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UFC 143 Results: Diaz vs. Condit

2012-02-05T01:00:00Z

MMA Fighting has UFC 143 results for all of the Feb. 4 UFC 143 fights, plus live coverage from Las Vegas, live blogs of all the fights and live UFC 141 twitter updates.

In the main event, Nick Diaz will face Carlos Condit for the UFC interim welterweight championship. In the co-main event, Roy Nelson will square off against Fabricio Werdum in a heavyweight showdown.

Check out the full results below.

Main Card
Nick Diaz vs. Carlos Condit
Roy Nelson vs. Fabricio Werdum
Josh Koscheck vs. Mike Pierce
Renan Barao vs. Scott Jorgensen
Ed Herman vs. Clifford Starks

Undercard
Rafael Natal vs. Michael Kuiper
Alex Caceres vs. Edwin Figueroa
Matt Riddle vs. Henry Martinez
Matt Brown vs. Chris Cope
Justin Edwards vs. Mike Stumpf
Dustin Poirier vs. Max Holloway

UFC 143 Weigh-In Highlight Video

2012-02-04T02:15:45Z

LAS VEGAS -- The UFC 143 weigh-ins took place Friday afternoon at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Full UFC 143 weigh-in results here. Check out the highlights below.

UFC 143 Weigh-In Highlights

2012-02-04T02:00:56Z

UFC 143 Weigh-In Results: Diaz, Condit on Target

2012-02-04T00:33:15Z

For the first time since 2008, a man other than Georges St. Pierre will lay claim to the UFC's welterweight strap.

Welterweight headliners Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit both made weight during Friday's UFC 143 weigh-ins at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, rendering their interim title tilt official. No stranger to championships bouts, Condit managed to hit his mark perfectly, tipping the scales at 169 pounds. Diaz quickly followed suit, skimming the welterweight limit at 169 pounds to a chorus of cheers from the adoring Las Vegas audience.

Diaz was markedly tempered throughout the proceedings, especially considering his well-documented aversion to weigh-ins. "I'm ready to take my ass-whooping," he declared. "It's whatever."

Likewise, Condit appeared to be high spirits. "Nick Diaz is the toughest guy I've ever fought," he coolly stated. "I'm as prepared as I've ever been. I can't wait to get out there and do this thing."

Elsewhere on the main card, Roy Nelson continued his commitment to a sleeker figure, tipping the scales at a trim 246 pounds. His opponent, Fabricio Werdum, marked the end of a three-and-a-half year UFC sabbatical by similarly registering in at 246 pounds.

Meanwhile, Mike Pierce played heavily to the crowd's dislike of welterweight rival Josh Koscheck. After weighing in at 170 pounds, Pierce donned a blonde Koscheck-esque wig, which instantly incensed the former All-American. Both fighters had to be separated by UFC President Dana White.

Full weigh-in results are below.

More Coverage: UFC 143 Fight Card | UFC 143 Results
Walkout Shirts: Nick Diaz | Carlos Condit | Roy Nelson

Main Card (Pay-Per-View):
Nick Diaz (169) vs. Carlos Condit (169)
Roy Nelson (246) vs. Fabricio Werdum (246)
Josh Koscheck (170) vs. Mike Pierce (170)
Renan Barao (136) vs. Scott Jorgensen (135)
Ed Herman (185) vs. Clifford Starks (185)

Preliminary Card (FX):
Dustin Poirier (146) vs. Max Holloway (144)
Alex Caceres (136) vs. Edwin Figueroa (135)
Matt Brown (171) vs. Chris Cope (171)
Matt Riddle (170) vs. Henry Martinez (169)

Preliminary Card (Facebook):
Dan Stittgen (170) vs. Stephen Thompson (171)
Rafael Natal (186) vs. Michael Kuiper (183)

UFC 143 Weigh-In Results: Diaz vs. Condit

2012-02-03T20:35:46Z

All 22 fighters taking part in UFC 143 on Saturday night will first step on the scale at the UFC 143 weigh-ins on Friday, and we'll have the live video right here at MMAFighting.com.

