UFC 143: Diaz vs. Condit Results

[Kemal]

Nick Diaz Says He's Walking Away From MMA, Confusing Us One Last Time

If Saturday night was the end for Nick Diaz, it came just the way we would expect it: in a jumbled, confusing mess. The enigmatic UFC welterweight star lost a close, controversial decision to Carlos Condit at UFC 143, and then, seemingly on the spur of the moment, decided he was done with mixed martial arts.

Never mind that it was his only loss in his last 11 fights. Never mind that he's just 28 years old. Never mind that he's as popular as he's ever been, to the point that the Mandalay Bay Events Center crowd booed Condit even after he won. The way Diaz phrased it, he wasn't leaving MMA; instead, it was the sport that was forcing him out.

"I don’t need this s---," he said in his post-fight interview. "I pushed this guy backwards. He ran from me the whole fight. He ran this whole fight. I landed the harder shots. He ran the whole time. He kicked me in the leg with little baby leg kicks the whole fight. That’s the way they understand to win in here. I don’t want to play this game no more."

Keep in mind that just seconds before that, he'd called Condit "the man" and said he was happy for Condit and his family.

Sure, the two statements don't necessarily jibe, but his off-the-cuff unpredictability is part of the reason that the fascination in Diaz has multiplied over the last few years. And that heat-of-the-moment outburst is symbolic of the fighting style that often seemed to conclude with fury overpowering reasoned tactics.

As he has in the past, Diaz refused to accept the decision against him, pointing out that he was the one moving forward throughout most of the five-round bout. But the judges ruled that Condit was the more effective fighter, likely due to out-working Diaz for cage positioning and then firing off his own offense.

According to FightMetric, Condit out-struck Diaz in the fight by a 159-117 count overall, and a 151-105 number in "significant strikes." Diaz suggested leg kicks won Condit the fight, and there may be some truth to that. In strikes to the head and body, Diaz landed 111 to Condit's 91. In strikes to the legs, it was Condit 68, Diaz 6.

in some way, he should be flattered that opponents have to dramatically alter their game plans to beat him. Condit didn't fight his normal style, but his planning and execution were excellent, and Diaz can't expect judges to simply ignore the many kicks he landed. Diaz doesn't get to rewrite the rules each fight to favor his style. But because he's not happy with the way the fights are scored, he's gone.

Have we actually seen the last of Diaz? Who knows?

At this point, would anything he does actually surprise you? If any 28-year-old fighter in his prime actually called it quits and stuck to it, it would somehow make perfect sense that it was Diaz, only because it wouldn't make any sense at all.

That of course, seems a long shot. Most likely, he will be back. He seems to be a man who needs fighting. It's something he's done for over a decade already and it's the way he measures himself. He didn't go to college to become a pencil pusher or to a trade school to learn how to install HVAC. Diaz quit high school to train martial arts so he could become a fighter.

And he's been world class at it for years now. In fact, one close loss aside, this is about as good as he's ever been.

Maybe when he gets home and sits down and thinks about it, that's the conclusion that he'll come to. But for now, no one knows what he'll do, maybe not even Diaz himself. The statement he made in the cage is the only one he's made so far. He declined an invitation to the post-fight press conference, leaving UFC president Dana White to speculate about his future.

"Nick Diaz is a fighter," White said. "I don't see Nick Diaz retiring, but who knows? This isn’t a sport where you want to be half in, half out, [saying,] 'I don't know what I want to do.' If that’s the way you feel, you probably should retire."

White said later that he'd be open to a Condit-Diaz rematch. Maybe that will lure Diaz back. He wanted the chance to fight Georges St-Pierre, and a win over Condit would make that a possibility once again.

Or maybe he'll do what he said he would and walk away for good, a complex character leaving us scratching our heads one final time. Then, years from now, you'll be sitting around wondering whatever happened to Nick Diaz, thinking to yourself that he was so good, so young, so confusing.

[dennis mayhem]

ik hoop condit doesn't apply the same "gameplan" against gsp because... how boring is that fight gonna be? 2 guys running away from each other trying to score some pionts? ... mwaaa not a fight i'll be wachting!

[Kemal]

UFC 143 Fighter Salaries: Nick Diaz Rakes in $200,000

Nick Diaz earned a reported salary of $200,000 for his fight against Carlos Condit at UFC 143 this past Saturday in Las Vegas, according to the Nevada athletic commission. Condit, who defeated Diaz for the UFC interim welterweight title, on paper made $55,000 as his show purse and a $55,000 bonus for the win.

