It appears that the UFC wants to see Georges St. Pierre fight Nick Diaz at whatever cost. According to confirmed reports, (28-5-0) Carlos Condit has “accepted” to grant (27-8-1) Diaz an immediate rematch with the UFC interim welterweight championship on the line, while GSP continues to rehab from knee surgery.
Talks of a potential Diaz vs. Condit rematch began swirling around on the Internet — obviously by fans of the former Strikeforce champ – almost immediately on Dana White’s Twitter account. In spite of the fact that Condit fought a very technical and intelligent fight, Diaz supporters were unhappy that the “Natural Born Killer” chose to circle around and reset through out the fight, rather than stand in front of Diaz and exchange with him.
On Tuesday night, White and the UFC caved into the pressure, or should I say, used the controversy to try and make St. Pierre vs Diaz happen; a fight that could be the biggest draw in UFC history in late 2012 or early 2013 — probably in Canada.
“The rumor is true,” stated UFC president Dana White via Twitter late Tuesday night. “Carlos did accept the fight today.”
I guess what bothers me the most about this situation is not only the fact that White is completely contradicting himself — after stating in his UFC 143 post-fight presser that he thought Condit had “clearly won the fight” — but more so that the UFC is allowing Diaz’s threats to retire to play a role in the match-making process.
“I’m not gonna accept the fact that this was a loss,” Diaz told Joe Rogan after the decision was announced. “I lost fight before, but I’m not gonna accept that, that ain’t right. I pushed him back the whole time, I walked him down, I got the takedown. I’m the one who was on top.
“If I would’ve thought I wasn’t ahead, I bet you anything, I would have finished that arm-lock. I think I’m done with this MMA. It’s been great out here. I’ve had a great career. You guys paid me way too much, but it ain’t enough for me to keep going in this. It’s been a good time… good job Carlos, you the man bro!
“I don’t need this [expletive],” he said after Rogan asked if he was indeed retiring from fighting. “I pushed this guy backwards, he ran from me the whole time. I landed the harder shots; he ran the whole time. He kicked me in my leg with his little baby-leg kicks the whole fight. So, if that was the way they understand a win is here, I don’t wanna play this game no more. I’ll help out my team, my brother and everybody else, but I’m don’t with this [expletive].”
Truth is that, Condit has been wanting and waiting to fight GSP just as much as Diaz has. But it would appear that the UFC is pretty much forcing Condit to fight Diaz again, in spite of the fact that the new interim champ and his camp have clearly stated they preferred to wait for GSP.
“I know [St-Pierre] wanted that Diaz fight bad, but it’s not going to be Diaz so he better get angry with Carlos Condit or focus on Carlos Condit or whatever he needs to do,” said White after UFC 143. “Carlos Condit won this fight. No matter how much Georges and Nick hate each other, Carlos Condit won, and I think the fans are mad at the way Carlos Condit fought.
“He came in with a game plan and stuck to it and won. You know what’s funny man, is that when he said that, I was thinking the same thing. It’s crazy, but. I was thinking it after the fight. You know, people are bitching and thinking it was close or whatever, we can do that fight again before GSP comes back. It depends on Carlos too, he’s really gotta say, and Nick’s gotta say, ‘I want to fight him again too.’”
The problem with that statement is that Condit and his representatives have been adamant about their desire to wait for GSP, no matter how long it takes. So what changed in White after making those comments?
Did Condit really change his mind and decided to grant Diaz a rematch, or is he being bullied and/or being put in a position where he feels he must take this fight?
“At this point, [a rematch] is not something we’re looking to do,” said Condit’s manager, Malki Kawa told MMAFighting.com just a few days ago. “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.”
And as far as the allegations that Condit ran from Diaz the whole fight and didn’t do enough to win, FightMetric stats tell a completely one-sided story. According to the official stats for this fight, Condit landed 159 total strikes to Diaz’s 117. This is the perfect example of what happens when people who have zero experience in boxing, Muay Thai, or striking in general, act like they know what the heck they’re talking about. There’s a huge difference between watching fights from a fan’s perspective, and actually understanding what is happening in the cage.
People don’t understand the skill and the conditioning it takes to do what Condit did against Diaz that night. For a guy that’s known as a finisher (13 KOs, 13 submissions, 2 decisions) to fight a disciplined fight and stick to the gameplan in the way in which Condit did was truly an amazing display, period.
“It was a performance that was excellent,” Kawa added. “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.’ 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.”
… And neither can I!
You can draw your own conclusions, I guess… in the meantime, check out the UFC 143 post-fight presser, courtesy of UFC.com:
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