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Monday, Dec 17, 2012

Full Contact Fighter’s “The Daily Takedown:” The Real Reason GSP Wants to Fight Nick Diaz

Georges St. Pierre (photo via Montreal.tv)

By Joshua Molina

Georges St. Pierre is a smart man and a smart fighter.

In fact, he’s so smart, he knows the difference between accepting a good fight and a bad fight.

That’s why his “explanation” for why he wants to fight Nick Diaz instead of Johny Hendricks is ridiculous on its face.

St-Pierre said on Fuel TV that: “As an athlete, I want to give fans the fight they want to see. Logically, I just finished my fight with Carlos Condit. The last fight between Carlos and Nick was controversial. I truly believe Carlos won, but some people believe Nick won . . . it was logical to fight Nick Diaz.”

It’s logical to fight Hendricks: it’s emotional to fight Diaz.

Hendricks is the legitimate No. 1 contender. He KO’d Jon Fitch and Martin Kampmann in the first round last year.

What did Diaz do in the last year? Lose to Carlos Condit, then blame Condit for fighting to win, instead of trading blows with him; blame the judges in that fight for screwing him out of the decision; announce his retirement; get popped for marijuana metabolites on a drug test; disappear like a magician for months; then announce through Cesar Gracie that he wants to fight again, all while calling for a fight against Anderson Silva.

All that came after he blew off a couple of media press conferences, prompting UFC President Dana White to sack him from his 2011 title shot against St-Pierre.

Diaz is a great fighter, but has problems conforming with the business side of the sport. That’s the great tragedy of Diaz; he’s his best ally and his own worst enemy.

A pre-Zuffa Strikeforce tolerated his business immaturity for years by letting him show up late or skip press conferencess, a passive acceptance that didn’t help him.

White, however, gave a him a huge dose of grow-up juice by pulling him from the GSP fight. It was the kind of reality check Diaz needed at the time.

But now Diaz will get his title shot, after a 13-month layoff.

The truth is that GSP badly wants to KO or submit Diaz. He doesn’t like his trash talk and disrespectful, bad attitude. While Diaz is dangerous, he doesn’t have that one-punch knockout power that Hendricks has.

Diaz will beat you slowly if you choose to stand with him. GSP will probably not stand with him.

This is an emotional, logical fight for GSP. As the sport’s biggest draw, he has the luxury of being able to pick an opponent now and then.

He picked Diaz not because Diaz deserves it.

St-Pierre picked Diaz because he wants to destroy him.

Diaz vs. GSP is also a better, more marketable fight for the UFC. It’s your classic good guy vs. bad guy story.

Diaz is capable of pulling off an upset. But he needs to understand that it will take more than arrogance, toughness and a middle finger to defeat GSP.

Diaz will have to dig deep, both physically and mentally, before the fight and during.
He will have to force GSP to fight his fight. He will have to stop every one of GSP’s takedowns, and not have an emotional meltdown if St-Pierre holds him down for five minutes pummeling his cut-easy face.

He’s going to have to get stronger for the fight because his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu  won’t matter if he can’t overpower GSP when GSP is sitting in Diaz’s stomach.

St-Pierre is banking on the fact that Diaz won’t be able to do this, which is why he wants to fight him, and not the one-punch power of the real No. 1 contender.

 

 

posted by JoshuaM @ 3:22 pm
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