In the main event, former Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz will square off against Carlos Condit for the UFC interim welterweight championship belt. In the co-main event, Roy Nelson will battle Fabricio Werdum in a heavyweight tilt. The other three fights on the UFC 143 pay-per-view card are Josh Koscheck vs. Mike Pierce, Renan Barao vs. Scott Jorgensen and Ed Herman vs. Clifford Starks.

The weigh-in, which will be held at the Mandalay Bay Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., begins at 7 p.m. ET on Friday and the video is below.

More Coverage: UFC 143 Fight Card | UFC 143 Results
Walkout Shirts: Nick Diaz | Carlos Condit | Roy Nelson

What's at Stake? UFC 143: Condit vs. Diaz Edition

2012-02-03T18:24:19Z

At UFC 143: Carlos Condit vs. Nick Diaz, more is on the line than a simple interim UFC welterweight title. Each fighter is at a different place in a different moment in their career. What's at stake for each surpasses a simple win or loss on their respective records. Each fight in the UFC is chance to write the future. Let's take a closer look at the match-ups to see the specific predicament tomorrow's competitors find themselves in - and where they hope to go.

More Coverage: UFC 143 Fight Card | UFC 143 Results
Walkout Shirts: Nick Diaz | Carlos Condit | Roy Nelson

Carlos Condit vs. Nick Diaz

It's obvious what's at stake here from a superficial level: an interim title and a chance to face reigning UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre (GSP). But that's hardly the end of it. That's particularly true in the case of Condit. For all the well-deserved praise and accolades of 'The Natural Born Killer', he's yet to earn a true signature win in his MMA career. Diaz is, incontestably, the best and highest-ranked fighter he's faced to date. A win over Diaz gives Condit the type of legitimacy that none of his previous victories could hope to offer.

For Diaz, a win over Condit would mark the second time in as many fights he's bested a former champion of a Zuffa-owned organization. Should he defeat Condit and eventually GSP (a monumentally difficult task), that would make it three former champions from Zuffa organizations in three fights.

Diaz vs. GSP is also the fight fans prefer to see. It's the fight that's better for UFC's bottom line and would likely rally more casual fan interest. Perhaps most importantly, a win over Condit and eventual bout with GSP would be the defining, culminating moment of Diaz's undulating MMA journey. While not exactly nomadic, he's historically bounced around organizations, never quite on the linear path a typical, blue chip contender takes. With a win over Penn, Diaz set his career in motion to finally achieve the ultimate prize. Losing to Condit derails that in the most profound and devastating way. In a division as thick as welterweight, title opportunities are fleeting. If Diaz wants to make good on the promise of his career, a loss to Condit at this moment is simply not an option.

Roy Nelson vs. Fabricio Werdum

This is one of those bouts where there's as much to lose as there is to gain. Nelson enters this bout having lost two of his last three. He most recently bested Mirko Filipovic at UFC 137, but he's thus far come up short in his Zuffa career to establish himself as a true heavyweight contender. In fact, each time he's faced a top ten UFC heavyweight, he's failed. He typically makes a strong account of himself even in losing efforts, but if he really wants to run with the front of the division, a win over Werdum is frankly a must. Werdum is currently ranked fifth is the MMA Nation/USA TODAY Consensus Rankings. A win over the Brazilian could finally position Nelson in the top 10 and back on track as a true heavyweight contender.

Werdum is similarly looking to stay relevant, but has much more to lose. Werdum jumped to the top of the heavyweight division by submitting Fedor Emelianenko in June of 2010. He's only fought once since then, a loss to now number-one heavyweight contender Alistair Overeem. A loss to Roy Nelson (currently ranked #14) could very well bump Werdum out of the top 10. By contrast, a win over Nelson likely keeps Werdum where he's at and sets up a potential showdown with former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir (he's ranked only one spot above Werdum at #4). The winner of that eventual bout would have a legitimate claim to face the winner of Junior dos Santos vs. Alistair Overeem. If not them, then who?

