strikers who tried and failed; Smith was badly hurt and submitted while Daley suffered the only knockout loss of his career. Both attempted to swing at Diaz as they were swarmed and ended up eating combinations that led to fight stoppages.
That’s another thing: Diaz is hyper accurate with his strikes. Imagine tying a string to a golf ball and swinging it in wide arcs around your head akin to a medieval knight’s morning star. Now imagine attempting to repeatedly connect on a shirtless man’s chin as he attempts to punch and kick you in the face. This somewhat disturbing analogy sums up what Nick Diaz has managed to do to every opponent in Strikeforce thus far.
While he doesn’t have traditional one-shot knock out power, the fact that his large punch output consistently hits the sweet spot means that his opponents accumulate damage at an alarming rate. Combine that with perhaps the best liver shot in the game today, and you have one of the most elite strikers in all of mixed martial arts.
What’s ironic is that while striking is easily the most dangerous parts of Nick Diaz’s game, he started out as an elite jujitsu practitioner and is probably best known as one. His black-belt combined with long gangly limbs has earned him submission victories over the likes Josh Neer, Scott Smith and Evangelista Santos.
Nick Diaz is surely the no. 2 welterweight on the planet, whose only crime is saving his best performances for Strikeforce. He is better rounded and more talented his training partner and last title contender Jake Shields, has superior striking to Jon Fitch, and his lanky legs give him an BJJ advantage on the ground Thiago Alves couldn’t enjoy. Without a doubt, Nick Diaz is the one man St. Pierre must face before his foray into the 185 division.
As much as Diaz has accomplished and as exciting of a style he employs the fact remains that he is, at most, the no. 2 welterweight in the world…behind Georges St. Pierre. For all his touted striking and BJJ experience, Diaz still remains the underdog to the French-Canadian juggernaut. It also doesn’t help that the people that Nick Diaz has had the most trouble with are powerful wrestlers who can avoid his submission attempts (Sean Sherk, Diego Sanchez, Karo Parisyan) which basically describes the UFC champion. So why should the UFC risk time and money to have people watch what may be another boring GSP decision victory?
The fact is that Nick Diaz is one of the most reviled fighters, rivaling the notoriety of Michael Bisping or Brock Lesnar. It’s not his arrogance or taunting in the ring; plenty of fighters do that, it’s just part of the game. No, it’s the fact that he’s a man that attempts to emulate “thug” culture while spending the prime of his fight career avoiding the UFC and wrestlers. It’s the fact that he and several of his buddies decided to blind-side one of the most beloved fighters, Jason Mayhem Miller, on national television. It’s the fact that in a sport that literally let’s one’s “fists do the talking”, Nick Diaz seems more content to wage a war of words.
THAT’S why the UFC needs to make this fight; even if Georges St. Pierre lays on Nick Diaz for five rounds, even if he just skips around the ring flicking boogers at him, people will not care. Either fight fans will get an exciting upset that will rock the foundations of the welterweight division or one of the biggest villains in MMA gets his mouth shut.
It’s a win-win for fight fans.