by Dr. Octagon, J.D.
George St. Pierre and I are very happy today, because MMAfighting is reporting that Dana White has confirmed Nick Diaz will have a chance to avenge his controversial loss to Carlos Condit for the interim welterweight title Saturday at UFC 143.
There hasn’t been any official word that Nick Diaz has unretired, but we can only hope one of the top welterweights in the sport will hang around for a few more fights.
The fight was really close, but I scored it for Nick Diaz because he was pushing the action and doing more damage when he connected. You should keep in mind that my scoring system gets pretty subjective/shoddy by the end of the night, because I’ve usually been boozing for three hours or so. Plus, I’m trying to furiously type and watch the fights at the same time.
Consider announcer Joe Rogan. He initially thought Condit won, but after going back and watching the fight again, he scored it for Diaz. The fight was very close and anyone who says otherwise is a clown (lots of those on MMA message boards).
The MMA scoring system isn’t yet fully developed, leaving more room for subjectivity. While I’m a huge fan of effective counter-punching, I’m not a fan of counter leg kicks. They don’t do a ton of damage (unless delivered by Jose Aldo) and I don’t think a fighter should be able to win a round by running and throwing leg kicks. Which is basically what Condit did.
It was a really smart plan by Greg Jackson for Carlos to avoid a shootout in which he would be at a disadvantage. People hate on Greg Jackson for stuff like this, but it really isn’t deserved. Most of his fighters go out and put on great shows (Guida, Cerrone, Jon Jones etc.). You can’t fault a guy for fighting to his advantage, especially when there is an interim belt on the line.
But no one likes paying for a fight and watching it devolve into two dudes picking at each other, or five rounds of lay and pray. Perhaps scoring each round on a three-point scale, or a similar tweak to the rules would make sense. There needs to be a way to differentiate between a round a guy getting beat down for a round versus a round of someone sitting on top of him.
Maybe encouraging more 10–8 rounds and more draws would work. Right now some judges give out 10–8s all the time, some don’t do it ever, and no one ever scores a draw.
People will point out Carlos landed way more strikes than Nick. He definitely did. But a lot of them were leg kicks and weak punches. Of course Diaz should have changed up his game plan a little earlier than the end of the fifth round, given that the fight was so close.
Anyhow, I’m really excited for a potential rematch and you should be too. We might actually get the dogfight that was promised the last time around.
