Is Nick DIaz Serious?

Training
21

Koscheck didn’t break his eye socket, GSP did that for him. With a jab, a legal strike. Then Kos went on to lose every round in a UD loss.

GSP was blinded by Shields, by an eye poke, an illegal move. He then went on to win a UD.

Significant differences there.

Also, since you wanted to look at FM stats, GSP won a 49-46 there. His offensive output twice that of Shields. You’ll also notice the bump in Shields’ stats after the eye poke (rounds 4 & 5).

I understand some of the GSP hate, because he’s not spectacular like Silva (when in the mood) or Jones, or a huge “personality” like Diaz, Brock or Page, or a reckless brawler like Wandy or Leben. Not trying to finish fights though? I don’t think that’s fair.

  • Shields: he was blinded, cut him some slack
  • Koscheck: he kept punching him in his broken face (usually does the trick)
  • Hardy: messed up his subs, but dominated and went for them
  • Alves: yeah, not even close to finishing that one, as far as I can remember
  • BJ: beat him up thoroughly, finished him
  • Fitch: hasn’t been finished in a decade.

Meh. I don’t thnk he deserves all the hate and I think the ‘GSP doesn’t try to finish’-thing has gotten traction way too fast.

22

If you take that Kos fight as an example, I think the whole world saw that GSP plaid it safe there, he didn’t really go for it and just kept peppering Kos with that jab, not mixing it up much and going for the KO. I think I remember Greg Jackson calling for him to not do that and just play it safe every time he tried to land something significant, but I may also be wrong.

Surely GSP is a great fighter, but he sure as fuck could fight more aggressive and go for the finish if he really wanted, sure it would be on expense of his face maybe getting a little messed up every once in a while, but everything comes with a price, just like exciting fights.

Can’t blame him for it though, I don’t think I would really give that much of a fuck really if I was in his position and I would just play it to my strengths (playing it safe and riding the way to easy decision) but it still doesn’t change the fact that its not really exciting and people are getting tired of it.

23

Hardy, Kos, Shields.

Those are the three fights that have made me a little tired of watching Georges. That’s it really. I don’t mind if he doesn’t finish fights. I just want him to try. When he does that, the fight is usually fucking excellent (Hughes 1/2/3, Fitch, BJ 2, Sherk, Trigg, Heiron, Mayhem… the list goes on and on).

With Hardy, he was trying new things (subs). I get that whatever.

Then Kos comes along, and I’m wondering what’s up.

I’d give him the benefit of the doubt with Shields but it’s not like he looked that much better before the poke.

24

When GSP isn’t careful, he gets caught with spinning backfists, or over commits kimuras and then gets arm-barred by Matt Hughes. When he is careful, he wins fight after fight, and keeps his belt and paycheck intact. Why in the world would he start fighting risky?

25

Want to put a card for a snooze fest?

GSP
Fitch
Tibau
Lindland
Arona
Maynard
Rashad on wrestler mode

26

[quote]borrek wrote:
When GSP isn’t careful, he gets caught with spinning backfists, or over commits kimuras and then gets arm-barred by Matt Hughes. When he is careful, he wins fight after fight, and keeps his belt and paycheck intact. Why in the world would he start fighting risky? [/quote]

Nobody is saying he should, no one would probably do it in his situation anyways, but as long as he keeps doing it his fights are going to have very little if any entertainment value outside of Canada. He has proven time and time again that he can be great at just about any aspect of this sport, so working like a motherfucker learning to do something creative on the feet without going Matt Serra all over again and learning to GnP and use submissions to his advantage shouldn’t be such an overwhelming task, maybe thats just not his strength, who knows, but it would make him a lot more interesting fighter. Simply dominating your division doesn’t make you boring, you got Andy and Fedor as a proof for that, playing it too safe does.

27

lol i just finished BJ Penn’s book “Why I Fight” for the first time i think i’m gonna root for BJ.

28

[quote]kaisermetal wrote:
lol i just finished BJ Penn’s book “Why I Fight” for the first time i think i’m gonna root for BJ.[/quote]

I love BJ he was one of the most talented bjj guys in the UFC. He is usually at odds with himself.

As for GSP he bored the fuck out of me the last few time he fought. Although I will be in Vegas for the GSP v Condit fight!

29

[quote]kaisermetal wrote:

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:

[quote]kaisermetal wrote:
who is manipulating ANY facts?

go check fight metrics and the scores round by round.

