Full Contact Fighter Database

Home

>

News

>

Article

Media

Saturday, Mar 30, 2013

Full Contact Fighter’s “The Daily Takedown:” Nick Diaz and Andrei Arlovski Need To Move On

Andrei Arlovski (right) lost a unanimous decision to Anthony Johnson (left) in the main event of the latest World Series of Fighting card on March 23. Photo credit: Lucas Noonan/World Series of Fighting

By Joshua Molina

Nobody likes a sore loser.

Yet Nick Diaz and Andrei Arlovski are coming off as exactly that with their recent actions.

Diaz, of course, has made a mountain out of a molehill with his outrage over the fact that the Quebec Athletic Commission seemingly can’t read a scale. Diaz and his fight camp are in an uproar over the fact that the Commission allowed fighters to weigh as much as .9 of a pound over the weight limit.

If a fighter weighed, for example, 170.9 pounds at the weigh-in, the Commission rounded the weight down so that the fighter weighed 170 pounds officially. This way of measuring is unique among athletic commissions.

The Diaz camp feels the extra weight may have given Georges St-Pierre and unfair advantage in their fight two weeks ago. Nobody knows how much GSP really weighed a day before the fight, whether it was 170 exactly or up to 170.9.

Really, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that Diaz couldn’t consistently stop GSP’s takedowns and that he wasn’t able to execute any significant offense in the standup to win the fight.

And besides, it’s just a bad argument to make. Diaz is a fighter and should take his loss like a man. The best thing Diaz can do is let it go, destroy his next opponent, and demand to fight GSP one more time in a rematch.

Considering that the Diaz vs. GSP fight drew more than 850,000 buys on Pay Per View, Diaz shouldn’t have too hard of a time convincing UFC President Dana White that he deserves a rematch a year from now.

. . . Arlovski has more of a leg to stand on, but still he needs to move on.

Arlovski, the former UFC Heavyweight Champion, lost a unanimous decision to Anthony “Rumble” Johnson at the World Series of Fighting show last weekend. Arlovski was knocked down at the end of round one when he took a series of punches that broke his jaw.

The problem is that Round 1 lasted about 9 seconds longer than it should have. For whatever reason, the timekeeper let the round go long, and Arlovski was rocked after the 5 minute mark. Arlovski’s camp, Jackson MMA has complained publicly about the long round and the timekeeper.

For Arlovski, this is a serious bummer. But’s it’s not an argument he or his camp is going to win. It’s not like Johnson knew the round went long. He was just throwing punches and when he heard the bell, the referee pulled him off Arlovski, and he started punching.

The real problem is this. Arlovski should have defeated Johnson, who in the UFC was fighting as low as welterweight. If Arlovski can’t beat Johnson, he should be worried about doing what it takes to get better.

If Arlovski wants the world to take him seriously again, he needs to run right through these fighters, and not leave it to the judges or timekeeper. (And get a pair of gloves that fit).

. . . Finally, Reid Flair, son of Ric Flair, was found dead in a hotel room in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina. Flair, 25, was a pro wrestler like his father, who is widely regarded as the greatest pro wrestler of all time.

Flair was a high school wrestling standout and won an AAU National Wrestling Tournament.

posted by JoshuaM @ 1:33 pm
Have a comment about this story? Please share with us by filling out the fields below.

Comments are closed.