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Monday, Oct 29, 2012

Full Contact Fighter’s “The Daily Takedown:” Nick Diaz vs. Josh Koscheck is a Bad Fight for the UFC, Fans

Nick Diaz (right)

By Joshua Molina

Don’t book a heel vs. a heel.

It’s old-fashioned Booking 101 in pro wrestling. The fans need someone to cheer. And they really want someone to boo. But they don’t want to boo both fighters. That’s just not fun.

And even though mixed martial arts is a competitive sport, unlike pro wrestling, there’s no reason that the major companies and the UFC shouldn’t consider some of pro wrestling’s logic when booking fights.

Which is why a Josh Koscheck vs. Nick Diaz fight sometime in the New Year is a bad idea.

UFC, please don’t book this fight. Please, book Diaz in fights where his opponent is going to actually fight him, not try to outsmart in the cage. People want to see Diaz knock someone out – or get knocked out. There’s no way Josh Koscheck is knocking out Nick Diaz. Not in a million years. And there’s probably no way that Diaz would knock Koscheck out.

You are talking about a three-round fight made up of stand-up shadow-boxing and on-the-mat wrestle-humping between these two guys, en route to what would probably be a unanimous decision victory for Koscheck.

The UFC needs to book fights the fans want to see.

The UFC got the ball rolling with its Forrest Griffin vs. Anderson Silva fight, and we also now can look forward to Chael Sonnen vs. Jon Jones on April 27, 2013.

As the UFC looks to position itself for a new growth period, the company should spend 2013 looking at booking as many exciting fights that fans want to see as possible.
And no one really wants to see Koscheck battle Diaz. It would be bad for business.
The trash talk would be great. Both of these guys are first-rate talkers. They are also both hated largely by fans.

Koscheck is a great wrestler, but he is well-past his prime and will likely never win a championship. Diaz is still in his prime, but he has trouble with fighters who try to outsmart in the cage.

Diaz doesn’t need Koscheck. In fact, Koscheck can only hurt him and his future chances of getting another UFC title shot. Diaz should not take a big risk in a fight against a guy who is dangerous, yet is on the career decline.

Even though Welterweight great Georges St. Pierre destroyed Koscheck over five rounds, he still couldn’t finish him. It’s not likely that Diaz would either.

After some great trash-talking, the fight would likely be a huge disappointment once they step inside the cage. Koscheck will successfully take Diaz down, and Diaz will successfully complain the whole fight that Koscheck doesn’t want to fight his fight.

But that’s fighting. And if Diaz can’t counter a smart guy like Carlos Condit, he’s not going to be able to outsmart Koscheck, or out-wrestle him.
And what happens if Koscheck wins? Nothing. He’s not going to get a title shot. Meanwhile Diaz’s stock sinks further, and he fails deeper down the list of title contenders.

Diaz’s next fight should be against the winner of the GSP vs. Carlos Condit fight. He deserves a title shot. Let Jon Fitch fight Martin Kampmann for the title shot after that.

Koscheck should fight a guy like Erick Silva, somebody who is still on the rise.
The UFC is sitting on a pile of gold with Diaz, if they could just figure out how to market him. Booking Diaz, a heel, vs. Koscheck, another heel, just isn’t a smart move – for anybody involved.

posted by JoshuaM @ 4:52 pm
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