Carlos Condit defeated Nick Diaz by unanimous decision at UFC 143 Saturday night from the Mandalay bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. With the win, Condit became the UFC's interim welterweight champion and will face long-time champion Georges St. Pierre in GSP's return fight after recovering from a knee injury. Condit was able to avoid being suckered into Diaz's striking game and his gameplan of sticking to the outside and working leg kicks and deciding when he wanted to open up with strikes earned him the win on all three judges' scorecards with scores of 49-46, 49-46 and 48-47.
Diaz was almost able to steal the fight in the final minute when he was able to secure a takedown and take Condit's back. Carlos was able to defend well enough to get to the final bell and get his hand raised. Following the bout Diaz claimed he was retiring from the sport of mixed martial arts because he didn't want to put up with a sport that would score the fight for Condit who many saw as having "ran" the whole fight.
Here are the full highlights from the fight courtesy of ESPN:
0 recs | 17 comments
Bravo, Carlos.
Beautiful performance.
ElliotMatheny - February 5, 2012
Much respect, Condit.
Those strikes in the 4th round were brilliant. Let’s hope he can crush GSP.
AusEagle - February 5, 2012
That was an epic fight
And I would have loved 2 more rounds of it. When I saw Carlos refuse to be engaged on the fence in the first, I thought it was a good bet he’d have a shot at a decision. Such a disciplined game plan! Wow, what a great fight.
And the Diaz pickers will be all enraged and shit. The live results comments were laughable at points.
DankNabbot - February 5, 2012
By the way,
This announcer doesn’t know shit.
DankNabbot - February 5, 2012
The fight was good, Not what I expected... but good
Carlos had a great effective gameplan. He did what he had to do to win.
Watching the fight at first I thought Carlos dominated it… But rewatching it I had it tied up at the 5th (and had Diaz winning the 5th) but the fight could’ve gone either way… Great win for Condit and I hope Diaz doesn’t hang em up after this, would love to see a rematch
rscott94 - February 5, 2012
I wouldn’t call running backwards until your back hits the cage and then scrambling only to do it over and over again exactly dominating. Smart game plan by Condit. No doubt about that but coming from someone who said that Nick was not going to be able to take the amount of punishment he was going to inflict on him, most of us thought that he was actually going to go toe to toe with Nick.
berkeleyboy510 - February 5, 2012
I said....
rscott94 - February 5, 2012
Not quite the war that I was expecting but kudos to Condit
mthom - February 5, 2012 via mobile
Condit fought smart.
He never let Diaz get into his groove and had him frustrated a number of times. Condit was backing up — but was still hitting more significant strikes than Diaz.
And something I think that actually affected the judges is that when Diaz tried to ‘clown’ Condit it didn’t work. Condit stuck to his gameplan. He exchanged when he wanted to but always finished with a leg kick.
Diaz had small flurries but couldn’t sustain them into any real offense. Condit kept peppering him with shots and leg kicks — and won.
I’m not going to say he set a template to beat the Diaz brothers, but he was the first fighter to be able to stick to a game plan for an entire fight against the Stockton Slap.
fbihop - February 5, 2012
I should mention, I’m from Albuquerque, I know people who train with Condit and I know that Condit is a good guy.
Also, I hate the Diaz brothers.
But I try to score the fights objectively when I watch them and had it 48-47 Condit. I had Condit taking the 1st, 3rd and 4th rounds.
fbihop - February 5, 2012
I went out to see a band tonight (who were awesome, yo). I was going to get the online PPV when I got back, but my desire to know who won completely overtook me.
And…these are the highlights of the fight? Uhhhhhh. I think I’m going to skip the PPV now.
ihateemo - February 5, 2012
Well done to Condit
Diaz seems to think walking forward and playing tough deserves a win.
Diaz plods forward, Condit circles out landing a body strike, Diaz plods forward again.
UncleMax - February 5, 2012
Great, now we have a guy fighting like GSP actually fight GSP.
It’s gonna be like watching two safety cars on a formula 1 track.
pornflake - February 5, 2012
Based on tonight fight, GSP would have picked Diaz apart
UncleMax - February 5, 2012
Are u serious how do you know condits gonna fight the same way against gsp seriously people your gonna complain about condit fighting smart for a tittle and a shot at the real tittle n a couple months. I mean The man literraly has like a 80% finnishing rate and believe me he is no gsp. I can not wait for that fight honestly a lot better than gsp diaz in my eyes.
youfailme91 - February 5, 2012 via mobile
It's going to be two guys doing legkicks, jabs and counting points.
That’s not why I fell in love with MMA.
pornflake - February 5, 2012
Stay Classy, Stockton.
s1rude - February 5, 2012
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