“Where I come from, people who lose close fights retire.” Props: UFC.com
While watching UFC 143 from the comfort of my favorite dive bar last night, I knew that MMA fans would be waging war on the internet over the fights that went the distance. Between the two point deduction that cost “Bruce Leroy” his fight against Edwin Figueroa and Josh Koscheck’s close fight with the “undeserving” Mike Pierce, I knew that I could expect a long-winded, philosophical debate over what constitutes a fight and what doesn’t- whether abstract concepts like “control” and “aggression” mean more than punches thrown, and whether takedowns earned and stuffed negate an inferior striking display. Naturally, this debate would include a lot of ad hominems and off topic ranting, because that’s just par for the course online.
And that was before the main event of the evening, which saw Carlos Condit earn a close decision over Nick Diaz. Carlos Condit used backward and lateral footwork while outstriking Nick Diaz, yet many fans felt that Nick Diaz should have won the fight. Before the fight even ended, the debate already began on whether “Octagon control” necessarily means “the guy moving forward”, and whether counter-punchers should automatically be considered less aggressive than their opponents. Judging from the comments sections of today’s articles, that debate won’t be ending any time soon.
Benjamin Disraeli once said that there are three types of lies: Lies, damned lies and statistics. For the time being, let’s move our arguments about last night’s fights past the first two. Let’s now turn our focus towards the statistics from last night’s close decisions. FightMetric’s breakdowns of Riddle vs. Martinez, Figueroa vs. Caceres, Koscheck vs. Pierce and, of course, Diaz vs. Condit have been published, and are available after the jump.
Click on images for full size versions.
And one more from Diaz vs Condit, for good measure.
Keep in mind that according to FightMetric, Werdum should have won his fight against Overeem. Statistics don’t always tell the whole story, but they at least deserve some consideration. Have they supported your argument that the right/wrong people won last night, or do they just demonstrate the flaws in MMA judging? Let the battle continue.
Just try not to hurt anyone’s feelings, okay?
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commentsJudge's dicks sucked.
Diaz - 0
Natural Born Coward - 3
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there are better ways of fighting smart than carlos did on saturday, completely avoiding diaz, he looked almost affraid of getting caught, like if diaz had one punch knockout power a la chuck lidell. He won that fight but its not a good way to win a fight.
That is the reason fighers like fedor got so much respect and many real fans , he beat nogueira by bein on nogueira´s guard the whole fight, not being affraid of losing, he beat crocop with strikes, at the end of the day its about being the better fighter not about being the best avoiding the fight.
1 - do not get bitch slapped, not ever, especially not in front of your friends or a few hundred thousand people
2 - do not run, ever
3 - don't kick somebody in the fuckin shin like a bitch
If all 3 of these happen in one fight, you get bitch slapped, run and kick a dude in the shin before running you better hope for some cecil peoples judgin some shit
take a picture of both of them post fight and see who lost. And that's not including the damage to Diaz's leg and body
When Diaz got him down I was actually worried that Condit would be submitted but then he got out and laid on some GnP before they fell to a heap and ended up tangled before the bell.
I definitely had Condit winning the fight despite giving the 5th to Diaz but I kept thinking you know, Nick will get this because the UFC would be able to promote GSP Vs. Diaz better – it would be better for them to have had that match up so I expected Diaz to win.
So I was surprised that Condit won because it was close and although I think Condit got the edge, I fully expected Diaz to get the nod for the interest of the UFC. I’m glad it didn’t turn out that way.
Jon Jones wouldn't sign that belt.
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