Top 5 Opponents for Nick Diaz

I don’t know how it happened, considering how much I used to absolutely loathe him, but I’ve somehow become a fan of Nick Diaz. I think Diaz has emerged as one of the premier Welterweights in the sport, and one of Strikeforce’s best assets. He’s very controversial, but he backs it all up. Now more and more I find myself really looking forward to every single one of his fights. With that in mind, here are my top five picks for opponents I’d like to see Nick Diaz fight, regardless of promotion or availability.

5. KJ Noons

I know this could be considered cheating, since the fight has already been announced, but I’m looking forward to this fight so much that it just had to be included on this list. There’s a huge amount of bad blood between the two, to the point where both men were involved in an infamous post-fight brawl in the defunct Elite XC promotion. This fight will really put Diaz to the test and will once and for all legitimize him as one of the top Welterweights in the world.

4. Jake Shields

It’s not very likely since Shields is headed to the UFC and will probably never set foot back in Strikeforce, based on how Strikeforce mistreated him leading up to his victory over Dan Henderson, but this would be a great fight between two top Welterweights. Shields may be able to take Diaz down, but Diaz’s ground game is fantastic. Diaz also holds a significant striking advantage, but Shields has been stopped due to strikes only once in his entire career, at the very beginning of his career in fact. Both men are just starting to be taken seriously as “best in the world” athletes, so this would be an important stepping stone for whoever won.

3. Cung Le

Now this is a fight that anybody can get behind. Both men are so far removed from traditional striking that “unorthodox” barely begins to describe how they put their combinations together. Cung Le’s style looks flashy and ineffectual, when in truth it does major damage and has given Le all seven of his wins by (T)KO. Diaz’s peppering style of “punches in bunches” makes his punches seem weak, when in truth they do large cumulative damage and have given Diaz more wins by (T)KO than by Submissions and Decisions combined. I have no doubt that we’d see some seriously crazy things in this fight, so I’d love to see it happen.

2. Georges St. Pierre

Again, this is very unlikely but it’s a fantastic fight on paper. The number of natural Welterweights with good submission games that Georges St. Pierre has beaten can be counted on one hand. GSP would dominate with the takedown, but every takedown is another opportunity for Diaz to latch onto an arm or try for a choke. I even think GSP would have problems going for a takedown, given Diaz’s long reach and penchant for using it to the best of his ability. I honestly think GSP would win this one, but I’d be pulling for Nick. Also, I think Nick’s got a lot better of a shot than people like Dan Hardy and Thiago Alves, who lacked a good ground game, or people like Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck, who lacked good striking.

But my top pick simply has got to go to…

1. Jason Miller

“Mayhem” wants this fight to happen. Diaz wants this fight to happen. In regards to bad blood, it doesn’t get much badder than this. Both men just hate each other. Both men would step into the Strikeforce cage looking to seriously hurt each other, so I think they would both show up in the best shape of their lives, having gone through one of their toughest training camps ever. This could even be a champion-versus-champion fight by the time it takes place, stranger things have happened. But no matter when it goes down, look for Jason Miller vs. Nick Diaz to be an awesome, awesome fight.

So there are my picks, fans and friends. Who would you like to see face off against Nick Diaz?