Matthew Roth: So UFC 143 is over and the new champion was crowned. What I want to know from you guys is did the judges get the decision right and why? Did Carlos Condit run away or was he remaining elusive while breaking down Nick Diaz for 25 minutes?

Fraser Coffeen: Condit won. He avoided Diaz's shots while landing strikes of his own. That is counter striking, and it's a perfectly acceptable and legitimate aspect of striking. Condit did it beautifully.

Tim Burke: What Condit did was very smart. Did it make for a very good fight? No. Was he on his bike a lot? Yes. I don't believe that was simply counterstriking though. He was literally running across the cage at some points. Still, you can't argue with effectiveness.

I believe the bout could have gone either way. Diaz has a case for 1, 2 and 5. I scored it 48-47 Condit, but it was close.

Josh Nason: I thought the judges got it right and if there were 10-10 rounds actually given, I think the fifth round was that even that it would be a draw. Instead of calling out Condit for a rematch though, Diaz decided to "retire" when there's a great case to see them hook it up again. Some of the MMA community calling out Condit for "running" was a little nuts though, especially from fellow fighters. It's a really polarizing fight which should mean rematch.

Matthew Roth: I've read a bunch of people saying what Condit did was bad for the sport. Which is ridiculous to me.

Lots more after the jump...

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After Dustin Poirier's first round submission win at UFC 143 over Max Holloway, the question immediately arose of whether he was ready for a shot at Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo. With the 23-year-old on a five fight win streak and Aldo without an immediate No. 1 challenger, Poirier (12-1, 4-0 UFC) looked like a good choice.

But along the way, the focus shifted to a battle with Chan Sung Jung, affectionately known as the "Korean Zombie" and beloved by many thanks to his three round stand-and-slug split decision loss to Leonard Garcia at WEC 48.

Things heated up between the two on Twitter Wednesday with Jung throwing the first grenade:

Poirier then responded:

While he was 0-2 in the WEC, Jung (12-3, 2-0 UFC) submitted Garcia and knocked out Mark Hominick in six seconds in two 2011 Octagon appearances, picking up big bonuses in the process. Poirier went 1-1 in the WEC before moving to the UFC where he's won all four of his fights and has submitted his last two opponents.

With Eric Koch on the shelf with an injury, a No. 1 contender's bout between Poirier and Jung makes a lot of sense.

Let me start by apologizing for my wording on the post this morning, I ran a post with the headline "Carlos Condit Vs. Nick Diaz Rematch Becomes Official Amid Managerial Confusion." The bout was not official at that point, Dana White had simply confirmed that Condit had agreed to the bout. That was sloppy on my part and I apologize for any confusion caused by it.

It now appears, from reports coming from a variety of different directions, that the rematch will not happen due to an "issue" in the Diaz camp. No one has yet been quite willing to say what the "issue" is, but I've heard it from enough people that it does seem there is something that is keeping the Diaz camp from being able to accept the fight.

The first person I saw reporting that there was a problem was Front Row Brian on Twitter (some tell me he also beat everyone to news of Condit agreeing to the fight yesterday).

Cesar Gracie hinted that something was also going on a few moments ago via his Twitter:

We'll follow up on the story as more details emerge.

SBN coverage of UFC 143: Diaz vs. Condit

It appears that Brandon Vera jumped the gun when he informed the UFC that he was ready to fight and wanted a rematch with the recently-reinstated Thiago Silva for his next bout. Although matchmaker Joe Silva granted Vera's request and booked the rematch for UFC on FX 3 in Virginia on May 15th, Vera went to the doctor after the fight was agreed-to only to find out that he could not be cleared to fight yet. Vera later apologized to the fans and the UFC for getting ahead of himself, but Joe Silva was already busy finding a replacement for Vera and now it appears he has one in Igor Pokrajac, according to a report from MMA Weekly:

With Brandon Vera sidelined due to injury, Thiago Silva will now face Croatian Igor Pokrajac at UFC on FX 3 in May. Sources close to the fight confirmed the new bout to MMAWeekly.com on Tuesday with bout agreements issued for the May 15 light heavyweight tilt.

Pokrajac has quietly put together the first back-to-back wins of his UFC careers, most recently knocking out Krzysztof Soszynski in a mild upset in December (a loss that convinced Soszynski to retire as well), which followed a TKO win over Todd Brown last March. The Croatian kickboxing specialist is a longtime training partner of Mirko Cro Cop, but he also incorporates a solid BJJ game into his skill-set, which is not something Cro Cop was known for.

