Wednesday 8 February 2012

Condit vs Diaz UFC 143 controversy

Saturday night's UFC 143 interim Welterweight title fight between Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit has caused quite a stir. The fight ended in a unanimous decision victory for The Natural Born Killer, Carlos Condit after a rather uneventful 5 rounds.

Nick Diaz, his camp and many fans have expressed utter exasperation at the result, fully believing that Diaz had done enough to take the nod. I personally think the decision was correct. While Diaz, who constantly pushed forward was technically the aggressor, he didn't do anything to put Condit under any real threat.

Condit used effective leg kicks and counter-punching to pepper Diaz as he lumbered forward and then cleverly spun out of danger when backed up against the cage. Though not causing much damage to the former Strikeforce champion, Condit was at least connecting. This monotony continued for the better part of 5 rounds, the only respite coming from an impressive take down and back mounting from Diaz late in the fifth, which was unfortunately too little too late.

Holistically, I think Condit was the better fighter on the night. He landed more shots and appeared to be more comfortable in the fight for the better part. Diaz did have the most notable moments of the fights with a few near submissions, but the fact that Condit escaped these and the negative position as a whole meant that at most they would earn Diaz a round.

I scored the first two rounds as even (these could have gone either way, and differed on many score cards), the third and fourth to Condit and the fifth round to Diaz (though up to the takedown I had it in Condit's favour). Though my scores do differ from those of the judges on the night, I think they got the result correct with a Carlos Condit win.

Rumours have been circling of a potential Condit vs Diaz rematch, and though the first fight does not inspire confidence that the fight would be entertaining, it is never a bad thing when two of the world's best fighters square off.

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