Josh Koscheck vs. Mike Pierce

Perennial welterweight contender Josh Koscheck is in an unenviable position. Like Jon Fitch (before being billy clubbed by Johny Hendricks at UFC 141), Koscheck is talented enough to beat most top welterweight contenders, but a fairly clear step below GSP. And having lost to St. Pierre twice, few wish to see a third dance between the two. Koscheck is in divisional limbo. He's got to beat Pierce to stay where he is, but where he is isn't exactly going anywhere (for the moment, anyway). The true litmus test will be to see if Koscheck can stay motivated for a predicament so suffocating and an opponent that doesn't truly move him from his Sisyphean position. That isn't to say Pierce isn't a challenge. He assuredly is. The question is whether Koscheck cares enough to continue marking time.

For Pierce, the bounty is easy to see. It's not the toughest test of his career (that distinction belongs to Jon Fitch), but it is the most high profile. He's on the main card of a pay-per-view and in the featured bout of the evening. He's never before received this kind of UFC push, this kind of media attention or this kind of opportunity to create visibility for himself (Pierce is not even ranked in the top 25 of all welterweights). Koscheck represents a huge scalp. If Pierce can collect it, he can begin to do wonders for his career.

Renan Barao vs. Scott Jorgensen

UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz is tied up with Urijah Faber for the immediate future, but it's not as if he's got a ton of contenders lined up should he get past The California Kid. Barao isn't exactly a well-known commodity to the larger public, but what he lacks in popularity he more than makes up for in fighting acumen. Barao is undefeated in his four-fight Zuffa run, dating all the way back to June of 2010. Jorgensen is most certainly his toughest opponent (and is ranked higher), but Barao is riding a huge wave of fan interest and career momentum with the shellacking of Brad Pickett at UFC 138.

Jorgensen simply wants another crack at the champ. He lost handily to Cruz at WEC 53, but is on a two-fight win streak and most recently defeated Jeff Curran at UFC 137. This bout with the highly-regarded Barao - at a time when the division is short on contenders - is arguably about setting up a number-one contender to Cruz's (or perhaps soon Faber's) title. Jorgensen is 29, so even if he's derailed here he probably has time to put together another title run. But each time a fighter is stopped short on a title shot path, it's increasingly difficult to start all over again. Jorgensen has a serious opportunity in front of him and needs to strike while the iron is hot.

Ed Herman vs. Clifford Starks

Herman wants to prove he belongs and can still compete within the UFC middleweight division. A win over the talented if unheralded Starks proves he at least deserves to continue his last-chance ascension. Whether Herman can compete with the upper echelon of middleweights remains to be seen (and he had trouble doing so before his two-year hiatus), but a win over Starks at least affords the chance to try his hand at it one more time.

Starks, the wrestling standout from Arizona State University, faces a great moment to kick start his UFC career. Starks holds a win over Dustin Jacoby, one he earned at UFC 137. But Herman is more of a known commodity, a respected grappler and a good test for this juncture of Starks' career. Starks beating Herman fits the model of how prospects become contenders and eventually, how contenders become stars. The unknowns beat the knowns and the knowns beat the greats. Who knows what lies ahead for Starks? I'm not suggesting any future is predetermined. But if he wants to set out on that established journey, a win over Herman is a perfectly good way to start.

From the preliminary card:

Alex Caceres has the opportunity to build on his drop to bantamweight by besting Edwin Figueroa. After a rough start in the UFC featherweight division, Caceres looked improved at 135 pounds when he topped Cole Escovedo at UFC on Fox 1.
Dustin Poirier has got to be on the short list of rising contenders in the UFC featherweight division. A win over Max Holloway won't earn him a title shot against champion Jose Aldo, but it will likely get him the chance to face a marquee name.

Nine Ways of Looking at UFC 143

2012-02-03T17:42:04Z

UFC 143 is now just a day away, and while the Super Bowl weekend fight card might not yet be mainstream enough to spawn its own puppy equivalent, there are still no shortage of questions, concerns, and pithy comments to sort through before Saturday night’s event. Here are nine of them, in no particular order.

