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Poll: Condit-Diaz Scorecard?
By: Mike Fridley
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Sherdog Pick’Em Trends: UFC 143 Main Card
By: Sherdog.com Staff
Sherdog MMA Pick’Em users favor Nick Diaz at UFC 143. | Photo: Silton Buendia
Since his first go-around in the Octagon, Nick Diaz has been on quite a tear, winning 12 of his last 13 fights while capturing the Strikeforce welterweight title. His return to the Las Vegas-based promotion in October sent a resounding message, as the Stockton, Calif., native overwhelmed B.J. Penn with his volume punching style en route to a clear-cut, unanimous decision win.
Players in Sherdog’s MMA Pick’Em game have taken note: 71 percent favor Diaz in his interim welterweight title clash at UFC 143 on Saturday against Carlos Condit. Before dominating Penn, Diaz defended his Strikeforce belt twice in 2011, earning a technical knockout triumph over Paul Daley in April and submitting Evangelista Santos via armbar in January.
Condit has been on a hot streak of his own, including four straight wins in the UFC. Most recently, he stopped the previously unbeaten Dong Hyun Kim with a flying knee and punches at UFC 132. The “Natural Born Killer” also owns victories over Dan Hardy, Rory MacDonald and Jake Ellenberger in his UFC career. A former World Extreme Cagefighting 170-pound titleholder, Condit has finished 26 of his 27 career wins by way of knockout, technical knockout or submission.
Pick’Em participants are having a much more difficult time choosing between Fabricio Werdum and Roy Nelson in the co-main event, as a 50-50 split in voting has developed. Out of the UFC since 2008, Werdum has beaten Mike Kyle, Antonio Silva and Fedor Emelianenko while competing for Strikeforce. He most recently was defeated by current UFC top heavyweight contender Alistair Overeem in June.
Nelson rebounded from a unanimous decision loss to Frank Mir in May to earn a third-round stoppage against Mirko Filipovic at UFC 137. He also owns notable wins over Brendan Schaub and Stefan Struve in his UFC career.
Other Pick’Em trends for the UFC 143 main card, which takes place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas:
• A strong 87 percent of users believe Josh Koscheck will defeat Mike Pierce in their welterweight scrap. Koscheck is coming off a first-round finish of Matt Hughes at UFC 135. Pierce defeated Paul Bradley via split decision at UFC on Fox 1 in his last outing.
• Unbeaten since his mixed martial arts debut in 2005, Renan “Barao” Pegado brings an impressive winning streak and loads of talent to the cage for his bantamweight showdown with Scott Jorgensen. Users like the potential of the Brazilian, as 66 percent have chosen him to defeat the former WEC standout.
• Ninety percent of players have picked Ed Herman to top Clifford Starks in the initial main card bout. Herman has beaten Tim Credeur and Kyle Noke since returning from a serious knee injury. Starks beat Dustin Jacoby in his UFC debut in October.
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Winkeljohn: Diaz’s Body Punches Wear You Down
By: Tristen Critchfield
Few work the body better than Nick Diaz. | Photo: Sherdog.com
Nick Diaz has some of the best boxing in mixed martial arts today, and a big part of that is his ability to attack the body. In fact, the former Strikeforce welterweight champion’s body punches were No. 3 on Sherdog.com’s Top 10 list of “MMA’s Most Dangerous Weapons.”
Carlos Condit will have to defend against Diaz’s volume punching style in their UFC 143 interim welterweight title bout at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on Saturday. Condit’s striking coach, Mike Winkeljohn, shared his thoughts with Sherdog.com on why Diaz is so effective when working the body.
“He hits hard to the body. A lot of people, if you’re getting hit lazily to the body, the counterpunches are there. But when they’re the kind of body punches that Nick Diaz throws, they’re very hard to counter,” Winkeljohn said. “He leads those things in there, and it ruins a guy’s fight. If you go back over a lot of [his previous] fights, people think, ‘Well, he wore the guy down because he kept walking forward,’ but a lot of it has to do with the body shots earlier. We want to avoid those places as much as possible because Nick does hit the body very hard.”
