Nick Diaz is a rebel, and he doesn't give a shit.

He doesn't give a shit about his Honda.

He doesn't give a shit about the English language.

He doesn't give a shit about beauty pageants.

He doesn't give a shit about wrestlers or joggers.

He doesn't give a shit about baby leg kicks.

He doesn't give a shit about computers, because he has no intention of chatting with you whores.

He doesn't give a shit about what ... uh, the year... fuck year is it?

He doesn't give a shit about some bitch offering him a piece of hydrogenated chocolate, because real fighters eat real chocolate.

He doesn't give a shit about the commission.

He doesn't give a shit about smoking up before a fight or getting caught.

He doesn't give a shit about all the money he's going to lose because he smoked up.

He doesn't give a shit about sitting on the shelf for 6 - 12 months.

He doesn't give a shit about title shots.

He doesn't give a shit. And that's why Nick is a rebel. He sure showed everyone, huh? Fuck right he did. Fuck the man.

WAR DIAZ.

As the world is still buzzing about the headkick knockout displayed by the UFC's newest karateka, Stephen Thompson, hot on his footsteps comes this man from England, Michael Page.

Page made his professional MMA debut last Saturday, on the card of UCMMA 26: The Real Deal at the Troxy Arena, London, England.

A flash in the pan, or a future champion? Watch the video and decide.

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Ok ok ok. I've heard the call. We've overworked our current team of moderators into the ground. The mobs of yokels attracted by our relentless efforts to bring in new readers threaten to break the beauty of BE -- a community where MMA fans can attempt to intelligently discuss the sport without name calling, obscenity, offensiveness etc etc.

If you think you're up for a thankless, endless, unpaid task nominated yourself for moderator. If you have an opinion about the worthiness of any of the nominees, pls speak up.

Lets Mutherfukers.

In the wake of UFC 143′s “Judging-Gate” (it’s always a “Something-Gate” with you people…thanks a lot, Nixon!) I wrote an article where I spelled out what would remedy the Diaz/Condit situation: immediate rematch.

Well, if anyone needed further proof that Dana White reads my articles and takes every sage word to heart, you got it yesterday. Within just a few hours of my article going up, White and the UFC announced Diaz vs. Condit II…only not…only they did…except it might not happen…I think? Basically either one or both managers are holding out for more moolah, or Nick Diaz has been training at “altitude” again.

Funnily enough, more than a few Condit fans are downright PO’ed at the rematch even happening, for what as far as I can see are 2 reasons:

1) Carlos Condit already beat Diaz! He shouldn’t have to fight him again! This is a lose-lose fight for Condit and a complete slap in the face of his masterful performance to win the title.

AND

2) This is an evil conspiracy from Dana White to get the Diaz/GSP super-fight everybody wants! Condit winning (and winning “boring”) killed all the hype for GSP’s return – and now Dana’s trying to change history! RAAAAGE!!!

So even though I wrote about this only a day ago, I’m going

to take a moment to revisit the Diaz/Condit conundrum. See, I happen to think that an immediate rematch is the BEST thing that could happen for Carlos, short of GSP healing his knee with blood magic or something and facing Condit in the next 2-3 months.

Let’s lay out the options currently facing Carlos right now, and see what his best move is:

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Encouraging news coming from Dana White's twitter feed yesterday that both Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit have agreed to a rematch and will hopefully finalise the specifics of the fight later this week. This comes as a little bit of a surprise given the noises that were coming out of both camps and the UFC earlier this week, but I believe this is the best step for the UFC to take based on a number of reasons.