I. Beware the ghost of Georges St-Pierre, for he haunts this fight card. And by ghost, I mean the actual living person. And by haunts, I mean shows up with a sad attempt at facial hair and gives interviews. The point is, he’s there and it’s impossible to forget that he’s there. Nick Diaz is right to complain about about GSP casting his long shadow over these proceedings, but it’s inevitable. No one -- not even B.J. Penn or Josh Koscheck, and certainly not Carlos Condit -- provokes as interesting a reaction from the normally robotic welterweight champ. For instance, check out what GSP had to say about Diaz, via UFC.com:

More Coverage: UFC 143 Fight Card | UFC 143 Results
Walkout Shirts: Nick Diaz | Carlos Condit | Roy Nelson

"I don't truly hate him as a person. I don't know that he is a bad guy, but I hate what he brings to the sport with the disrespect and the unprofessional things he says and does. It is sort of a professional hatred. He has been nothing but disrespectful and arrogant toward me. During UFC 137 (week) I felt like I had to walk around Las Vegas with my fists ready (to punch Diaz) because every time I came across him he wanted to fight there and then. Every time the elevator opened (in the hotel) I needed to be ready to fight in case he stepped in. I was on edge all week. This guy is crazy."

Honestly, who but Diaz could accomplish this? Who else could make GSP feel like he needed to be ready to fight in a hotel lobby? Who could even get him to break out of his stoic superstar character long enough to admit it? Diaz might not like the fact that so many people are talking about and hoping for an eventual GSP-Diaz showdown, but he kind of has himself to blame. He’s the one who got under the champ’s skin, so now he’s got a whole new cheering section headed into the Condit bout.

II. Nick Diaz is still not firmly planted in reality, but that doesn’t mean he’s not right about some stuff. That’s more or less the thesis of my Sports Illustrated column this week (be a pal and give it a click, won’t you?), and it’s one that I think is supported by the events of this week in particular. For instance, complaining about the UFC’s selective editing of pre-fight promo videos might not be the smartest thing for a fighter to do, but he’s got a point. All that obviously scripted hype we see in the opening seconds of each pay-per-view is pretty cringe-worthy. Can you imagine the Super Bowl opening with an image of Tom Brady delivering some stilted line about how he’s going to get his revenge on Eli Manning and the Giants? No way. At the same time, if there’s anyone in need of a script at times, it’s Diaz. I’ve personally done interviews with him where, once it’s over, he’s insisted that I delete it and do another one, all because he wasn’t happy with what he said. Then, when I agreed, he said almost exactly the same thing in the second interview as he did in the first. This is a guy who seems not totally in control of the things coming out of his mouth, and yet he's right about some of the UFC’s practices. It is ridiculous for a pro sports organization to literally script and edit this stuff into the kind of narrative it thinks it can sell. Diaz is somehow one of the only people reasonable and/or brave enough to point that out, even if he may be halfway out of his mind on a variety of other topics.

III. Does Roy Nelson even know when he’s being ironic anymore? It started with the belly rubs, then the mullet, then what our own Shaun Al-Shatti dubbed the "dwarf beard." Now Nelson’s entire appearance seems devoted to making fun of itself. Don’t get me wrong, I love self-deprecation as much as the next guy who mostly hates himself and others, but you get to a point where a joke identity threatens to become your real identity. It’s like your friend who wears a pair of cut-off jean shorts to a party. You know, as a goof. Then everyone thinks it’s hilarious, so he does it again at the next party. And the next one. Pretty soon, he’s wearing cut-off jean shorts to the mall and being seen in public with him becomes problematic. That’s what happens when you start living your gimmick. Nelson probably does not think of himself as a gimmicky person. Not really. But when he gets up in the morning and stands in front of the mirror to brush out his mullet and clear the crumbs from his Lord of the Rings beard, what does he think? When it’s just him and the dude in the mirror who looks like a roadie for Foghat, what seems true then?

IV. Heading into the fight with Mike Pierce, Josh Koscheck would be wise to consider the plight of his teammate, Jon Fitch. Like Koscheck, Fitch was also a considerable favorite to win his last fight. Most of us thought he’d wrestle his way to another plodding decision and that would be that. Then he got floored by Johny Hendricks’ left hand and suddenly he had a brand new set of problems. That can happen to anyone, but it seems more likely to happen if you go into a bout with Koscheck’s almost comically overblown hubris. In the TV drama version of life, nothing good happens to guys like that in the end. That might not matter when it comes to actual events that are dictated by people rather than screenplays, but maybe it affects how we interpret those events. When a guy like Fitch suffers an upset KO loss, it seems like bad luck. If it were to happen to Koscheck here, especially after his total dismissal of Pierce as an opponent, it might seem more like a comeuppance.

