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Tuesday, Mar 12, 2013

Full Contact Fighter’s “The Daily Takedown:” GSP vs. Diaz Will Come Down To Mental Toughness

UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre

By Joshua Molina

In at least one way Nick Diaz has already lost against Welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre.

He’s fighting the Canadian crusader in Montreal, Canada.

There’s home field advantage and then there’s fighting GSP in Canada.

That’s just asking for trouble. If the Lodi soccer mom got into Nick’s head, 19,000 people booing him in the Bell Centre will be hell on Earth for the Stockton bad boy.

I guess GSP can pick his fight locations, but Nick should have pushed for Las Vegas, where the crowd might have been slightly more favorable.

Diaz appears oddly defeated already. He’s essentially whining about GSP bullying him. He’s whining about getting yelled out in his backyard. He’s whining about not making as much money as GSP.

He better get out of his funk before it’s top late.

Nick is heading into the fight like a guy who’s hiding an injury, or who doesn’t believe he can win.

Where’s the Diaz who fought Frank Shamrock? Who fought Paul Daley and KJ Noons?

Nick’s acting like he’s resigned to losing.

That’s the story of Nick Diaz. He’s unpredictable. No one knows what makes him tick. No one knows which Nick will show up.

If Cesar Gracie expects Diaz to pull off the upset, Gracie better rattle the cage soon.

Jake Shields choked. Nate Diaz choked. Will Nick be the third Gracie fighter to falter in the big show?

Diaz certainly has the skills to win the fight. But with Diaz, it’s never about skills.

It’s about his head and focus. It may be that Nick simply doesn’t have the mental focus to hunker down and do what it takes to win a fight when he’s fighting an equal or slightly better fighter.

It may be that his frustration of getting controlled by a wrestler, or getting outfoxed in the standup, will always consume him in big match situations.

Nick may just be a guy who makes it look easy when it’s easy, but doesn’t know what to do when it’s hard.

We will find out Saturday night when it will be not only hard, but the most difficult professional challenge Diaz has ever faced.

posted by JoshuaM @ 7:01 pm
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