question about Ninja - Lawler. . .

Ok, the more I think about it, the more 30-27 pisses me off. Diaz himself admitted he couldn't figure Aina out in the first round. He didn't really score that many of his pitty-pats, the ones he did land, Aina allowed to land because he was busy sizing up and timing very damaging uppercuts (credit to Nick's chin, there were some bombs); and a couple of decent kicks don't trump Aina's very effective aggression.

The only justification I can see for the lopsided scoring is a) favoring Diaz constantly but ineffectively letting his hands go throughout the fight or b) the fact that Diaz was clearly better in the clinch/on the ground, especially in the latter halves of 2 and 3. We all knew he had the superior pedigree in those areas coming into the fight. The fact that he had cumulatively over 2" of back control throughout the fight and couldn't - or at least didn't - capitalize sort of takes the air out of his technical superiority as a scoring criteria. You don't score based on potential - and you should score an overmatched guy being able to rise to the occasion and defend himself admirably in another guy's comfort zone. Like I said, Nick has a granite chin, anyone who didn't would have been KTFO. One might say, "Had the rounds been longer, Aina would have been submitted." I would counter that were it a championship fight, Aina very well might have knocked him out in the fifth. Granite or no, you can only take so many hail marys to the face, especially while tiring. Diaz's defense wasn't super hot.