The Blueprint 2.04.12: Camp Condit
Posted by Patrick Mullin on 02.04.2012
What is the ideal training camp for Carlos Condit to get a victory against Nick Diaz? 411's Patrick Mullin takes a look at the physical and mental preparations neccessary for the decided underdog to score the win!
Let me welcome you ladies and gentleman to another edition of Jimmy the Greek's favorite MMA column, The Blueprint! You want to know who's going to win? You learn here. We've gone 5-1 so far and this week is a bit of a different approach to our usual column. You see if you listen to 411 Ground and Pound Radio every Sunday morning at 11am EST(and if you aren't you're missing out big time!) you know by now that I really think it's a foregone conclusion that Nick Diaz is going to beat Carlos Condit. So you're saying well wait a minute there Pat, you've said that with the right preparation any fighter can beat another. Yes I have said that. My issue is that I don't see that happening for Carlos Condit with this fight.
That poses the question, well then how would YOU prepare Carlos Condit if you were Greg Jackson in this instance? Firstly let me say I have all the respect in the world for Greg Jackson and his ability as a trainer. His success as a trainer in the premier MMA promotion in the world tells you just how good the man is at what he does. There are things that I see in some of his fighters that warrant improvements however and so we're going to armchair quarterback the training camp for Carlos Condit as if I was running it. No disrespect intended toward you Greg Jackson. I think you're great.
Psychological Warfare
One of the most important and overlooked things about a fight is what happens outside the cage. Nick Diaz is a master of the art of the psych out. He is a savant at getting into his opponent's mind before a fight via his trash talk and abrasive actions at press conferences, weigh ins, and basically any function with cameras or an audience. Nobody has really ever tried to answer him back in that regard. His opponents tend to not put up a fight because they feel that they can't really get to him mentally. I've never understood why this school of thought exists, and there's one theory I've always really felt would make Nick so angry that he would potentially forget any type of strategy and just look to hurt you.
One of the first things you do when you put together a training camp for a specific opponent is trying to line up sparring partners who can mimic the style of your opponent well. Who mimics Nick Diaz's style better than his younger brother Nate? Now do I expect Nate to agree to be a sparring partner? No, that's not my objective. I imagine Nate will curse you out over the phone as well he should if you think that little of his character or how much his family may not matter to him. You'll anger him by showing him that you believe he can be bought off like that. The desired effect though is that in his fury he will describe to Nick the underhanded tactic you tried, to use Nick's own family against him in order to better prepare to fight him. Wouldn't you be incensed to find out that in order to prepare for you that your opponent tried to buy off your closest family member in the world, your brother?
Now you've gotten Nick Diaz ANGRY. The next step? Humiliate him. One of the great psychological ploys of Muhammad Ali, the all time master of psychological warfare, was to drive around the hometown of arch rival Joe Frazier and use a loudspeaker to denounce him to the public while calling him out in crowded public areas. Nobody is prouder to be from anywhere than Nick Diaz is to be from Stockton, California. Stockton was voted at one point by USA Today as the most miserable city in America, so go there with some body guards and make sure Nick Diaz isn't going to be around that day. Drive around the town for an hour calling him every name under the sun and talk about what you're going to do to him when you meet in the cage February 4th. Then fly back to New Mexico like a thief in the night before Nick gets back. When Nick Diaz gets back to town from a hard day of training and hears that you ran his name through the mud on HIS turf? Mission accomplished because he'll want blood right there and then.
The Hard Work Begins
Okay now that we've gotten Nick Diaz in the mindset we wanted him to be in its time for us to put a great camp together. So we're going to bring in real sparring partners to mimic Nick's style. We'll get some taller fighters who like to fight at a distance and throw a lot of not overly hard shots other than a stiff jab and about every third or fourth shot is a heavy one. If we can we're going to bring in guys who've sparred with Nick Diaz to really give us a good idea as to what's coming at us. Despite his BJJ skills Nick has really fallen in love with the stand up game and let's be honest he's done really great with it.
