That pissed me off, I hope he regrets not being more aggressive at the end. What a stupid move.
I don’t know. I’d have to watch again, but he definitely did not look good last night. Leon was obviously dominant and makes everyone look bad, but Nate really didn’t throw many strikes throughout the course of the fight. When I was watching I honestly thought it was the worst he had ever looked.
This Nate looked unbeatable that night
To piggy back. If Im the UFC Im hoping Conor loses to Dustin. Setting up Conor/Diaz 3 at 155 and Masvidal/Nick at 170. If Conor beats Nate you can do Conor vs Nick (no matter the outcome of Nick/Masvidal) or Conor vs Masvidal but I doubt they do Conor dirty like that
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For you and a few others on this thread, I don’t think I was clear enough: I do not think Nate has ever been a good WW. I think he was a journeyman at best.
So, the point of the thread is that by staying in there with Edwards – and looking better than guys like RDA – I think it was his best performance at WW. But, it’s a very low bar.
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I felt the same about Nick in Round 3 v. GSP.
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His best performance? No idea. Nate Diaz has lost more fights that he’s won, so as much as I’d hoped for him to win, he looked exactly like a guy that’s lost over 50% of his fights and takes years off between fights.
I completely disagree. Conor vs Nate will happen, but that’s a fight he UFC can put together whenever they want. Nate has lost 3 of his last 4, and could lose to Poirier and Masvidal by decision over the next 6 months, and still be a sellable fight against Conor.
If we’re talking about maximizing a guy’s value, they 100% want Conor to win. That way he can fight Oliveira for the belt next and sell a ton of PPVs there too. If he wins, great…the most popular guy in the sport is a champ again. If he loses, Oliveira gets mega exposure and likely gains popularity.
I’ve been saying this since immediately after Conor/Diaz 2, they don’t make Conor vs Diaz 3 until Conor is out of options…and what I mean, until he’s out of big fights to sell. If he loses to Poirier, I think we’re just about at that point. You can’t really headline a PPV with Conor vs Dan Hooker. However, if he beats Dustin then loses to Oliveira, you can still throw Conor in a big fight against one of the other top 2-3 guys, because he’d still be viewed as a top contender having beat Dustin and just having fought for the belt. If Conor then loses to…IDK Gaethje or Chandler, then he’s likely looking at Diaz.
Basically, as soon as Conor loses 2 in a row that aren’t title fights, we get the Diaz fight regardless of how long it takes. It could be Dec 2021, it could be 2023…it really depends on how Conor does…and I think the 3rd Diaz fight is Conor’s last fight. He wants to go out on a high, not losing to a contender like Islam Makhachev.
I think this is right. Conor as champion is great for the UFC not just because their biggest star would be a legit champion (beating DP and then Olivera means that title is as legit as they come), but because of the matchups: Chandler, Gaethje, RDA, Holloway, Islam, etc.
Conor v. Nate is interesting no matter where these guys are in their career. The one place I disagree is that I see one route to Conor/Nate 3 that doesn’t involve Conor being out of options. If Conor became champ, I could see them fast tracking Nate to a title shot at 155. Imagine Conor wins the belt and they give Nate, say, Olivera, and Nate wins. Then, you’ve got a title fight for the trilogy and one of the highest selling PPVs of all-time.
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Very possible, but I think it’s more likely they play the Khabib angle, and fast track Makhachev. If Conor is talking all kinds of shit about Khabib and stops Makhachev, there’s tons of speculation around Khabib coming back, and if he ever did for a Conor rematch, that breaks their previous record…and the Makhachev PPV sells too because he was on of the guys in the brawl, Conor talks shit about that too, so I think the actual PPV sells too.
I don’t think we ever see Nate fighting for the belt at 155 regardless of who the champion is, because I don’t think he ever makes 155 for a non-title fight. He’d rather fight Masvidal, or Dustin at 170, maybe even Colby because he knows the Conor fight is always there.
