Simple enough, Carlos Condit’s strategy involved winning
For a while there, these two great warriors, Nick Diaz (R) and Carlos Condit (L) stood toe to toe and traded some devastating blows to the head.
Another great UFC event is in the record books. This one, UFC 143, took place Saturday, February 4, 2012 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Carlos Condit’s upset victory over Nick Diaz
After five hard fought rounds, Carlos Condit received an unanimous decision victory over tough guy Nick Diaz to take over the interim UFC Welterweight title which should ultimately lead to a meeting with Georges St-Pierre, the champion who has been waylaid by an ACL knee injury and just recently started working out after being out of action since April, 2011.
Kicks also count, and this one by Carlos Condit to the head of Nick Diaz was a dandy.
As you might expect, the Diaz fan base is upset and some claim this bout “Was really boring! Condit’s game plan involved staying out of harm’s way and outpointing our boy to get what mounts to as a candy ass decision.”
It’s true, Diaz, the former Strikeforce champion, spent the majority of the fight walking Condit down in an attempt to deliver his knockout blow. Condit was cracked more than a few times by the hard overhand rights and occasional left hooks, while looking for just the right opportunity to return fire.
It wasn’t until the third round that Condit got started. That’s when he became more relaxed and found his range to get his attack going. It all started when he caught Diaz with a solid left to the head. Later in the round, he had success with a series of blows to the midsection.
Carlos Condit shows off his new championship belt. At the end of the evening, it matters little if the scoring was close or how you won, it only matters that you won.
In the fourth round, Condit managed a number of hard leg kicks and one was a beauty to the head. After Condit took rounds three and four, that left round five to decide the match.
As they began round five, Condit appeared to be fresher and started to land more hard shots to the head. Then with about a minute left, Diaz managed to take Condit’s back and drag him down on the canvas. His rear naked choke attempt with under 30 seconds left fell short as Condit managed a reversal to gain top position just as time ran out.
The people who keep track of the punch and kick stats, Fight Metric, credited Condit with landing 68 total kicks to help him earn an overall striking advantage of 151-105. All three judges scored the bout in Condit’s favor, 49-46, 49-46, and 48-47 whose record now improves to (28-5 MMA, 5-1 UFC).
As you might expect, Diaz (27-8 MMA, 7-5 UFC) almost immediately threw a bit of a temper tantrum and threatened retirement while pouting, “I don’t need this sh##” If they were playing a board game like Monopoly or Checkers, you could be certain Mr. Diaz would have all the game pieces flying everywhere.
It was reported that Georges St-Pierre, who had expressed a preference to fight Diaz, was also disappointed by Diaz’s loss. After all, it’s Diaz, the guy who’s willing to wear the black hat, who puts the fannies in the seats and the really big money in the pocket of promoter.
If you’re concerned about Dana White’s profit and loss statement: UFC 143: the Diaz versus Condit event drew a reported 10,040 attendees to generate a live gate of $2.3 million. The number of complimentary tickets issued for the sold-out show was not revealed, but the reported figures indicate the UFC generated an average revenue of $229.08 per ticket. Plus, the Main Event was aired on pay-per-view, while FUEL TV aired four preliminary bouts. Two additional preliminary contests streamed live on Facebook. Add it all up; Mr. White did quite well.
Werdum defeats the durable Mr. Nelson
Roy “Big Country” Nelson tweeted this photo all over the world with the message: “Here is the cut from me head butting Werdum's knee in the 1st. My face is fine, forehead is a little sore.”
Early in the first round, Fabricio Werdum started pummeling Roy “Big Country” Nelson’s face with a slew of knee kicks that soon opened a nasty cut on Nelson’s forehead. As has been the case, Nelson took the punishment like a true warrior and kept coming. Then a right hand by Nelson dropped Werdum and the largely pro-Nelson crowd went bananas.
It quickly became apparent that the Brazilian was playing possum in similar fashion to the victory he had over Fedor. He nearly sank in a triangle as Nelson followed him to the ground. The second and third rounds saw much of the same from Werdum as he whipped Nelson with combinations and never allowed him to unload his big right hand. In the end, all three judges had Werdum winning it 30-27.
Koscheck defeats Pierce in a close one
Josh Koscheck ended up winning a split decision victory over Mike Pierce in a welterweight bout that puts him closer to a title shot. In the opening round Pierce demonstrated an effective jab that kept Koscheck off balance and forced him to go for the takedown late in the second and in the third round to offset his inability to get anything going in the standup.
The non-pandering patrons started ripping Koscheck a new as##### by chanting “Koscheck sucks.”
Still, fighters are going to have nights like this and as they say, a win is a win. The final scores had it, 29-28 once for Pierce and 29-28 twice for Koscheck. The decision was booed loudly.
Barao defeats Jorgensen
Renan Barao survived arguably the biggest test of his career and scored a unanimous-decision victory over former WEC bantamweight title challenger Scott Jorgensen.
The impressive performance earned Barao his 28th straight win and solidifies his status as one of the UFC’s top 135-pound contenders. Barao registered a takedown, hit Jorgensen with flying knees, round house kicks and repeatedly backed him up with jabs to gain an unanimous decision (30-27) from all three judges.
Herman taps Starks
In the opening bout of the pay per view, Ed Herman scored a second round submission victory over Clifford Starks. After eating a number of right hands from Starks in the first round, Herman decided to take the fight to the ground. It wouldn’t take long for Starks gave up his back which allowed Herman to slip his arm underneath Starks’ chin. Starks ended up tapping out at the 1:43 mark.
The complete fight results:
UFC 143 results: Fabricio Werdum defeats Roy Nelson (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
UFC 143 results: Josh Koscheck defeats Mike Pierce (29-28 Pierce, 29-28 Koscheck, 29-28 Koscheck)
UFC 143 results: Renan Barao defeats Scott Jorgensen by decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
UFC 143 results: Ed Herman defeats Clifford Starks by submission (rear naked choke) at 1:43 of round 2.
UFC 143 results: Dustin Poirier defeats Max Holloway via submission (mounted triangle-armbar) at 3:23 of round 1
UFC 143 results: Edwin Figueroa defeats Alex Caceres via split decision (28-27, 27-28, 28-27)
UFC 143 results: Matt Brown defeats Chris Cope via knockout (strikes) at 1:19 of round 2
UFC 143 results: Matt Riddle defeats Henry Martinez via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
UFC 143 results: Rafael Natal defeats Michael Kuiper via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
UFC 143 results: Stephen Thompson defeats Dan Stittgen via knockout (head kick) at 4:13 of round 1
