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All the media fallout from Toronto’s UFC 129 event
By Zach Arnold | May 2, 2011
These are little snippets from articles published today for your perusal. If anyone listed here wants to take down their snippet, contact me.
By the way, Cage Potato claims that Ken Hayashi’s Ontario Athletic Commission did not oversee the drug testing of the UFC 129 event.
Headlines
Luke Thomas: Georges St. Pierre should fight Nick Diaz, not Anderson Silva
A question was posed from a Brazilian journalist to UFC President Dana White about the future prospects of George St. Pierre vs. Anderson Silva. … That’s when I heard Nick Diaz quietly say as if to suggest “why not me?” the following simple statement: “I want to fight George St. Pierre.”
I want Nick Diaz to fight Georges St. Pierre, too.
Jason Probst: GSP needs to fight Nick Diaz — now
A challenge of Silva would be a disruptive chapter in a seamless title reign. Physically, he would have to gain a goodly amount of muscle for a fight against an exceptionally dangerous opponent. If he comes up short, St. Pierre would be faced with the potential of having to return to 170, which could be tough given the size he would put on. Style-wise, I do not think he matches up so well with Silva, who is virtually knockout-proof and would have five rounds to work his lethal tools.
That is why Nick Diaz is the perfect next challenger for GSP.
- Jason Amadi: GSP’s risk-averse style threatening title and dominance after UFC 129 victory
- Steve Buffery (Toronto Sun): GSP losing super-fight traction while Mark Hominick emerges as the new Canadian MMA hero
- Toronto Sun: GSP wins but didn’t finish the job
- Ben Fowlkes: Name the last GSP fight that you’d actually like to sit down and watch again
- Matt Roth: Zuffa and the UFC finally hit it big
Loretta Hunt: Couture content with retirement, looks forward to new role in MMA
“The fact that we sold out at a 60,000-seat stadium with our sport — it’s just an indication of one, the Canadian fan base, who I think, in a lot of ways, got and embraced this sport a lot sooner than the American market did, and two, just how far we’ve come in the sport.
“I think this is going to be a benchmark moment for the sport, not just in attendance, but in the type of shows were going to see or at least what everything’s going to be measured by going forward,” said Couture.
Take note of what Randy also has to say about a fighter’s union or something equivalent to Rob Maysey’s MMAFA.
Bruce Dowbiggin (Globe and Mail): Toronto savours UFC forbidden fruit
Why is UFC successful? White has taken the Vince McMahon big-event strategy from World Wrestling Entertainment – that many of his fans grew up on – and added real blood. All it needs it Miss Elizabeth (sadly demised) and Bobby (The Brain) Heenan to complete the model. The intimacy of the event, compared to football or hockey, is also key to the televised look of UFC.
The London Free Press (Canada): Mark Hominick does himself proud
“I came in a 4-1 underdog,” Hominick said. “A lot of people didn’t think I would last a round. I lasted all five. If there was a sixth round, I would have won.”
If he had another minute, he might have won.
“I knew he was running out of steam. I could hear him breathing hard after the first two rounds.”
Kevin Iole: Mark Hominick shows warrior’s heart in defeat
He looked like guys do when they owe the mob some money and don’t pay.
There was, however, no bigger winner at UFC 129 on Saturday than the gritty featherweight who is due to become a father any day now.
Brian Hemminger: Nate Diaz ‘probably’ dropping back down to Lightweight
Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 17 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Interesting that people are giving Hominick such props. Can you imagine if Aldo wasn’t coming off long layoff and surgery? Maybe he wouldn’t have gassed by the 2nd round and would have continued to destroy Hominick.
I’m not a huge Nick Diaz fan – he’s a total punk – but they should be putting him in there against GSP next.
He is the Strikeforce WW champion and people get their jollies off for title vs. title matches – didn’t Henderson get immediate title matches at LHW/MW without this “introduction to the UFC fans” b.s. people are pulling out.
Ultimately so what if he hasn’t fought someone with really good wrestling to “put him in his place”. Remember the gauntlet of high level wrestlers Dan Hardy had to run through to get his title shot? Me too! Quite frankly the people whining that Diaz doesn’t deserve a shot seem to be ignoring how undeserving Hardy was when he got his. And he got it for pretty much the same marketing reasons that Diaz did, and frankly isn’t half the fighter Nick is anyways.
