He can defo stop Diaz
TDK. No doubt. Can't see it though... Don't think he'll handle Diaz's never back down type style. Diaz is gonna be in his face throwing constant punches at him. Can see Diaz wearing him down and submitting him at some stage.
GSP is pissed off mate. Pissed off GSP = 1 Dangerous fighter. You'll only see the great man vs Diaz if Diaz wins at the weekend!
If
Nick Diaz Wins…
Everything rests on when Georges St-Pierre will be ready to return.
Dana White said last week that his rehab was ahead of schedule, and hinted that St-Pierre could come back in the summer, but that seems a bit too quick. GSP has said an autumn return is more likely.
If St-Pierre remains on schedule, the smart move is to keep Diaz out of the cage until he can face St-Pierre. A meeting between the two is what everyone wants — save for Carlos Condit — and it would be too much of a risk to have Diaz take a fight in the interim. A Diaz vs. St-Pierre match-up is the most compelling and marketable bout that exists in the welterweight division right now, and arguably the only fight that seems to interest the injured champion, so preserving that pairing should be the first choice.
With UFC on FOX 2 delivering the two marquee main events most people were hoping for — Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans and Chael Sonnen-Anderson Silva Part II — getting a third monster main event on the schedule for later in the year would be the best case scenario.
That being said, if St-Pierre’s recovery is compromised in any way — even by a month or two — you have to keep the division moving forward. The reason an interim title was created in the first place was because the reigning champion was going to be sidelined for an extended period of time, so sticking the interim champ on the shelf for close to a year afterward makes little sense.
Whoever wins the UFC on FUEL TV main event match-up between Jake Ellenberger and Diego Sanchez would be the best choice to challenge Diaz for the title first.
If Ellenberger wins, he pushes his winning streak to six and presents an opportunity for Diaz to avenge his teammate Jake Shields’ 53-second loss to “The Juggernaut.” Should Sanchez come away with the victory, he’ll have put together a trio of wins that consists on Ellenberger, Martin Kampmann, and Paulo Thiago. Regardless of your take on the decision in the Kampmann fight, that’s a solid trifecta. Plus, Sanchez got the better of Diaz way back in November 2005, and you can be sure that Diaz would love to try and avenge that loss.
One curveball to consider in all this is the suggestion made earlier in the week by Diaz’s coach/manager Cesar Gracie, who said he would prefer his charge face St-Pierre in his next welterweight appearance, but hinted that a one-fight move up to middleweight might be a way to keep Diaz from being on the sidelines for too long.
There is no reason for the UFC to allow such a thing to happen.
While waiting on St-Pierre makes perfect sense, having the interim champ sitting on the belt, but taking a fight up in weight to stay active. A win for Diaz against a middle of the pack middleweight doesn’t really do anything to increase the interest in a bout with St-Pierre — it’s already the fight the fans want to see the most. Should he lose, it takes some of the shine off of his star, and coming into the long-awaited meeting with GSP off a loss could be difficult to work around.
Should Diaz emerge victorious on Saturday night, his immediate future will be tied to St-Pierre’s recovery. If he stays on course, Diaz stays on the sidelines. If something goes wrong, Diaz should defend the belt.
If
Carlos Condit Wins…
The smartest decision would be to capitalize on the momentum gained from beating Diaz and get Condit into the cage again, regardless of when St-Pierre is scheduled to return.
Just about everyone expects Saturday’s contest to be an exciting affair — a potential Fight of the Year contender. Condit is the odd man out right now — lots of people hope he loses to preserve Diaz vs. GSP — and scoring a win over Diaz in an entertaining scrap isn’t really going to change that. The only way to bolster interest in a potential Condit vs. St-Pierre match-up is to keep rolling “The Natural Born Killer” into the cage, hoping that he continues to win in spectacular fashion.
Condit’s camp has made no bones about their desire to keep fighting regardless of St-Pierre’s status, and since the interest level in a bout between the injured champion and the interim champion isn’t all that great right now, why not see if Condit can build some more interest in the bout by putting away another solid contender?
The winner of the Ellenberger-Sanchez fight should still be Option #1 in that scenario.
One other possibility for Condit would be a rematch with Rory MacDonald, provided the young Canadian gets through Che Mills at UFC 145 in April. The two combined to win Fight of the Night honours at UFC 115 in Vancouver, with MacDonald taking it to Condit through the first two rounds before Condit battled back to earn a late third-round stoppage. The 22-year-old British Columbia native has shown a great deal of improvement since then, and many believe he is the future of the welterweight division, which could push the UFC to move in a less conventional direction.
Condit fought just once in 2011, and has now waited eight months to get back into the cage. Should he emerge victorious on Saturday night, putting him back on the shelf for another six-to-eight months makes little sense.
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