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Yup, I get it Wiggs…it was just that one punch tho wasn’t it? So even if that one punch accounts for a better performance than the o her 3 fights, it’s still not saying much IMO …as u said maybe the same as in it’s a very low bar. Did he get anything going at all over an extended sequence and not just one time catch against the other 3? I don’t think he ever hurt the others …
Nate Diaz is tough as nails and never in a boring fight. That being said, he’s a gatekeeper at this point and will probably go down as one of the most overrated fighters in UFC history. Dude currently has a 61 percent winning percentage in his MMA career. He landed a great left to give him a chance to win a fight he was dominated in for almost 5 full rounds. That was not a competitive fight whatsoever though.
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Yeah, I’m a Nate fan but that could be true. While many of his losses are decisions, he has a style that can be consistently out matched (like Nick) and even if he and Nick are hard to finish, they also are both not able to do much at times against top opposition (behind just getting neutralized). Due to his cult, he does seem to have a much greater impression of accomplishments and abilities than what he has actually done.
The Connor fight really propelled him and he capitalized - good for him but he’s just not that good at the end of the day.
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When you say he’ll go down as one of the most overrated fighters in UFC history…to whom? I’ve said for YEARS that Nick Diaz is overrated, but this board is filled with people who thought he could easily come back and win the belt…a belt he never won, and only fought for once when he was coming off a loss because he talked a ton of shit.
I don’t think Nate’s legacy will be as an overrated fighter. He has wins over former champions like Pettis and Conor, and I think he’ll be remembered as an exciting and popular fighter who could have won the title if he was given the right title fight. Similar to Cowboy Cerrone, except a slight tier above him. I’m not a huge Nate fan, but it’s pretty obvious he can compete with the top guys. He may not win them all, but he’s competitive in all of them.
As for him winning the belt…not that he earned the shot, but if he fought Eddie Alvarez for the belt instead of Conor, I think that’s a good matchup for Nate stylistically. Shit, if Nate vs Conor 3 took place immediately after Conor won the belt instead of Conor fighting Floyd, it’s possible Nate wins there too. Nate won the first one, and the second one could have gone either way.
The problem with Nate is his fight IQ. He’s so concerned with “keeping it real” that he doesn’t try hard enough to fucking win. He tries to beat the other guy up, but doesn’t seem to care about scoring points for the judges. Him talking in the post fight press conference about how “if that was in the street…” plays into his tough guy character, but dude really believes it. He’d rather lose a fight the way he did than win one the way Leon did…and instead of seeing Leon is hurt and swarming for the finish, he points at him, talks shit and lets him circle away.
If he swarms for the TKO, it’s the biggest story in sports right now and he’s jumping the line for a title fight, no doubt. It would have been a huge, viral moment…but instead he’s talking about “if that was in the streets…” and hoping he gets a big money fight. That’s 100% his problem, and the reason he wouldn’t have ever won a belt. He wouldn’t have put together enough wins in a row to justify the fight. After the second Conor fight dude would have needed one win over anyone, doesn’t matter who, and he’s fighting for the belt…but he’d rather argue about $ and stay out of the cage a while.
So I think Nate will ultimately be remembered as a top tier fighter who could have won the belt if his career path played out a little differently, and people will ignore the terrible fight IQ, and all the decisions he lost to guys he should have beaten.
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And in fairness to Leon he did look to end the fight a few times.
Sort of. He definitely threw some heat out there at times, but only when he felt very safe to do so.
Leon’s risk aversion seems to get in the way of killer instincts, which is nearly completely opposite of Diaz’s style; he only commits when he feels completely safe to do so.
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I can’t disagree too much with that. But I feel he’s still more aggressive with his striking than adesanya. I was speaking more to his attempts to take Nate’s neck though.
I agree, and I’m not saying Leon did anything wrong. I’m saying that if Nate has to choose between being the guy who landed more punches, clearly won the grappling, and clearly won the fight but got hurt bad in the last 60 seconds and looked to be nearly finished…or the guy who lost every round, but almost won it late…Nate would rather be the guy who lost the fight, but had him hurt bad at the end.
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