V. Fun, mostly meaningless fact: when Fabricio Werdum debuted in the UFC on April 21, 2007, only one current UFC champion was then in the midst of an uninterrupted title reign. As you probably guessed, that champ is Anderson Silva, who claimed the UFC middleweight strap some six months prior and has held it ever since. GSP had dropped his welterweight belt to Matt Serra in a shocking upset just weeks earlier, and the other divisions were captained by guys like Randy Couture (heavyweight champ), Chuck Liddell (light heavyweight), and Sean Sherk (lightweight). Two of those guys are now officially retired, and the other might as well be. That tells you something about Silva’s dominance. He’s been champ long enough to see a guy like Werdum come and go and come again. The weather around it may change, but the mountaintop stays the mountaintop.

VI. Matt Riddle explained his current losing streak by saying he doesn’t "do the point game," which is true. His fights tend to be exciting affairs, if only because he’s charging face-first into punches. Then again, that’s a convenient explanation when you’re losing decisions. When you’re winning them, it’s always because you’re the better, smarter fighter. That’s when you’ll hear guys talking up their own strategic brilliance, their ability to stick to a game plan, their savvy. But when the judges don’t see it their way? Ah, hell. It’s all a point game anyway. I guess fighters need to tell themselves something. It’s not like they can claim that the sun was in their eyes.

VII. Could Carlos Condit be the perfect antidote to Nick Diaz’s style? If Diaz has one fatal weakness (other than his love of video blogging while driving, which is just a horrible idea), it’s that he tends to start slow. He tends to almost gleefully absorb punishment in the opening minutes of a fight, then crank up the heat until his opponent breaks. Condit, on the other hand, is a pretty fast starter. He stopped his last two opponents in the first round and, like Diaz, neither of them had ever been knocked out before Condit got after them. Diaz doesn’t seem to mind getting hit and his cardio is never an issue, so going after him early is certainly a risk. It also might be the best shot Condit has.

VIII. Prelim fighter to keep an eye on: Michael Kuiper. The unbeaten Dutch middleweight is making his UFC debut against Brazilian Rafael Natal, and it should be interesting to see how he fares, for a couple reasons. Kuiper is a judo specialist who’s been knocking people out on the European scene lately, but he’s never fought a non-European opponent on non-European soil in his three-year MMA career. I’m not saying the competition is weak across the Atlantic, though we have to admit that Belgium isn’t exactly Brazil when it comes to exporting MMA talent. That’s what makes Kuiper such an interesting newcomer. It’s unfair to ask a guy to represent a continent’s worth of fighters, but if Kuiper can be anywhere near as successful here as he’s been back home, it might open the door for more European fighters. If he gets smashed by a middleweight also-ran, perhaps it’s a sign that European MMA is still lagging behind like American soccer.

IX. Farewell, UFC Gladiator Man. We hardly knew ye. The UFC has put together a new intro, finally, and the early word is that it’s a) pretty sweet, and b) really expensive. Maybe the latter explains why Gladiator Man got to hang around for eight years before being sent to that great arena in the sky. Will there come a time when MMA fans attempt to big time each other on forums by insisting that they’ve been watching this sport since back in the Gladiator Man days? I kind of hope so, as stupid as that is.

UFC 143 Main Event Breakdown: Nick Diaz vs. Carlos Condit

2012-02-03T15:34:03Z

The UFC's annual Super Bowl weekend card has been noticeably short of buzz. Maybe that's because UFC 143 was originally supposed to feature welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre defending his belt, or maybe it's simply because the sports world is all aflutter with the New England Patriots vs. New York Giants matchup. Or maybe, increasingly sophisticated fans are underwhelmed by the injury-racked undercard.

Whatever the case, at least fans who pay big money to watch the event in person or plunk down $55 to view it at home have little chance of being let down by the main event.

Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit are two of the more intense fighters in the division. They're also cut from the same cloth, action fighters who will savagely compete until the final horn. And that should make the interim title fight a sight to behold.