• The first fight was great - No really it was. There was not a better fight on the entire UFC 143 card. Sure, the Werdum/Nelson slugfest was fun, but had nothing compared to the five rounds of chasing and counter-attacking that went on in the Diaz/Condit fight. Most people were expecting Condit to return fire by clenching down on his mouthpiece and swinging for the fences in response to Diaz's boxing, but that would have been stupid. I know I was on the edge of my seat, and everyone else in the room at me was shouting at the TV for the majority of the fight, particularly in the last round when Diaz finally took Condit down. The fight was great, and just because Nick Diaz didn't win does not make that an incorrect statement. Carlos Condit did not just run away. He outstruck Diaz and got a deserved, if close decision win.
• The rematch should be even better - For all those people who did think the fight was rubbish because of Condit's 'running'; do you really think he'll be able to use the same tactic again? If Diaz wants to win this fight, he will alter his tactics. Whether he tries to take the fight to the ground and some potentially riveting scrambles and guard passing, or whether he closes Condit down more effectively and can land more punches we should be in for a treat. Not to discount Condit, if he can land more shots like the head-kick he threw late in the fight, we might have a completely different dynamic entirely.
• It would be foolish to wait for Condit vs. GSP - Georges St. Pierre has had knee surgery and is currently ahead of schedule for a November return date. There are two reasons why waiting for this match up would be foolish. First of all, November is 10 months away it would be tragic to take Condit, one of the top two most exciting welterweights in the world out of action for that long. Secondly, although GSP is a freak of nature, rushing a fighter back from the type of injury that can ruin careers is reckless to say the absolute least. He may yet face setbacks in his recovery delaying the fight further, and it would deprive the fans of the best fight possible if he was rushed back when he was not back to his absolute best.
• Few people care about Condit fighting anyone else, and fewer are interested in seeing them fight GSP - While I would be perfectly happy to sees someone like Jake Ellenberger (assuming he beats Diego Sanchez) rematch Carlos Condit and potentially fight GSP, not many other people will be. No-one knows who Jake Ellenberger is. His highest profile win is against Jake Shields in the most poorly publicised UFC broadcast on Spike, and even fewer eyes will be on him on FUEL TV next week. No other contender really makes sense and as fantastic as Ellenberger is (and the rematch with Condit) the UFC would have a hell of a job convincing people of that fact.
• Diaz's stock has never been higher - Coming off the Penn fight and this apparent 'robbery', Nick Diaz has attracted many fans. Matching him up with another fighter in lieu of a rematch could cost the UFC dearly. There are not many stars at 170 pounds, but it is a weight class that is packed with talent, particularly high level wrestlers who could give Diaz all manner of problems. Making another fight opens of the possibility of another loss for DIaz, and another post fight tantrum.
• A LOT of people still want to see Diaz fight GSP - If Diaz wins, everyone (apart from Carlos Condit) is happy. It's the only potential fight on the horizon (with the exception of Jones vs. Evans in April) that has the potential to draw an outrageous number of PPV buys. There is already the animosity between the two fighters to build a compelling narrative in the build up, and half the Primetime series was focused on their rivalry before the two men were even set to face each other.
• Rematches sell well - Historically, rematches do very well for the UFC, even Machida vs. Shogun II sold 520,000 PPVs, and that was two Brazilians headlining with a fairly weak undercard. Half the promotion is already done for the UFC, with much interest being cultivated for the first fight through the Primetime series.
• We could get a Diaz brothers double header for UFC on FOX 3 - I expect the fight to be on PPV, but that would be awesome wouldn't it?

Here's hoping some crazy antics from the Diaz camp don't derail this rematch, as it seemed earlier on this week. I personally can't wait to see this.

I've got more stuff up at trianglechokemma.wordpress.com. It's mainly a site hat I use to practice writing and try and inform casual fans (my friends), but there might be some items of interest there for BE readers. THanks

My friend has a subscription is Dave Meltzer's site and was listening to Observer Radio this morning. On the show, they were talking about that the rumor is Diaz is going to fail his drug test, obviously for weed. They said it took him over 6 hours to provide a urine sample after the Condit fight. This would make a lot of sense for the reason that the Diaz camp has not jumped all over the opportunity to sign up for the Condit vs Diaz 2 rematch. Thoughts?

Belitists! Mount Up! I've taken the time from my busy schedule (lawl) to scowl the internet for an official drinking game specifically for BE. This included visting such quality websites as Sherdog (ugh), Bleacher Report (ugh) and the offical UFC forum (UGH. HOW DO I EVER TAKE PART IN THAT COMMUNITY?!) I have compliled the list from the best of all those all well as some from the fan posts and suggestions made by the BE community (especially the goldberg is an ass, here's some stupid things he says fanpost the other day). If there are any rules you think should be added or taken out leave a comment in the... comments section. Rules after the jump. Remember! Drink Responsibly! (LAWL)

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UFC 143 was the final straw in a barrage of UFC straws that overloaded my overworked camel and finally broke its back. I don't have the words to describe just how disappointed I am at the events that transpired at that event. Yeah, it's easy when looking to the surface to choose a side and throw the blame around, but on the atomic level this has been a long time coming and though I am shocked and disappointed, I am not one bit angry at Nick Diaz. If you don't know who I'm talking about, Google him you dumb bitch.