Diaz vs. GSP has the potential to be a very interesting fight, and you’d have someone that might actually be able to get GSP’s pulse to rise a la Matt Serra. I think we’re going to see some backlash from people who have been buying GSP headlined events and won’t anymore (there was a huge number of people in Toronto that were really miffed with GSP, and saying they were “done” watching his fights – granted this was probably not knowing about the eye issue, so maybe they’ll cut him some slack cut in retrospect)…so having him fight someone as polarizing as Diaz might actually pull them back in. Someone like Jon Fitch or another retread, regardless of how deserving they are, will not.
GSP/Diaz has the potential to be another GSP snoozefest. Which is why it is so critical that Diaz be fed a wrestler first. Make sure he can do something different when defending the double compared to his last stint in the UFC.
The last thing GSP or the UFC needs is another boring title fight.
Diaz wouldn’t be considered exciting if his last 3 opponents where Koscheck, Fitch, & Alves.
But when was any fight that Diaz had against a wrestler considered boring and was he ever completely dominated or had zero chance in those fights? Maybe I’m not recalling the fights correctly, but they were some pretty close decisions that could have gone either way in most cases and were action-filled.
– Lost to Riggs, which was a pretty questionable decision, and for the most part it was a battle on the feet and Riggs’ TD’s weren’t exactly super effective in fact I think Diaz’s got more takedowns and pulled guard a couple of times too – so he’s not scared of operating on his back.
– Lost to Sherk in another close decision where Sherk tried for almost two rounds before even getting it to the mat and then they traded takedowns in the 3rd. This was probably the most “boring” of his losses to wrestlers.
– Lost to Sanchez in what was probably the worst of his 3 losses to “wrestlers” but even then it wasn’t a total domination by Sanchez that left you saying “Diaz never had a chance in there”.
Maybe my recollection is a bit off from those fights, but just because he lost those fights five years ago doesn’t make me think he’s got zero chance if he’s fighting GSP.
But that’s the point. It was 5 years since he fought a wrestler. He needs to do so again. If he was losing to Lightweight wrestlers in Sanchez and Sherk…. Then he would certainly not do well against the bigger Welterweight wrestlers.
Just like Thiago Alves had to fight Matt Hughes & Josh Koscheck before he fought GSP. He faired much better then Hardy did….Who wasn’t tested at all against wrestlers and that fight was horrible.
Gaij- They were close fights your speaking of, but were in no way questionable decisions. The only way they would have been questionable is if Diaz won. Sherk and Sanchez were pretty wide decisions. Riggs was the closest because Diaz clipped him behind the head with a hook and almost finished him. The rest was Riggs out striking Nick, and showcasing how good of a chin Nick has if anything. Again, I’m not saying he was beaten to a pulp or they were terrible fights where Nick had no chance. But the right guy won in every fight.
My thing is this: Diaz has shown next to no improvement wrestling wise since leaving the octagon. He was beaten by two lower class wrestler grapplers in Diego and Sean Sherk (although this was when Sean was probably on the Juice). GSP is leagues above those guys in almost every aspect of MMA. What makes anyone think Nick could fare differently against the best wrestler in MMA is kinda baffling to me.
Hmm…yeah I dunno…I honestly don’t think he’s going to win against GSP, but to me that feels like the most compelling fight at WW. I like the idea of a Condit fight too, but I just think a Diaz fight would sell and he might actually pose a risk due to his length and seemingly incredible striking, chin and heart. With Condit we’ve got a guy that’s like a poor man’s version of GSP…and why would we want to see the inferior version fight the superior version. Aren’t they both Jackson fighters too?
All that said, I think this is being coloured by the fact that GSP has engaged in two straight fights that were pretty much all stand-up, so might be fooling ourselves that we could see Diaz drag him into a boxing match as well…but that’s completely ignoring the fact that GSP is the ultimate game planner and risk-avoidant fighter and would run a ground clinic on him like he did to Hardy.
