In the sport of mixed martial arts, strategy and criticism play a significant role in a fighter's success. From fight to fight, gameplans are formulated to create an optimal chance of victory, and those gameplans normally play into a fighter's strengths. When those gameplans fail, constructive criticism from coaches is normally a foolproof way to improve attributes in one's skill-set or pre-fight strategies to get back on the road to success.
Nick Diaz could be considered a hybrid of this progression, or some would say a "renegade". When the odds are stacked in his favor that his Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt could easily overwhelm his opponent, Diaz aims to please the casual fanbase with his peppering boxing instead. In fact, the chance that Diaz will try to out box any opponent is about as high as the chance Diaz will partake in "recreational drug use" when he isn't fighting.
Fans were overly critical of Diaz's strategies in the cage during his EliteXC stint when he barely slipped by Hawaiian Mike Aina at EliteXC: Uprising and lost via cut to K.J. Noons only two months later at EliteXC: Renegade. Both performances had many industry writers claiming Diaz was on the down slope of his career.
Diaz was only 24 years of age when he was defeated by Noons, yet some analysts felt that his heavy schedule of 25+ fights, style of fighting, and increasing scar tissue around his eyes was a sure sign that he would retire from the sport early. Fortuntately for fans, Diaz put a stop to those claims as he rattled off six straight wins from May 2008 to January 2010.
His two most recent wins, a rear-naked choke victory over Scott Smith in June of 2009 and an impressive destruction of DREAM champion Marius Zaromskis last Saturday, have suddenly put Nick Diaz's name back in the mix as a potential top ten welterweight. His style, one that was overly criticized in the past, has become not only a desirable attribute in the marketability of him as a main event fighter, but it's become something spectacular to watch.
The criticisms that Diaz's punching was "too weak" and resembled "patty cake" were thrown out the door on Saturday. While the technical boxing was what we would call "pitter patter", it's tough to tell Nick Diaz that it isn't a strategy worth pursuing in any fight.
Opportunities Abundant for the Resurgent Nick Diaz
Photo by Esther Lin, Strikeforce