The UFC's president, Dana White, has made some questionable decisions in his career, none more tumultuous than the ones that he has made over the past 4 years, none more idiotic and damaging to the UFC brand, none more damaging to its loyal fan base. Dana White has proven to be effective at whatever it is that his job is, but also equally ineffective because, simply put, he is a good business man and he is a baaaaaad business man. I can't explain it. It's a mind-boggling paradox that makes me respect him and want to slap him in the mouth at the same time. Over the past few years the UFC has gone mainstream, from having popular fighters appear on network television shows, to having them appear in movies, to switching from a middling cable network to one of the biggest television networks in the world. They have absorbed the 2 biggest MMA organizations outside of the UFC. They have provided more events for the fans to watch, and lowered ticket prices for their Pay Per View spectaculars. Sounds good right? Wrong! Because of these decisions, they have also monopolized an entire sport and turned any plausible MMA prospects into timid manufactured clones of athletes that seek to win instead of fight. So what that means essentially is that there are tons of new fights and new fighters under the UFC banner, but they all pretty much suck.

And this is what leads me to my list. Here are the top 5 reasons I now hate the UFC:

5. Quinton Jackson vs Forrest Griffin II

This is where the downward spiral of the UFC began for me. UFC 86 was where Forrest Griffin earned the Light Heavyweight Title. Looking back on it, it was a very close fight which had fans and analysts split straight down the middle as to who actually won, leading to what would seem to be the most logical conclusion: a rubber match. But wait, there was no Jackson vs Griffin II was there? Nope. The UFC brass decided that instead of giving the fans what they wanted, nèe, needed, they would try to milk this cash cow for all that it was worth. Instead of the rubber match, Rampage Jackson was banished to the middle of the light heavyweight pack to "work his way back up" to another title shot, a ludicrous idea that was soon scrapped after Forrest Griffin lost the belt to Rashad Evans. Instead, Jackson was given a "prove it" match with Keith Jardine for a title shot, which he won. Soon after that Rashad Evans fought a relatively known piss-drinking entity by the name of Lyoto Machida and lost the belt to him (are you still following me here). Rampage ditched his disdain for Rashad Evans and requested his title fight yet again, but no no no, it gets even better children. Dana White told him that instead of fighting Machida, he would appear as a coach for the second time on The Ultimate Fighter alongside Rashad Evans, and he would definitely get the title shot, no questions asked, after he fulfilled that commitment. After the filming for the show completed, Dana White changed his tune yet again and told Quinton that in order to get the same title shot that was guaranteed to him twice already under two entirely different circumstances, he would have to now have to face Rashad Evans for yet another number one contender's match. Such a convoluted situation solved ever so simply by Rampage when he said "Fuck this shit," and left the UFC to be a movie star. How you like dem apples?

This was not the first time that something like this had happened--Dana trying to get as much mileage out of a "storyline" as possible I mean. He brought the drama a couple of years earlier with BJ Penn and some years before that with Tito Ortiz. You see, before the acquisition of Pride and Strikeforce Dana had a history of fucking up when it came to maintaining fighter loyalty. He treated them like commodities, as if their time, money, and emotional investment was a construct that can be easily controlled and played at will. And every time those popular and marketable fighters gave a big F U to the boss, the entire state of the company was left in disrepair. That's what Nick Diaz did at UFC 143. He said "I'm outta this shit" and he was right to do so. He had the weight of the Welterweight division on his shoulders when the UFC acquired him from Strikeforce to fight Geroges St-Pierre. Nick was to play the "villain" and like it, he was to stir the shit on purpose, he was to drum up as much interest as possible in that fight to sell sell sell because Georges St-Pierre is a carbon copy of a carbon copy of a carbon copy of fucking boring. Diaz caved under the pressure and was not only sent to the back-burner but then was clusterfucked out of a win in that fight. Why should he have to put up with that sort of treatment anymore? It's called, "If you don't like your job, quit" so he did. Someone should also inform Dana White that if he could control his hissy fits and avoid hastily reacting to unexpected situations in the future, he wouldn't have to worry about fucking up the only fight cards I actually want to see.