More Coverage: UFC 143 Fight Card | UFC 143 Results
Walkout Shirts: Nick Diaz | Carlos Condit | Roy Nelson

Diaz (26-7, 1 no contest) has seen his fame move to a new level over the last few months. Once cast as a malcontent, he's seen the increased interest in his career give him a new forum to express his views and beliefs. We may still not fully comprehend him, but at least there is an attempt to understand one of the sport's most intriguing personalities.

A win over Condit will increase the spotlight substantially. Georges St-Pierre has repeatedly and passionately voiced a hope of facing Diaz, and the storyline between the two would make for an easy sell.

But to get there, he's got to go through Condit (26-5), a tall and rangy 27-year-old who excels at finding a way to turn the fight's pace and tempo to his liking.

Condit's best attribute is his willingness to be aggressive no matter the situation. Whether he's standing across from his opponent or flat on his back, he can almost always be found attacking. He may not fire off the punch output that Diaz does -- nobody does -- but he throws hard and often. That willingness to exchange has intensified in recent fights, as he's become more trusting of his own striking abilities.

Condit's striking style is more of a kickboxing style than Diaz, who favors straight boxing. That could pay dividends in this fight, especially given Condit's two-inch reach advantage. If he can slow down Diaz's hands by broadening the distance between them with kicks, that will be a major accomplishment. One of the few fighters who slowed Diaz down was Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos, who proactively used kicks for that very reason. Even though he ended up losing, Santos' strategy showed promise.

Diaz doesn't have tremendous reach for his height -- 74 inches -- but he uses it well, especially his jab, which he often pistons out repeatedly. It works simultaneously as a range-finder and as a pressure tool. His opponent is often so busy trying to keep Diaz's hand out of his face that he goes long stretches without firing back anything of value. All the while, Diaz is racking up points and putting dents in his opponent's armor.

His volume is easy to see by numbers. According to FightMetric, Diaz lands 6.22 strikes per minute, a number that would rank him in the top five in UFC history if he'd had the required number of fights.

That said, he does get hit as well, taking 3.19 strikes per minute. Given Condit's newfound power, that could lead to some interesting moments, even though Diaz seemingly never gets hurt. Aside from a doctor stoppage due to cuts that was ruled a KO in 2007, he hasn't been truly KO'd since 2002 when he was 19 years old and in his fifth pro fight.

When it comes to finishes, the numbers would suggest we may not see all five scheduled rounds. Condit has only been to a decision three times in 32 pro fights, and has finished 11 of his last 12 wins. Diaz has gone to decisions far more often, but that was before he came into his own and melded his volume and power. Since then, he's finished nine times during his 11-fight win streak.

Then again, these guys are finished so infrequently -- it's been over four years for Diaz, and that came by the aforementioned doctor stoppage, and over five years for Condit -- that it's hard to imagine either will be put away with so much at stake.

It's also worth noting their respective ground games. Diaz is a Gracie jiu-jitsu black belt and is thought to be the more advanced of the two, but it's interesting to note he has just eight of his 26 wins by tapout. By comparison, Condit has 13 of his 27 wins by tapout. Diaz is probably more technically proficient and positionally dominant while Condit has a more attack-oriented ground game.

That may prove to be a moot point. Neither of the two are particularly big on taking the fight down to the ground. Diaz tries more often (1.62 attempts per 15 minute compared to Condits 1 attempt), but Condit is the better takedown artist of the two (58 percent accuracy compared to Diaz's 33 percent).

I fully expect most of this fight to be fought near the middle of the cage, with spurts around the perimeter. Diaz does his best work when he's backing his opponents up, and Condit doesn't buckle under pressure. He may be willing to let Diaz fire off first and then counterstrike, but he's not going to be spending a lot of time backpedaling.

This is a fight that will be won not by hands and feet, but by heart and conditioning. Diaz and Condit are fairly evenly matched everywhere, so what separates them? It's Diaz's conditioning. His relentless pace never wavers, and so far no one has been able to keep up with his volume. For judges, rounds where one fighter significantly out-lands another are easy to score. Diaz will be the one landing more often. Condit won't outstrike Diaz, so he'll have to finish him. And who finishes Nick Diaz nowadays?

In a fight of the year candidate, Diaz out-points Condit for a unanimous decision, and the Georges St-Pierre watch begins yet again.