I digress, ultimately, since as you and 45 have pointed out quite rightly that he’s going to get wrestled to death by GSP or any of the top grapplers at WW.
“GSP/Diaz has the potential to be another GSP snoozefest”
LOL
No it doesn’t.
Nick might have awful takedown defense, and tends to lose decisions to wrestlers, but those fights have never been boring. While Nick might be easy to takedown, he is incredibly difficult to control once on the ground. All of his previous losses to wrestlers have been highly entertaining 15 minute scramblefests. I see no reason to believe a fight with GSP would be any different.
I agree 45…only thing is…if Diaz fights a wrestler before GSP…there would be no GSP/Diaz…so that’s why they would want to make that fight now I suppose…Personally, I’m more interested in GSP/Silva…simply because of Silva’s lack of takedown defense…and yes, GSP could take him down despite the size difference.
You are right. It probably doesn’t happen. But I would rather see that then watch another GSP fight where his opponent haszero chance of stopping even the simpilist of takedowns.
And for people who think this is just a Diaz thing.
It’s the same with Anderson Silva. I never want to see him fight a BJJ guy with marginal striking or no great takedowns.
Dan Hardy fought a murderers row of wrestlers on his way to a WW title fight. Diaz should do the same.
Ya’know I was initially of the same line of thinking, until it was pointed out that – Yes, Hardy was purposely kept away from wrestlers until GSP, but that’s more of a reason to NOT allow that to happen again because that fight was downright awful.
Do you really want to sit through another version of GSP – Hardy? Because Nick can talk all the s#!t in the world, but he’s not going to be able to do much from his back other than flip the bird at a smiling St. Pierre dropping elbows and punches on him for 25 minutes.
The difference between Hardy and Diaz is that Nick is not a fish once the fight hits the canvas. Hardy has no bottom game, no sweep game, and no scrambling ability. Diaz has all those things in spades.
Nick might be easy to take down, but he is incredibly difficult to control.
“Nick might be easy to take down, but he is incredibly difficult to control.”
But not incredibly difficult to punish. He was beat up in two of those fights, and more or less dominated against Sherk.
Let’s also not forget that Fitch, Alves, Penn, Serra, and Hughes are much harder to control on the ground than Diaz.
This Nick Diaz hype truly has gotten out of control, the worst thing to me is that it’s coming from people who are supposed to be knowledgeable about the sport not just fanboys. Nick Diaz poses no threat to GSP because he can’t stop his takedowns, the guy has been kept away from much lesser WW’s because of that very reason.
Now all of a sudden because he’s been protected from being exposed by them he’s a challenge to GSP the best wrestler in his division smfh. Seriosly this people can talk about UFC hype all they want but nothing matches how superhuman these very limited fighters outside the promotion get. Diaz needs to beat a top wrestler for him to even be in discussion for a shot at GSP, because if you can’t wrestle you shouldn’t even be in the discussion to fight him.
You know, the people who are saying Diaz can’t wrestle because as a 22 year old kid he lost to Sherk and Diego sound stupid because you guys have no idea if he has improved since then. What we know is that he is a much better striker now than then, he is a lot bigger and stronger, and he seems to have really grown into his frame. To assume that because he struggled with takedown defense 5 years ago that he still has no shot of stopping takedowns is overly simplistic.
Further, we saw that GSP didn’t want any part of Shields on the ground, and Diaz probably has a better bottom game than Jake does, and is certainly a much better striker with better cardio and a better beard.
GSP is the best wrestler in mma; he can take down anyone, but he doesn’t have that much faith in his top game. Diaz will whoop his ass on the feet, and I have no reason to think that GSP has any chance of finishing Nick. Diaz is going to be the aggressor on the feet; obviously he will get taken down some, but he also isn’t going to go away, and will do a lot better in the fight than Shields, who won 2 rounds on 2 scorecards.
Diaz couldn’t take down KJ Noons, a 155 lber with no wrestling background. Not only could he not take him down, he couldn’t even prevent him from getting back up after knocking him down and breaking his jaw. I think there’s excellent reason to doubt his takedown ability without going back to matches when he was 22.
I haven’t heard anyone give a compelling reason that GSP/Diaz wouldn’t look like GSP/Penn II with an extra round.