Please note that salaries reported by the UFC to the commission do not necessarily reflect a fighter's actual earnings, once other possible bonuses (such as a cut of the pay-per-view for big stars) and sponsorship money is factored in.

Salaries for the rest of the fighters are below. Additionally, Werdum, Nelson, Thompson and Poirier each earned a $65,000 bonus at the post-fight press conference.

Pay-Per-View Bouts
Carlos Condit ($55,000 + $55,000 = $110,000) def. Nick Diaz ($200,000)
Fabricio Werdum ($100,000 + no win bonus) def. Roy Nelson ($20,000)
Josh Koscheck ($73,000 + $73,000 = $146,000) def. Mike Pierce ($20,000)
Renan Barao ($11,000 + $11,000 = $22,000) def. Scott Jorgensen ($20,500)
Ed Herman ($31,000 + $31,000 = $62,000) def. Clifford Starks ($8,000)

Preliminary Bouts
Dustin Poirier ($12,000 + $12,000 = $24,000) def. Max Hollaway ($6,000)
Edwin Figueroa ($8,000 + $8,000 = $16,000) def. Alex Caceres ($8,000)
Matt Brown ($15,000+$15,000 = $30,000) def. Chris Cope ($8,000)
Matt Riddle ($15,000 + $15,000 = $30,000) def. Henry Martinez ($6,000)
Rafael Natal ($10,000 + $10,000 = $20,000) def. Michael Kuiper ($6,000)
Stephen Thompson ($6,000+$6,000 = $12,000) def. Dan Stittgen ($6,000)

[Kemal]

Carlos Condit's Camp Not Interested in Nick Diaz Rematch

In the hours after Carlos Condit's close but unanimous decision win over Nick Diaz at UFC 143, UFC president Dana White seemed to warm up to the possibility of a rematch between the two. After all, it may be nine months or more until division champion Georges St-Pierre returns to fight the interim champion, a lengthy wait.

But at least for now, the Condit camp seems uninterested in the possibility of Condit-Diaz II. On Monday afternoon, his manager Malki Kawa told MMA Fighting that the new interim champion would be much more likely to set his sights on unifying the interim and linear titles.

"At this point, [a rematch] is not something we’re looking to do," he said. "We're looking for Georges. People forget, Carlos waited a long time to get this fight. He was moved around, and shuffled around between fights. He won the fight. It doesn't interest us at all. I think clearly and decisively, he won the fight. Even [UFC president] Dana [White] scored it for him. All of the opinions that matter scored Carlos as winner."

In addition to pointing out the unanimous judges' decision as well as White's opinion, Kawa noted that fight statistics showed Condit out-landing Diaz. FightMetric stats had Condit landing 159 total strikes, and Diaz landing 117.

"It was a performance that was excellent," Kawa said. "He picked apart a very formidable fighter. Two judges saw it four rounds to one, and one saw it three to two. The fact that he didn't stand and bang with him? I'm sorry, not every fighter has to do that. He did what he had to do, and that goes to show me that this guy is mature, he's fighting fights that are smart.

"People are like, 'Oh, Carlos is not a finisher,'" he continued. "The guy threw how many spinning elbows? How many spinning back fists? He threw a flying knee. He tried to finish Nick Diaz when the time and the opening was there. I can't find a flaw in his performance."

Even in defeat, Diaz managed to steal the spotlight from Condit by saying he would retire due to his frustration with the judging. Kawa said that was no concern of Condit's, whose only goal has been to be the champion.

After a six-month training cycle due to various opponent switches, Condit will take some time off before he finalizes his next move.

"Carlos is a fighter," Kawa said. "At the end of the day, this is not a guy who wants to sit around and wait. He wants to fight. You never know. Right now, the idea is that we want Georges St-Pierre. The goal is to fight Georges St-Pierre. He wants to be the best in the world, so that's the fight that interests us at this moment."

And as for a rematch first?

For now, forget it. Though it's ultimately Condit's decision, his manager and advisor isn't keen on it.
"The fans disagree [with the decision] because they got hyped up to see Nick & Georges fight each other," Kawa said.

"Well, let them fight each other. We’ve moved on."

