Riddle me this, fight fans:
If it was Nick Diaz who came away from UFC 143 the winner of a somewhat controversial decision over Carlos Condit, would we even be considering a rematch between the two?
Chances are we’re not.
A Diaz victory would have set up the fight everyone was hoping for, including me, a battle between the former Strikeforce champion and injured UFC champ Georges St-Pierre. Chances are we wouldn’t be talking about Diaz taking another fight while St-Pierre continues to recover from knee surgery either, as no one would want to jeopardize one of the biggest possible fights of 2012.
But in the wake of Condit executing an outstanding game plan and earning a unanimous decision victory over Diaz on Saturday night, an immediate rematch between the two seems imminent. Though UFC President Dana White was non-committal about the idea, he has seemingly warmed to the idea over the last few days as the complaints from unsatisfied Diaz fans and those who wanted a toe-to-toe battle, not a strategic fight, continue to mount.
Do we need it and will it happen are two different questions.
I believe it will happen, but I think it’s the wrong decision.
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This fight wasn’t a draw, and it wasn’t a robbery.
It wasn’t even a split decision.
This was a close fight, a great fight, and one that showed the importance of formulating the right game plan and sticking to it in mixed martial arts.
All three judges scored the fight in favor of Carlos Condit. They may have differed on how many rounds he won and which rounds those were, but overall, they awarded him the victory unanimously.
So then why should he have to step back into the cage with Nick Diaz a second time?
Diaz had every opportunity to win that fight on Saturday night.
He could have changed up his approach when it became clear that Condit wasn’t going to let himself get backed into a corner or sucked into a losing toe-to-toe battle early on. He could have upped his output, tried to dragged the fight to the floor sooner, or worked harder to impose his game plan. He could have caught one of the myriad leg kicks Condit threw and tried to used that as a means of changing how the bout was being fought.
Diaz did none of these things, deciding instead to continue plodding forward, taunting Condit and trying to force him to fight his fight to no avail. He was out-struck, out-smarted, and out-scored, a trio that added up to him losing the fight on Saturday night.
I understand that people are disappointed that they didn’t get the war they expected and that Condit fought a strategic battle instead of engaging in the “dogfight” he promised in the promotional material, but doing so would have been a losing proposition. Fighting to Diaz’s strengths would have been throwing away the opportunity to become a champion and continue moving forward in his career, and to ask criticize Condit for failing to do so is preposterous.
I also accept that people were really looking forward to seeing Diaz face Georges St-Pierre. I was part of that group too, but just because it didn’t work out the first time doesn’t mean that Diaz should be given a second chance at making it happen, and that’s the precisely what the UFC would be doing in making this rematch.
You can dress it up however you want — controversial fight, best available fight, etc. — but it’s really just giving Diaz a do-over.
It’s telling him to head back to the gym and re-formulate his strategy knowing the approach Condit will take, hoping that he can make the necessary adjustments to earn the victory he failed to garner on Saturday night. Nevermind what it says to Condit or the other fighters in the division who have been working their way up the ladder in hopes of challenging for the title themselves; everyone seemingly wants GSP-Diaz, and the only way to make that happen right now is for Diaz to beat Condit.
But he had the opportunity to do that on Saturday night, and he came up short. That’s not opinion either — that’s what the record states. Just because a portion of the population disagrees, Condit should have to face him again?
Condit has done everything asked of him up to this point. He stepped up when Diaz squandered his first opportunity to face St-Pierre, and then was forced aside when Diaz was moved back into position opposite GSP after UFC 137. He was ready to take another fight to earn his way into a title shot, stepped up again to fill St-Pierre’s place opposite Diaz, and won that fight by executing the perfect game plan.
Now he should have to do it again?
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Let’s say Condit and Diaz meet again later this year — and in all likelihood it will.
Say Condit executes a similar game plan, Diaz doesn’t make the necessary adjustments, and the second fight plays out eerily similar to the first, with Condit once again winning a decision. Then what?
The Diaz camp is still going to complain about the tactics Condit used, his legion of supporters are still going to characterize it as “cowardice” and “not really fighting,” and there will still be people who want to award the fight to Diaz because he was the one moving forward the whole time, despite the fact that the statistic say Condit had the higher output of the two and the judges awarded him the victory.
We’re never going to end up with a conclusion that satisfies everyone.
The Diaz camp would only quiet down if Nick gets stopped, but no one has managed to finish him in nearly a decade. KJ Noons lucked out when he earned a doctor’s stoppage due to cuts, a point driven home when Diaz masterfully out-boxed him in the rematch. Since Cesar Gracie made it clear on Monday that he thinks judges have it out for Diaz and never score his fights fairly, they would probably complain even if Condit won a fight where the two went toe-to-toe.
In their eyes, Nick always wins, even when he loses, and especially when the other guy doesn’t “really fight.” The same can be said of his vocal legion of supporters.
And what if Diaz wins the second fight, does Condit get a rematch?
Sadly, I think we all know a rubber match wouldn’t happen, regardless of how close the second fight was, and that’s what makes this proposed rematch feel really slimy to me.
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Here’s my solution:
Just go ahead and book a Nick Diaz-Georges St-Pierre fight.
Every attempt to make this happen in the past has fallen through — first due to Diaz shirking his media responsibilities, then because of St-Pierre’s knee injury, and then because Diaz failed to win on Saturday night. Right now, it doesn’t feel like it’s going to come together naturally, so why not just put it together now under the auspice of “What the Fans Want” and call it a day?
After all, that’s what everyone is hoping for by booking Condit-Diaz 2, right?
Admittedly, it’s a slap in the face to Condit, who has earned the right to face St-Pierre when he’s healthy, but it would be no different than bumping him from the bout with GSP following UFC 137 really.
That was a “best for business” decision, so why not invoke it again here? It’s not pretty, but it’s no worse than pressing Condit into a fight he doesn’t in in the hopes that Diaz can come out victorious the second time.
Condit can move forward defending the interim title, and once St-Pierre and Diaz complete their grudge match, the two titleholders meet to unify the belts. The fans get the fight they want, Condit doesn’t have to rematch Diaz, but still gets another fight (or two), and the belts still end up getting unified in the end.
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The UFC is stuck right now.
A week after the second UFC on FOX show delivered the two high profile title bouts that most everyone wanted, the brilliant game plan crafted by Carlos Condit and his team took arguably the biggest fight of the year off the table.
Now they’re trying to put it back on the table by making a rematch between Condit and Nick Diaz, despite the fact that there really isn’t any concrete reason to do so. At best, there’s a circumstantial case for pairing them off a second time, but the evidence doesn’t support it.
The above scenario gives them a way out of their current predicament.
The problem is that going that route says wins and losses don’t matter when it comes to doing what is best for business; the bottom line trumps all.
We all know that to be true, but the UFC has never really put a fight together that can’t be explained any other way.
That’s why they’ll book Condit-Diaz II, giving the former Strikeforce champion another chance to make a fight with St-Pierre come together somewhat organically, even though there’s nothing organic about it.
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What do you think? Cast your votes:
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