It has been about six months since Nick Diaz abruptly retired for the second time in his career. Just like every MMA fan or analyst, I find it hard to believe that his fight with Georges St. Pierre was the last time will ever see him fighting inside the octagon. I’m confident that Diaz will fight again at some point especially with a major potential opportunity looming over him.
A rematch with Carlos Condit is the best option for Nick Diaz
Now I’m not saying Joe Silva will do this, but he should make an attempt at doing this. While the welterweight division is arguably the best all-around weight class in the UFC, it has had some lackluster fights that were expected to be much more thrilling. There are a lot of welterweights that are booked up right now and are set for big fights to end 2013. I’m not expecting Diaz to fight again this year, but we should see a rematch against Carlos Condit in early 2014.
We’ve seen Condit’s stock soar over the past year and half. His fights against Johnny Hendricks and St. Pierre were thrilling from start to finish. Then when he fought Martin Kampmann, it was the first time I truly heard Condit getting chants throughout the arena. The crowd in Indianapolis was fully behind him, which was well deserved. There aren’t many fighters out there that can guarantee every fight they compete in will always be entertaining.
Condit has proven he can do that, which makes me believe that it won’t be such a landside in popularity if there was a rematch. As for the fight itself, everyone knows how close the title fight was. It was truly split down the middle and it makes me want to see that rematch even more. Diaz has gone on tirades how he thinks wrestlers are ruining the sport by making fights boring. He’s tired of facing fighters that won’t “fight” him.
If he were to face Condit again, he better believe that it would be a much different fight. Diaz would have to deal with a more confident Condit, who is relentless and has evolved as a striker. He’s becoming more accurate in his boxing and still remains to be unpredictable in everything he does. You won’t see him do much “running” compared to their first fight, which is still a ridiculous claim. There is a major difference between moving to land strikes than just moving around and not attacking very often. The fight showed that Condit had the intention of trying to finish him.
We can only hope that Diaz is aware of Condit’s rise over the past year or so. He did praise him during the UFC 158 press conference, after the tremendous performance against Johnny Hendricks. Even though he sounded positive, it still remains odd to me that we haven’t heard much about Diaz possibly returning. Other than a rumored fight that was quickly squashed with Lyoto Machida, nothing has really been discussed.
The fight with Machida wouldn’t have been a good matchup considering Machida’s counter attack style and Diaz having to fight at middleweight, considering he’s one of the smaller welterweights in that division. A fight with Condit would do justice for both fighters, when you look at the matchup. Diaz can prove that he’s back and could challenge for the title once again, while Condit can diffidently prove that he is better than Diaz.
Whether you love or hate him, nobody can deny the draw that Diaz is. Whether it’s a press conference or a fight, people will watch. You can call him the lighter version of Chael Sonnen, but Diaz is more organic. He sounds authentic and doesn’t seem to do it for attention. People can get behind that and they’ve proven that by the media constantly asking Dana White about the status of his career.
He’s always been a warrior that has excellent boxing and world-class jiu-jitsu. There aren’t many welterweights that can hang with Diaz, when it comes to conditioning. Condit is one of the few fighters that can go at his pace, which is why he started winning the latter rounds in their title fight back at UFC 143. It showed how identical they are as fighters, although it didn’t produce a fight that will be remembered as a “classic”.
It has been a year and half now, which means times have changed. Diaz needs to stop being delusional thinking he could just get a rematch against St. Pierre without winning a fight or two. It has to be earned and it should start with a fight against Condit. Then the winner of their fight should face the winner of Rory MacDonald versus Robbie Lawler. None of the fighters I mentioned are wrestlers, which should appeal Diaz. Even though he should always be well respected, it’s frustrating to see a fighter of his caliber make outlandish demands that he wants in order to come back.
With the company ending the year off in a big way, they need some huge fights to start off 2014. Their won’t be a better non-title fight to set up than Carlos Condit against Nick Diaz. We may see a repeat of Diaz’s fight with Paul Daley based on the pace and non-stop action. Even though Condit isn’t anywhere near as reckless as Daley, I’m expecting him to be aggressive from the second the bell rings. You won’t see the feeling out process that seemed to last for about ten minutes in their championship fight.
There seems to be something missing in MMA without Nick Diaz still fighting. His style of fighting, talking, and being unpredictable has earned him a massive loyal fan base. Let’s hope that the UFC and his fan base can convince him to come back because he still has so much to offer to the sport. Hopefully this long break has benefited him in the long haul. A focused and rejuvenated Diaz could bring a new element towards an already talented welterweight division.
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