The Greatest MMA News Column 02.07.12: UFC 143 Thoughts

Posted by Dan Plunkett on 02.07.2012

From Carlos Condit's controversial win to Nick Diaz's supposed retirement, 411's Dan Plunkett gives his thoughts on UFC 143! Plus, news and thoughts on Dan Henderson waiting for his title shot, UFC PPV dates, and more!



UFC 143: Diaz vs. Condit Thoughts

For the first time in four years, a new UFC welterweight champion was crowned on Saturday night. Well sort of at least. Carlos Condit and Nick Diaz fought for the interim welterweight title because champion Georges St-Pierre is sidelined until late in the year due to a torn ACL. So, in reality, the interim title means nothing because St-Pierre won't be out for too long, plus the UFC could have just made it a five round fight without creating a title, so it was really only done for promotional purposes. At the end of the night, Carlos Condit, the last WEC welterweight champion before the company's upper weight divisions folded into the UFC, had the gold around his waist. Whether or not it should have been around his waist has been hotly debated since the fight ended.

The fight, which I thought was very good, was quite close. The only round in which there was an indisputable winner in my view was the fourth round for Carlos Condit. Rounds one through three and the fifth round were all reasonably close. I scored the fight 48-47 for Condit, and judging the fight as a whole would have given it to him as well. This is really one of those instances where either fighter could have taken the decision and I wouldn't have complained about it, but fans of Diaz have been quite vocal in their opposition of the official decision.

I've read many accounts of the fight that came to the conclusion of Diaz should have won because Condit ran the entire fight and Diaz pressed the action. Essentially, they're saying it boils down to the oft-misunderstood "Octagon control" and aggression. Really, neither of those things should be included in the criteria used to judge fights, because it plays up the grossly false notion that the guy moving away is somehow losing the fight. Plus, there's really no place for them when everything can fall under effective striking and grappling. It's been proven over and over again, by Chuck Liddell, Lyoto Machida, and Condit on Saturday night that you can absolutely win a fight while backing up and moving around. Condit's strategy for the fight was top notch; Nick Diaz has won so many of his fights by cornering his opponent against the cage and battering them with punches, so Condit decided he would move around so that didn't happen to him. So really, Nick Diaz wasn't able to control the Octagon and do what he wanted to do while Condit did exactly what he wanted to do much of the time. And it's not as though Condit was just backing up to avoid that one facet of the fight, had that been the case he would have lost. He was striking very well, out-landing Diaz throughout the fight, and made many of Diaz's strikes miss.



That's not to say Diaz's strikes weren't successful at all, because it they were at certain points; Condit had a great strategy and executed it well, but he didn't completely shut down Diaz's game. There is nothing wrong with thinking Nick Diaz won the fight, but Condit's movement is not a legitimate reason for thinking Diaz won the fight.

After the fight, Nick Diaz openly contemplated retirement due to his frustration with the judges' decision. It's not unheard of for a top-level fighter in their prime to openly talk of retirement after a disappointing fight, but they always come back and nobody ever believes their retirement talk in the first place. But Nick Diaz isn't a usual fighter or person, so I wouldn't be shocked if he actually retired, but I don't expect that to happen.

The subject of a rematch has come up a number of times since the fight, and I would be open to that. I thought the fight was close enough and good enough to warrant a rematch, and the fan reaction on the decision would seem to make one more likely. I don't think the UFC would mind a rematch, because Condit's win cost them millions of dollars from the potential Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz match that may have turned into their biggest show of the year. If an immediate rematch doesn't happen, St-Pierre vs. Diaz is out the window for this year. With a rematch, if Condit wins, in theory it would make him a more viable challenger for St-Pierre, but for that to happen he would have to win decisively. If Diaz wins, the UFC gets their money match and I don't think it would be hurt by Saturday's result. The problem here would be getting Condit to agree to the fight because it's a very risky move for him and he may not feel like there is anything to settle in a rematch. If a rematch is the decision they reach, the May 5th FOX show could use the fight, though the censors would have a heart attack with Nick Diaz fighting on network television.

Fabricio Werdum looked good in defeating Roy Nelson by decision. Werdum beat up Nelson everywhere the fight went. Early in the fight he got hold of Nelson's back, but to "Big Country's" credit he escaped to his feet. Werdum's stand-up also looked very good in this fight, but then again he was facing Nelson who tends to get hit a lot. It will be interesting to see where Fabricio settles in in the UFC heavyweight picture. He's certainly improved since he was last seen with the company in 2008 when he was one of the best heavyweights on the roster, but the division has also improved considerably since then. With Cain Velasquez and Frank Mir likely fighting each other next, I think Shane Carwin would make a good opponent for Werdum.