4. Greg Jackson's MMA

Good gym, good coaches, good strategies, absolutely terrible for the sport of MMA. Jackson' s MMA has systematically castrated every exciting prospective fighter since Diego Sanchez by implementing the "point system." You see, someone over in Albuquerque figured out that in order to win a fight in the UFC, one does not necessarily have to fight. All one has to do is avoid being submitted or knocked out while not losing more points than his opponent in a given match. Meaning, dry-hump their way to victory. Yep, it's that simple! Thanks Jackson's MMA, you've somehow made the latent homoeroticism of Mixed Martial Arts more gay than it already was, and not in the fun way.

3. Affliction, Pride, WEC, Strikeforce, K1, Bellator

You killed them. You killed them all. And since they're all dead, every fighter under the UFC roster has to make sure they keep their fucking job because they have nowhere else to go. Know what that means? Playing it safe. Yup, boring main events, hell boring entire cards simply because the fighters are afraid that if they go balls out, they will either lose and be out of a job or get injured, thus having to spend time they don't have recuperating which will in turn cut off their cash flow. Or, they can use an even worse, unrefined version of the Greg Jackson but-humping strategy to avoid injury all together, not risk losing and getting cut, but also not gain any fans and sponsors. Pick your poison, tiger *rarrww* And since the UFC now monopolizes all of Mixed Martial Arts, there are so many fighters on the roster and so many cards to watch that they don't have the same impact as they used to. There is only one category for fighters to be put into and it is by weight, there are no more speculations as to how a champion from one organisation would fare against a champion from another, and there is no identifying with anyone besides the top-tier fighters and the up-and-comers who challenge them. 70% of the faces I see in the UFC I don't recognize because, let's be honest here, I couldn't care less. Where's the intamacy? Where's that feeling of niche-condescension I used to have when I would do my Matt Serra impression and no one within 3 city blocks knew who the fuck I was talking about? What happened to my UFC?

2. Pool's Closed: The Golden Days Are Over

Jens Pulver, BJ Penn, Matt Hughes, Matt Serra, Karo Parisyan, Evan Tanner, Rich Franklin, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Tim Sylvia, Brock Lesnar, ROYCE FUCKING GRACIE. These are some names you need to know if you don't already. All these men put on some of the most kick-ass fights in the history of the UFC. They polarized the crowds and turned casual observers into die-hard fans. I was lucky enough to be around for those crazy moments as well as the introduction to the new era of champions like Frankie Edgar, Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, and Jon Jones, but lo and behold there is a catch. There is virtually no competition for these new champions, they're always getting injured, and when they finally do fight you'll most likely be rooting for the undercard rather than the main event. There are some snore-fests, some novelty fights, some lopsided disembowelments, and plenty of re-matches, but for some reason their performances never stick to you for very long. They have bland personalities. They're not remarkable or memorable in their interviews. They don't make you laugh or excite you, and they don't make you anticipate their next fight. In conjunction with that, the most talented of all the champions, Jon Jones, has the worst attitude I have seen in sports since Terrell Owens. Fortunately for everyone karma came back in full force and Terrell Owens is now broke. Here's to praying for a life-altering injury or an indictment on tax evasion charges for Jon Jones because if anyone deserves to have his life ruined, it's definitely him. And lastly I mean really, who can touch any of these champs? Who? They're in a league all their own and they will continue to be for some time, so what is there to look forward to? I honestly think the sport will die down by the time anyone else interesting comes along, but by then I will have been completely lost as a fan because I just don't have the patience to wait around for sparks anymore. Sorry UFC, but this holy union is officially over.

1. Georges St-Pierre

He is beautiful. His face is beautiful, his eyes are a deep blue, he talks with a cute little quirky accent, and he has the body of a G.I. Joe action figure. He's nice. I accosted him in Las Vegas and completely lost my shit but he reached his hand out and greeted me, waited as I fumbled around in my bag for my camera, and kindly took a picture with me while I made a fool of myself in his captivating presence. I really really really want to like him but unfortunately for Georges St-Pierre, he makes an appearance in all 5 out of 5 of the reasons I now hate the UFC.

Nick Diaz did skip that one press conference but had Georges asked for the fight despite that, Dana would have given it to him, because Dana gives Georges everything he wants. People tend to overlook that by skipping said press conference, Nick Diaz drummed up more hype and publicity than St-Pierre ever could have with his boring, pre-packaged brand of promotion. Diaz had a point when he said that the only way he got a title shot was by playing the villian, and he was right. Why didn't Georges ask for that fight sooner? I have no idea. It's a stretch for some, I know, but there was something in the way that Nick Diaz said it that made me feel for him because he will never have the power to ask for such a thing and get it when he wants to, on his home turf, and who are we kidding here; he's the only legitimate competition Georges has at this point. And please allow my ignorance to show when I ask who in the hell is Carlos Condit??? I digress.