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Dave Meltzer Joins Press Row
By: Jordan Breen
Every Wednesday, Administrative Editor Jordan Breen welcomes a member of the mixed martial arts media into “Press Row” on the Sherdog.com blog. This week, Breen is joined by Wrestling Observer Newsletter founder and editor Dave Meltzer.
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Breen and Meltzer discuss Saturday night's UFC on Fox 2 card and its potential television and business implications for the promotion. The two investigate the card's structure, whether or not the injury of Mark Munoz actually helped the card and the capacity for the event to create interest in forthcoming pay-per-views.
The pair also predict ratings, discuss event pacing, rap on Jon Jones' UFC on Fox commercial and much, much more.
Grab your credential and get a seat in “Press Row.” -
Gracie: Strikeforce Treated Diaz Wrong
By: Sherdog.com Staff
Cesar Gracie, on the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Rewind” show, discussing Nick Diaz’s frustration with Strikeforce:
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“It was just one thing after another where these guys were making way more money than he was and putting way less people in the seats and way less people [were] watching it on TV. Now, you don’t have to be a genius to see how wrong that is. … He wasn’t treated right by Strikeforce. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t think so. They gave us the, ‘We don’t have enough money.’ Dan Henderson comes along, and they’re paying him ridiculous amounts of money because they thought he would be so great. I told these guys, I told the people over there, ‘You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.’ Bam, the next thing, when we could, ‘Hey, let’s get the hell out of Strikeforce.’ That was it, and there’s no going back. That type of thing. ‘Here’s your title and you can have it. You guys did this guy wrong. He’s a star.’ Everybody thinks that because he’s not that articulate or something -- he's no one’s dummy. He’s actually a very intelligent person. He knows when he’s being taken advantage of, and that’s being taken advantage of.” -
Radio Rewind: Fulton, Gracie
By: Luca Fury
Jack Encarnacao returned to The Sherdog Radio Network Sunday for another edition of "The Rewind." Joining Jack on this week's "Sunday Sitdown" was longtime MMA fighter Travis Fulton. Encarnacao was also joined by Nick Diaz' head trainer, Cesar Gracie.
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Gracie joined the show to discuss Diaz's dominant performance over B.J. Penn at last night's UFC 137 card. Cesar also shared his thoughts on Nick's polarizing personality.
In the "Sunday Sitdown" Jack was joined by Travis Fulton. A veteran of over 300 MMA bouts, "The Ironman" talked about his incredibly busy career, including his upcoming fight against Andrei Arlovski at the 'Pro Elite: Big Guns' card in November. Travis also discussed some behind-the-scenes detail of his career, like his experiences with shady promoters and his habit of not training.
Check out the shows and our archives by clicking here. -
Beatdown After The Bell: UFC 137
By: Luca Fury
Jordan Breen returned to The Sherdog Radio Network Saturday night following the conclusion of UFC 137. Breen broke down all of the card's action, including the main event between B.J. Penn and Nick Diaz.
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"The Mastermind" also took listener calls, emails and tweets.
Check out the shows and our archives by clicking here. -
Roundtable: UFC 137 'Penn vs. Diaz'
By: Luca Fury
Jack Encarnacao returned to The Sherdog Radio Network Friday for another roundtable discussion. He was joined by Sherdog.com's Jordan Breen, Todd Martin and ESPN's Brett Okamoto.
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The panel broke down all of the action from tomorrow's UFC 137 card, including the main event between B.J. Penn and Nick Diaz.
Check out the shows and our archives by clicking here. -
Diaz: Whoever Wants it More Will Win
Just days before his return to the UFC, Nick Diaz sat down with Inside MMA to discuss his upcoming fight and long relationship with B.J. Penn. Plus Diaz explains why Penn is more of a threat than Georges St. Pierre, what really happened at the UFC 137 pre-fight press conference and why his heart may not totally be in this fight.
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Nick Diaz: My Game Plan Never Changes
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