Perennial welterweight contender Josh Koscheck won a close decision over Mike Pierce. We've known this for quite some time, but in this fight it was really clear that Koscheck is by no means a great striker. He has some really good knockouts over Dustin Hazelett and Yoshiyuki Yoshida, but that doesn't make him a great striker. He's a very talented wrestler with knockout power. I scored the first two rounds for Mike Pierce, but they really could have gone either way. The third round was Koscheck's. Perhaps the biggest thing to take away from this fight is that Mike Pierce can compete with the best in the division, but that was somewhat apparent when he fought Jon Fitch two years ago as well.

Renan Barao solidified his spot as the top bantamweight contender not named Urijah Faber with a decision win over former title challenger Scott Jorgensen. I did expect this fight to be better, but that's the way it goes. It was a great performance from Barao – one that would really sell him as a title challenger – but it was a decisive win over a high level fighter.

In the pay-per-view opener, Ed Herman pulled off a second round submission over Clifford Starks. The win marks Herman's third in as many fights since coming back from a two year layoff due to injury, which may or may not be a sign that Dustin James sold his soul to the devil.

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NEWS!



Dan Henderson wants to wait for title shot. One of the sport's all-time greats, Dan Henderson apparently wants to sit on the sidelines and wait for his light heavyweight title shot. Henderson has won four fights in a row over Renato Sobral, Rafael Cavalcante, Fedor Emelianenko, and ‘Shogun' Rua. Considering Henderson's age, 41, that is a ridiculous late-career stretch. He won the first three fights by some form of knockout, and the latter fight is arguably the best mixed martial arts fight of all-time. All of that will make his eventual title shot a fairly big fight, though not as big as the upcoming Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans fight. Henderson has never really drawn well on pay-per-view, though at one point a rematch against Anderson Silva would have done reasonably well. For Henderson, the money is in the title fight, not a contender fight in the interim. His last fight did about 290,000 buys in North America while a title fight against Jon Jones would likely do 500,000 buys in that market. As a fighter that gets a cut of pay-per-view revenue, that difference is somewhat significant. That's not even mentioning the fact that a loss would probably take him out of the title hunt for a while, and at 41-years-old that's too long of a time. Adding a UFC title to Dan Henderson's career would put him in strong discussion as the greatest fighter of all-time, though I would still place him behind Anderson Silva and probably Georges St-Pierre. On the flip side, if he ends up sitting on the sidelines waiting for a title shot too long it could hurt his performance when it comes time to fight. But ultimately, I think Henderson is making a good decision for his career.

UFC reserves MGM Grand Garden Arena for May 26 and July 7 shows. There's nothing especially notable about these shows; they're just the traditional Memorial Day Weekend and Fourth of July Weekend events. Along with the New Year's Weekend and Super Bowl Weekend shows, they're the four big Las Vegas shows the UFC runs yearly. One of these shows will likely be headlined by the heavily anticipated heavyweight title match between Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem, which will be an interesting show from a business perspective because the entire first FOX show was built to lead to the fight between the winners of dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez and Overeem vs. Brock Lesnar. According to FrontRowBrian, who is far more of a reliable source than his message board handle would seem to indicate, the heavily rumored Cain Velasquez-Frank Mir fight is on tap for the Memorial Day Weekend show. It will be interesting to see what kind of main event the UFC can scrape together for that show, because they couldn't find one better than Nate Diaz vs. Jim Miller for a the FOX show three weeks earlier. If Hatsu Hioki wins at UFC 144 and agrees to do a quick turnaround, he could challenge Jose Aldo for the featherweight title in the main event, but that's a tough sell. Depending on how long The Ultimate Fighter is scheduled to run for, it could also be headlined by Dominick Cruz vs. Urijah Faber for the bantamweight title. The only other possible title fight for that show would be the interim welterweight title, which would be Carlos Condit against Nick Diaz, Johny Hendricks, or the Diego Sanchez-Jake Ellenberger winner.

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That's it for this week. Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed it. You can join 115 others and follow me on Twitter if you please. Feel free to leave feedback in the comment box or at the e-mail address below.