You should re-read my message at least 3 times before making that kind of wrong assumption.[/quote]

I don’t need to reread it, and the stats are skewed because HE WAS FIGHTING WITH ONE EYE. Yes, GSP puts on consistently boring, predictable fights, but what happened against Shields comes with an asterisk, because, again, HE WAS FIGHTING WITH ONE EYE.[/quote]

And Minotauro fights with one eye EVERY DAMN fight and fought Bob Sapp, when Sapp trained seriously and had beaten ERNESTO FUCKIN HOOST twice, with a serious injury on the spine.

No fighter goes 100% to fight, GSP isn’t special because of that.

Koscheck broke his eye socket, couldn’t see too and went to the decision.[/quote]

And got whooped on. The difference between Minotauro, Kos, and GSP is that GSP actually still won his fight with one eye. Look, if you don’t like GSP because he doesn’t finish fights then fine. But ragging on him for actually winning his fight with Shields and retaining his belt with one eye just doesn’t make any sense.

Winning in MMA (or any sporting competition for that matter) has a lot to do with strategy. If your opponent is incredibly skilled at one range/aspect of the fight game, then unless you are sure that you are better than them at that range (and not better at the other ones) you generally don’t want to fight them in that range, especially if you feel that you are much better at a different range.

GSP’s game plan going into that fight was to keep it standing and KO Shields, unfortunately for him he got poked in the eye early into the fight and lost his vision in that eye for the rest of the fight, thus forcing him to re-adjust his game plan to a much more conservative “don’t lose” strategy. Personally I give him huge credit for even continuing to fight that fight. An eye injury like that could have been permanent (depending on the severity) and potentially could have cut his career short if not treated promptly.

30

[quote]kaisermetal wrote:
Want to put a card for a snooze fest?

GSP
Fitch
Tibau
Lindland
Arona
Maynard
Rashad on wrestler mode[/quote]

Personally I don’t think that would be a bad card at all (granted Lindland is ancient at this point, but if we’re talking a prime Lindland). But then I appreciate the skill involved in all aspects of MMA (wrestling/control included) and am not just watching it for the finishes (though I do appreciate those as well).

31

[quote]Sentoguy wrote:

[quote]kaisermetal wrote:
Want to put a card for a snooze fest?

GSP
Fitch
Tibau
Lindland
Arona
Maynard
Rashad on wrestler mode[/quote]

Personally I don’t think that would be a bad card at all (granted Lindland is ancient at this point, but if we’re talking a prime Lindland). But then I appreciate the skill involved in all aspects of MMA (wrestling/control included) and am not just watching it for the finishes (though I do appreciate those as well).[/quote]

I want to see Fitch vs GSP II.

Arona vs Lindland would be fantastic from a grappling stand point.

Maynard would finnish Tibau I think.

Who is Rashad fighting? Actually, Evans vs Arona would be good as well.

Not trying to snipe your post kaiser. I just really think Fitch has earned another title shot and would love to see how the ground control/position war shook out between Arona and Lindland.

Regards,

Robert A

32

[quote]Robert A wrote:

[quote]Sentoguy wrote:

[quote]kaisermetal wrote:
Want to put a card for a snooze fest?

GSP
Fitch
Tibau
Lindland
Arona
Maynard
Rashad on wrestler mode[/quote]

Personally I don’t think that would be a bad card at all (granted Lindland is ancient at this point, but if we’re talking a prime Lindland). But then I appreciate the skill involved in all aspects of MMA (wrestling/control included) and am not just watching it for the finishes (though I do appreciate those as well).[/quote]

I want to see Fitch vs GSP II.

Regards,

Robert A[/quote]

Me too. Honestly I think he’s deserved a shot for quite a while now, but unfortunately for him he’s probably going to have to clean out the rest of the division before he gets another shot (due both to his prior contractual negotiations with the UFC and his “boring” style).

I’d also like to see:
Fitch vs BJ II
Fitch vs Shields
Fitch vs Kos

33

After getting kicked in the head on last sparring by a muay thai fighter i “suddenly” became a huge Jon Fitch fan and how he controls the fight pace and where the fight will take place.

34

[quote]kaisermetal wrote:
After getting kicked in the head on last sparring by a muay thai fighter i “suddenly” became a huge Jon Fitch fan and how he controls the fight pace and where the fight will take place.[/quote]

Nice…LOL

Where do you train?

35

At several gyms at Sao Paulo, Brazil.