[Kemal]

Greg Jackson: Stick-and-Move Game Plan Was 'No-Brainer' Against Nick Diaz

MMA trainer Greg Jackson might be, by his own admission, "completely and utterly biased," but he still thought the judges got it right when they handed Carlos Condit a unanimous decision victory over Nick Diaz at UFC 143 this past Saturday night, he told MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani.

Saying there was "no doubt" in his mind that the decision would go Condit's way, Jackson defended his fighter’s strategy on Monday's edition of The MMA Hour, and fired back at critics who accused Condit of running away from Diaz.

"It’s not like we reinvented the wheel here with this game plan," Jackson said. "A stick-and-move game plan against a guy that’s such an amazing fighter and such a tough guy as Diaz, for me is a no-brainer. If you look at the numbers, we hit him many more times than he hit us." But then, just because it worked, that doesn’t make it popular. Jackson hasn’t remained deaf to the criticism of his fighter, but that doesn’t mean he agrees with any of it, either.

"The criticism I guess I heard this morning was that Carlos was running," Jackson said. "He was running back to the middle of the Octagon and hitting him. You can’t really say he’s running, because he hit him more times. So that argument doesn’t make a lot of sense."

According to Jackson, the plan for Condit was to "attack Nick’s safety zones," and stay away from situations where Diaz excels.

"He’s amazing when he gets you up against the fence," Jackson said of Diaz. "He’s amazing when he starts rolling on those combinations. So we left the party when that happened and then we started the party again and were able to land a lot more shots than he was. It’s pretty cut and dry to me. ...If you sit there and go toe-to-toe with him, man, he’s just so tough. His combinations flow so beautifully. He switches from the body to the head so well. There’s no reason for us to play that game."

And yet, despite Condit’s success in the fight, the strategy was met with criticism from many fight fans and from Diaz’s trainer, Cesar Gracie, who lambasted Condit’s game plan earlier on in Monday’s show. That reaction didn’t surprise Jackson, he said, "because Nick was supposed to win that fight. Georges [St-Pierre] was flown in and they were going to have this grudge match and everybody was excited about it."

Condit’s victory scuttled those plans, Jackson admitted, but it also provoked the ire of fans who complained that his fighter spent too much time on the retreat. The fans who want fighters to stand and slug it out is an "element that has always existed in MMA," Jackson said, but it doesn’t mean fighters have to adopt that mentality.

"A lot of people think that you can win a fight by just walking forward, and that’s actually not how you win a fight," said Jackson. "Because if that was the only way you win a fight, you’re talking about Toughman [boxing contests]."

Since fighting is "so subtle and so hard," according to Jackson, some fans might not always understand what they see, he said. Although, the Albuquerque-based trainer did admit to being a little surprised at how some people reacted to the decision even after the statistics showed that his fighter had thrown more strikes and landed more strikes than Diaz.

"This one is odd a little bit, because it’s really a no-brainer. If you look at the significant strikes, that’s got to count for something. All strikes, we outstruck him. Significant strikes, we outstruck him. So if you’re looking at numbers, that was all us. If you’re hitting him, not getting hit, and moving, I’m not really sure how you can score [the fight for Diaz]."

Of course, Condit’s win means that he’ll likely meet another Jackson-trained fighter -- UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre -- to unify the titles once GSP is finally healthy enough to fight again. That’s one he plans to stay out of, Jackson said, since "Georges is my guy as much as Carlos is my guy."

While Jackson admitted that he’s still trying to decide whether he’ll train and corner UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones in his fight with former Jackson’s MMA team member Rashad Evans, he has no such doubt about a potential Condit-St-Pierre bout.

"When the fight happens," he said, "I’ll be eating a cheeseburger somewhere."

[Kemal]

Cesar Gracie on Nick Diaz-Carlos Condit Judging: 'Perfect Storm of Incompetence'

Cesar Gracie blasted the judging of the three cageside officials charged with scoring UFC 143's main event matchup between Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit, calling the trio "a perfect storm of incompetence."

In the now controversial interim welterweight title bout, Gracie's longtime protege Diaz lost a unanimous decision 49-46, 49-46, 48-47 as scored by Cecil Peoples, Patricia Morse-Jarman and Junichiro Kamijo, respectively.