He's beaten guys who no one really gets the better of standing up. Nobody ever outstruck Paul Daley the way Nick did, let alone finish him via strikes. He clearly outboxed a guy with 14 professional boxing matches in KJ Noons in their rematch. BJ Penn was proclaimed by 5 time BWAA trainer of the year Freddie Roach as the man with the best boxing in MMA and he was absolutely outpunched by Diaz. In order to be ready you need to spar hard with high level professional boxers to the point where you don't necessarily have to be able to get the better of them but you do need to be able to keep up with them and not look lost.
That being said we cannot ignore grappling. Even though he spent the majority of his fight against Evangelista Santos standing up and trading, Nick finished him rather effortlessly with an armbar and Santos is a black belt. Carlos Condit has been controlled on the ground by guys who aren't known for their grappling skills in Martin Kampmann and to an extent Jake Ellenberger. Yes Kampmann's grappling is underrated but if he can control you than Diaz can tie you in knots. This needs to be remedied as soon as possible in order to avoid defeat.
In all likelihood Carlos is going to be the guy trying to initiate this fight going to the ground and part of being a trainer is recognizing these things ahead of time and seeing the limitations in your fighter. While there are good wrestlers and good submission artists in my camp I want to bring in outside help on this one. I would probably ask Fabricio Werdum to come and train seeing as how he has a fight on the same card and give him the run of my facilities and fighters if he would agree to help Carlos with his BJJ defense. Werdum is a high level black belt and I would completely trust him to teach Carlos to recognize the traps a guy like Nick Diaz can lead him into.
At the same time I would look to getting in a high level wrestler with good top control. In most of Nick Diaz's losses he was held in check on the ground by good wrestlers. In fact one of those guys is at my disposal in Diego Sanchez. Now while Nick has made improvements in his game since the Sanchez fight, Diego is a relentless wrestler who is nearly impossible to work against when he has top position and not only can he help you develop good top control practices and skills to apply during the fight, but he can also help you look out for things Diaz likes to do based on having actually fought Nick Diaz. Hands-on experience applies tremendously here when dealing with a fighter as good as Nick Diaz and you need all the help you can get.
Finishing Touches
The little things that are often overlooked in camp can prove to be the x-factors that wind up winning fights. In this case I would have Carlos work his cardio non-stop. Diaz is known for his extreme stamina and you have to be able to match that and not be looking for the Shell answer in the clutch. Train at high altitude, run 5-7 miles in the morning, and do line drills every day (for those unfamiliar with them, line drills are a series of sprints where you run a further distance with each successive sprint and finish the sprints by being hit with a four punch combination to the body from a different fighter at each sprint level).
On that same end strengthen Condit's legs with having him working the stationary bike on its most difficult setting, actively work leg kick offense on the focus mitts for several rounds, and spend rounds in the cage just working lateral movement and takedown feints. Carlos' best offensive option when standing in this fight is to work leg kicks. His Muay Thai is his striking preference and Nick Diaz just does not check leg kicks. If you can really beat up Diaz's legs you can take the power off of his punches and kill his movement making him a stationary target for strikes and takedowns.
End Game
If Carlos Condit followed this plan I feel that he would be able to secure a unanimous decision victory against Nick Diaz. While the first two rounds would be close the gameplan in place along with the work put in during training camp and the head game played with Nick would allow for Carlos to control the fight by remaining calm against a very aggressive Diaz who he has prepared well defensively for. As Sun Tzu said, "If the enemy is angry, irritate him." This irritated Diaz will be all about offense and your defensive training will allow you to be prepared for anything thrown at you while his own defensive liabilities will open the door for your offensive success.
However I am not Greg Jackson and I do not run his training camp. This is why I will stick to my initial prediction that Nick Diaz will win this fight in the third round via TKO.
