The Doggy Bag: Now With More Nick Diaz!

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To all the naysayers of the Condit-Diaz fight: Carlos Condit kicked Diaz in the face. Multiple times. There is no argument about sports here. If it was any fighter other than Diaz, we would be talking about Condit’s new highlight reel. That is all. -- Mel from Brooklyn

Mike Whitman, news editor: Honestly, I would be surprised if isolated sections of that bout did not make it into Condit’s next highlight reel. The high kicks, the spinning elbow attempts, the low kicks that landed solidly -- those all look good, especially against a fighter the caliber of Diaz, even if the damage dealt by the blows was minimal.

However, those snippets do not tell the whole story. Whether you believe Condit or Diaz won is inconsequential and mostly boils down to what you value in a fight. The only truth about those five rounds is that they were tough to score.

Condit supporters will point to the New Mexican’s excellent use of footwork and timing to stop Diaz’s volume punching before it started. Diaz fans will return fire with claims that Condit ran away for the majority of the fight, refusing to truly engage and exchange with Diaz -- essentially refusing to fight in the most basic sense of the word.

No matter who you were rooting for, it would be hard to argue that the fight delivered what was expected. The reason many fans were hyped for the bout was the fact that Georges St. Pierre’s conservative-but-dominant wall of strategy was left on the sideline. Instead, two violent, hungry finishers would step in the cage and lay it all on the line.

Instead, fans saw a fighter known as the “Natural Born Killer” use an intelligent strategy to neutralize his opponent’s aggression. Though Condit threw a few shots with bad intentions, he essentially seemed to be point-fighting and looking to win rounds, something he accomplished in the minds of the cageside judges.

Meanwhile, Diaz continually followed his man instead of cutting him off, repeatedly taunting Condit while appearing frustrated with his opponent’s unwillingness to kill or be killed. While that may have been a fair reaction considering the type of fight that Diaz and much of the MMA community expected, Condit cannot be solely blamed.

It takes two to tango, and Diaz seemed content to stalk his foe. It should be noted that Diaz and his corner believed he was the one winning rounds, and the result was Diaz walking forward but not unleashing hell.

If Diaz truly wanted to win by attrition, he had plenty of opportunities to turn up the heat and try to overwhelm Condit with combinations. With such a massive gas tank, Diaz would have been wise to try to break Condit when it became clear that the fighter was making a conscious effort to conserve his energy and avoid a dogfight. That does not mean that the bout was not highly competitive and at many points tough to score.

If you want to criticize Diaz for not picking up his work rate despite believing he was ahead on points, fine, but insinuating that someone is drinking Stockton Kool-Aid simply for expressing an opinion differing from your own after a decision as contentious as Condit-Diaz is crazy.

Continue Reading » Page Four: A ’Rush’ of Emotion