Gracie took major exception to the scoring of the first round, which many observers scored for Diaz. "I literally just got off my computer to watch that first round again," he said on Monday's edition of The MMA Hour. "And I thought, you'd have to be insane to think a guy chasing the other guy down, landing the significant punches, and running after a guy, trying to fight a guy who will not fight, that is scared to fight, and you lose? How do I tell my fighter what he should have done better? It takes two men to fight. If one guy doesn't fight, that should be a point deducted."

Gracie said that the judges' scoring might have been personal rather than unbiased.

"I don't think the judges like Nick," he said. "He comes off, he talks in the ring… Carlos was running at one point, and Nick slapped him in the face said, 'Quit running.' We were there for a dogfight. Carlos said he’d provide for the fans a dogfight, a great fight where they were going to go at it. That was not a dogfight. It takes two to make a dogfight. One guy running away is not a dogfight.

"I don't know what the judges were looking at," he continued. "They’ve never liked Nick in Vegas. They've never voted for him in a decision. The only one was the BJ Penn fight, and he almost had to kill BJ to get that one. I don't think they like his attitude, a guy that's going to go out there and talk. I think they think he's disrespectful. They're going to find a reason to judge against him. I don't think he can get fair judging in that state at all."
Judges are independently appointed by each state's athletic commission. Last Saturday night's fight marked the fifth time Diaz has fought to a decision in Nevada, and he has lost four of them. In addition to the Condit bout, he lost three-rounders to Joe Riggs, Diego Sanchez and Karo Parisyan, with all three of those bouts coming between 2004-2006.

Gracie held back on criticism of Condit, except to say that he was "disappointed" in the way he fought after promising a war, but placed the blame for that on Condit's coaching staff.

"It's one thing to avoid standing in the pocket, it's one thing to know how to dodge punches and kicks, and be somewhat elusive and have great defense," he said. "It’s another thing to turn your back and run from a fighter. That's completely different. You shouldn't be telling your fighter to fight like that. I think it's a disgrace and a shame. I've said this before: I don't like that camp. I'm not going to take that back."

After the fight, Diaz said he might be done with mixed martial arts. Gracie has yet to speak with him in any depth about his future, but said he could understand Diaz's frustration in the moment.

Some have wondered whether an instant rematch would lure Diaz back. On Monday, Condit's manager Malki Kawa told MMA Fighting that his side wasn't interested in that.

That came as no surprise to Gracie.

"Of course they're not interested in a rematch," he said. "They lost the first one."

Gracie said he has yet to hear anything from UFC officials regarding a rematch, but that he would be on board for it. One prerequisite? A new location.

"The whole judging criteria is so flawed, and that these guys don't have anyone to answer to," he said. "Once they're in there, they're not getting reviewed. You're going to get fired because you're obviously an incompetent judge? That doesn't happen. It's like the Supreme Court. You're in there for life. You can do whatever you want and you can tell everybody basically to 'F off' if they don't like it. It's a position of total power. They're making decisions that are ruining the sport and are ridiculous. No one’s going to get them out of there. It's absurd if you think about it."

[Sadix]

helemaal met gracie eens.

[R.H.]

helemaal met gracie eens.

x2

[Damian_Gray]

ik had als ik nick diaz was gewoon gezegd van jonges, die paar punten kunnen me gestolen worden, ik ga lekker met 2 ton naar huis, stuur maar n smsje als ik weer moet vechten..

[R.H.]

ik had als ik nick diaz was gewoon gezegd van jonges, die paar punten kunnen me gestolen worden, ik ga lekker met 2 ton naar huis, stuur maar n smsje als ik weer moet vechten..

Ik denk dat het als gewone man natuurlijk heel acceptabel is om ff 2 ton te vangen en laat ze maar zeggen dat je verloren hebt, maar als je echt op dat niveau vecht en traint is het toch wel even wat anders of niet dan. Diaz vecht echt niet alleen voor geld. Ik denk trouwens dat hij ook heus wel wat meer dan 2ton vangt, die 2 ton is de basis, en daar zullen nog wel een paar dikke bonussen bij op komen.

[Bromios]

helemaal met gracie eens.

Bij die bitch slap had de jury al moeten zeggen: ronde voor Diaz

Niet normaal, hij staat daar gewoon een halve minuut met zijn handen omlaag en condit doet niks.

[Kemal]

[Kemal]

[Kemal]

[Kemal]