After Georges St. Pierre‘s not-so-impressive performance against Jake Shields at UFC 129 this past April, many have been clamoring for a “super fight” pitting GSP against Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz.
Many have pointed out that some of the holes that St. Pierre displayed in his last outing with Shields would be picked up by possible a more intelligent, or rather more adept striker–such as Diaz, whom arguably holds some of the best hands in the mixed martial arts world.
And though some obstacles may be lingering in the potential for the bout, that hasn’t left people speculating the inevitable outcome. Urijah Faber, the former WEC featherweight champion and current number one contender for the UFC bantamweight title, has officially jumped on the Diaz bandwagon.
Nick Diaz has run a roughshod through all of his opposition that he has faced inside the Strikeforce cage. Since his inception into the organization, Diaz has gone undefeated, claiming the welterweight title and defending it three times over. Since his stint under the San Jose banner, Diaz has become one of the best fighters in his class and is often regarded as one of the ten best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, having the sort of boxing acumen and jiu-jitsu prowess that most fighters could only dream for.
However, are his skills enough to rival those of Georges St. Pierre?
Well, one man thinks so, and that’s none other than “The California Kid” himself, Urijah Faber.
“I’m going to go with Nick Diaz on that one, just because I don’t see GSP knocking him out”, said Faber in an interview with FiveKnuckles.com.
“He’s never been knocked out and GSP’s been more into wrestling guys. I think that from watching Diaz, he’s super, super deceiving, and is able to pressure guys and make them get tired and fatigued like no one else. It’s constant pressure, and he’s got that persistent punching style that wears guys down.”
While the opinion of Faber’s may be an unpopular one, there is no question that Diaz will at least provide GSP his toughest challenge to date. But–what do you think, MMA peeps? How will Diaz fare in a match with GSP and do you agree with Faber’s assessment of the bout? Sound off in the comment section below.
5 Reasons Why Urijah Faber Could Beat Eddie Wineland
Loading ...
Diaz’ strengths: great boxing, sick jiu-jitsu, excellent cardio (mostly due to his triathlon training), and he’s extremely tough to finish. That being said, GSP can still win this fight easy by taking the dude down the entire 5 rounds and keeping him there. GSP has no problem avoiding submissions and applying some ground-and-pound. He could even do it to great submission specialists like BJ Penn, Matt Serra (2nd fight), Jon Fitch, and Jake Shields. He won’t have trouble applying that same strategy to Diaz either.
To the people saying “Nick won’t let this be a boring fight” I seriously hope you’re right, but I’m not getting my hopes up because I don’t think Nick will even get a chance to make this exciting for us (unless he knocks out GSP early). Nick’s takedown defense really isn’t that good. Paul Daley is NOT a good wrestler and even he was able to take Diaz down in the first round. Most of Diaz’ recent opponents have been great strikes with decent jiu-jitsu, not the best wrestlers though (except for Sakurai). When Diaz was in the UFC he had a lot of trouble with wrestlers. I’m sure he’s gotten better in that aspect since then but we’ll never know til he fights a world class wrestler like GSP.
I agree Diaz is a lion in the cage and GSP knows that Diaz stand up is superior than his and GSP is going try and dominate Diaz with his take downs and ground and pound Diaz is not like any fighter GSP has faced Diaz will fight to the death even if he is taken down that’s what makes this fight all the more interesting to watch GSP never fought a fighter like Diaz is a fighter that can actually take the fight to GSP with his aggressive style i agree this fight will go to decision who will win i have to give the fight to GSP but will not be a boring fight this time Diaz will not let that happen expect an all out war this an Epic Battle of Champions
Are you kidding me? I know exactly how this fight will play out….you will and absolute mix of the GSP BJ II fight, GSP Alves fight, and the GSP Hardy fight. He’s going to lean on him agains the cage for round or two to ware out his arms. During round 3 and 4 he will take him down at will and ground in pound him out for another decision.
True, true. Hopefully Dana White can make this fight happen so we can see how it goes down
True, true. Hopefully Dana White can make this fight happen so we can see how it goes down
@Roussean
Yeah, to compare Diaz to fighter he was in his first outing with Jeremy Jackson to the fighter he is now is like comparing night and day. And I’m in the same boat as you—I think Diaz has the style to give GSP a lot of problems, and he’s probably more dangerous all around, however St. Pierre has proven that his takedowns are always the equalizer and he could very well win the fight in that fashion. But a boring fight? I don’t think so. Diaz’ style wouldn’t allow for that, as he will be pressing the action for the full duration of the bout.
Technically Diaz has been TKO’d early in his career (by Jeremy Jackson) but that was back in the day, Diaz certainly has a strong chin right now. He’s got much better boxing than St. Pierre, arguably better jiu-jitsu as well, but we’ve seen Diaz lose fights by being taken down over, and over, and over again for 3 (or in this case 5) straight rounds. Look at his fights with Sanchez, Riggs, and Sherk. And St. Pierre has WAY better takedowns than those guys, and has better ground-and-pound and grappling ability than those guys as well. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely wanna see this fight happen, I’m a huge Nick Diaz fan, and the fight makes total sense. I’m just saying don’t be shocked if it’s another boring fight where St. Pierre wins by decision from constant take downs and ground smothering, unless Nick can pull off an amazing submission from his guard.