Silva, one of the most fearsome fighters in the UFC, was struggling to get his career back on track at the time of the Vera fight, having gone 1-2 after starting his career at 13-0, but an altered urine sample only derailed those hopes and earned him a No Contest in the Vera fight, which he otherwise dominated, and a one-year suspension. Now having fully served his suspension, the American Top Team fighter who combines excellent Brazilian Jiu Jitsu skills with vicious Muay Thai will have to push that Vera rematch out of his mind and instead focus on Pokrajac.

Igor "The Duke" Pokrajac (24-8)
W Krzysztof Soszynski (KO) - UFC 140
W Todd Brown (TKO) - UFC on Versus 3
L Stephan Bonnar (unam. decision) - TUF 12 Finale

Thiago Silva (14-2, 1 NC)
NC Brandon Vera - UFC 125
L Rashad Evans (unam. decision) - UFC 108
W Keith Jardine (KO) - UFC 102

With Chael Sonnen defeating Michael Bisping at UFC on Fox 2, it set up a rematch between Sonnen and UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva. Silva beat Sonnen with a literal last minute submission in their first meeting after Sonnen had dominated the fight.

Since, it has been non-stop trash talk about Silva by Sonnen. Silva talked about the fight on UFC Tonight. Via MMA Fighting:

Silva told Ariel Helwani on Fuel TV's UFC Tonight that he believes Sonnen would be wise to keep his mouth shut and get to work on training.

"Chael talks too much," Silva said. "Chael needs to train. No more talk, train. Going to Brazil? Big problem."

Silva gave the interview in English, perhaps another sign that he's hoping to match Sonnen's talk before matching up with him inside the Octagon. But Silva also said that Sonnen isn't going to get under his skin.

"I don't care about Chael Sonnen," Silva said.

SBN coverage of UFC on Fox 2

After reading a Forbes.com profile of Tucker Max, a controversial Internet star who'd turned into an absurdly successful book author, I noticed that a very brief quote about the good qualities of MMA was almost buried into the piece. I reached out to Tucker in hopes of getting a few quick blurbs about the positive mention of MMA in a mainstream media publication and then mashing the whole thing together as a short post here on Bloody Elbow.

Tucker ruined those hopes by bouncing back and forth with me in a nearly 4500 word Q&A session, which is now the five part interview being featured here on Bloody Elbow. The back and forths that we went through showed that Max views MMA as a source of physical betterment, complex and useful techniques, great friends and astonishing personal growth - which should be surprisingly universal to combat sports followers and participants reading this.

The first part of this interview dealt with Tucker Max's discovery of Brazilian jiu jitsu, subsequent humbling and the transition into training MMA. The second gave us the surprisingly good methodology of his training with MMA hillbilly Reggie Warren and moved us to Max's present day training in Austin, Texas. This third part essentially asks Tucker why he does all of this and why he is willing to stand up on this platform and talk about MMA. His answer is surprisingly eloquent.

This interview is done partly in support of his latest books, Hilarity Ensues and Sloppy Seconds, yet the interview is 100% Tucker, 100% relevant to MMA and there is no advertising or review thing going on here. Max was genuinely surprised by me reaching out and by my questions and welcomed the chance to talk about something other than his debauchery. I present his answers exactly as written (minus the bleeping out of a few cuss words). The books hit stores today and can be ordered online as well.

Hit the jump for Part Three.

Part One: Discovery of BJJ, The Jump to MMA, Training at Legend's in Hollywood, CA.

Part Two: How Reggie Warren Buit a Passable Sparring Dummy and Present Day Training in Austin, TX

Part Four: The Exact Space MMA Occupies in his Life

Part Five: The Inside Story on Jeremie Myers and What Max Wants From MMA

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Last night on The Underground, a story broke that Carlos Condit had accepted a rematch with Nick Diaz following Condit's decision win at UFC 143. The news set off a small chain of tweets that have left some wondering if the UFC bypassed the management of the fighters (especially Condit manager, Malki Kawa) in getting the fight done. It's something that the UFC has done in the past, so it wouldn't be shocking.

First, the news on The Underground:

However, sources close to the deal just confirmed with The Underground that Carlos Condit has accepted a rematch with Nick Diaz, with the UFC Interim Welterweight title again on the line.

Condit said 'Yes, I accept the rematch' and will be in Las Vegas on Friday to finalize the deal.

First, Ariel Helwani had a tweet reacting to the news:

Something Malki quickly backed up on his own Twitter:

More after the jump...

Update: Mistake with the headline given that Diaz has not accepted the fight that I know of. The fight isn't official, simply Condit's acceptance of it.

SBN coverage of UFC 143: Diaz vs. Condit

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