Georges trains with Jackson's MMA and is the poster boy for implementation of the dry-buttsecks-humping-lay-and-pray style of "fighting," or shall I say, "out-pointing," that has become synonymous with said camp. He used to be vicious. He used to be a little cocky. He used to have a gleam in his eye and want to punish his opponents. Now he's just a "nice guy" who tries to "finish" every fight he is in because all of his opponents are his "most tough opponent yet." Yeah ok Georges. Nobody can touch you at this point so either stop pulling that same pre-rendered nice guy bullshit or shut the hell up completely and win your fights how you will no explanation necessary. I can't take it anymore.

He's not going anywhere because he is a UFC fixture. I'm pretty sure his little foray into Olympic Wrestling was his way of trying to escape the pressures of being a champion, but damned if he loses that title due to a risky maneuver or because he didn't keep his opponent in the "power bottom" position, because that would be bad. For him. Much needed for us though. Seriously, if he's not going to the Olympics that means he has to stick it out for another 3-4 years before he retires. It's like a loveless marriage: I fell out of love with him because he fell out of love with fighting a long time ago. There's a certain sadness in all of this, to see such a bright star fade, not due to injury or unpopularity, but simply because his spirit has been sucked dry. He's a former shell of himself but as much as I want to root for him, I still want to root against his bland ass. I don't know, figure something out Frenchie and do it quick because your fans aren't going to be there forever.....scratch that, some of them will. Those fans are what we from now on will refer to as "remedial."

And that just about does it, folks. Yup. I mean, all good things must come to an end and this is the beginning of said end for me. I don't know what the future holds so maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised and my waning fanaticism with the UFC will go out with a bang. Maybe I'll be content with my severance of support for the UFC at some point; maybe not. Here's to UFC 144. Don't fail me now, Shields! (It literally hurt my soul type that)

Hello all, I just realized that I've been a member and multiple-times-per-day visitor of this site for nearly 3 years and I have posted a grand total of 8 comments.I truly intended to make bloodyelbow.com the very first blog of which I would become an active member. I had visions of stunning the community with my hilarious insights and Nostradamus-like predictions. Alas, I have let us all down.

I am here to make the following mission statement.....

From now on, I will vehemently and vocally defend the performance of every fighter to which I am irrationally drawn. I vow to dismiss the performance of any fighter I dislike; particularly when that fighter is paired against one of the complete strangers to whom I attach my emotional well-being. I will sway your opinions and amaze you with my wit...

That was tongue-in-cheek, but I do plan on becoming a more active member. I love the community. Often times, the comments section is my favorite part of the article. Hopefully I'll be speaking with many of you soon.

No, this isn't a post complaining about Condit's game plan, or running as some ill-informed people like to call it, or even about questionable judging. The real reason why a rematch must be made can be seen in traffic and the shear number of comments made in the articles posted today in regards to anything relating to the Condit/Diaz fight. Comments from the two articles released today on this very site (here and here) are trending to break the 600 comment mark which is generally reserved for articles containing the latest on Brock Lesnar who was the previous PPV juggernaut. The best thing about these comments are that a lot of them are made from people that don't post here regularly (read as not in the BE Civil War), although it seems like the majority of these people are wasting their posts on complaining about the judge's decision or the tactics of Condit, which in my opinion was executed perfectly, it does prove that this fight and the potential for a rematch is garnering a lot of attention from casual and new fans.

This is the stuff that water cooler talk is made from and needs to be capitalized upon. The decision to make this rematch happen should be a no brainer and they should use the momentum of the "controversial" decision to make this rematch the headliner of UFC on FOX 3. In such a crucial time when growth and reaching a new audience is so important, they have opportunity to peak the interest of non and casual fans to at least tune into FOX on a Saturday night. If all goes well, the same people would be more inclined to purchase one of the monthly PPVevents. This is the way to grow and reach new audiences and to fully utilize the FOX partnership. Of course, this is all dependant upon the rumors of Diaz failing his drug screening to be false, I'll have my fingers crossed for this not to be the case.

Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.