UFC Fight Night 20: Diaz vs. Maynard Discussion

Awful fight. Diaz may be the worst technical strker in the UFC, horrible. Maynard didn't impress at all. He was clearly afraid to be on the ground with Nate, so is he really gonna be comfortable trying to take BJ down? Or will his plan be to out strke BJ? I hate to say it but the division (LW) I once saw as the most competitive doesn't even interest me anymore. The UFC needs to move Henderson, Varner and Cerrone to the UFC to freshen things up and after Aldo KO's Faber they need to force him to move up as well. Either that or BJ is gonna move up and there really is nothing the UFC can do to stop him.

 

You must have missed everything except the first 3 minutes of the 3rd round. :yep Diaz did absolutely nothing effective in the first two rounds. The first round wasn't too effective for either, however Maynard definitely slipped outboxed Diaz and landed way more clean punches. In the second round, Maynard had Diaz wobbling off of a couple different right hands, and dropped Diaz with a knee. Maynard really put it on Diaz in the second round. In the 3rd round for the first few minutes, and was having his best round so far. He still wasn't dominating and then Maynard rocked him hard again and had Diaz barely able to keep his feet for the rest of the fight.

I honestly have no idea whatsoever how anyone could have Diaz winning this fight. To be honest... the 2 of you in this thread who said you thought Diaz won are the only 2 people that I have heard say that outside of the one judge who must see blood and think it means that you score the round for the guy who isn't bleeding. Maynard was handling Diaz so easy on his feet that it forced Diaz to look for takedowns, which were easily shrugged off by Gray.

Maynard could have slammed Diaz around all night long... but this is what happens many times when we see a top notch wrestling fighting against a top notch submission artist. If the wrestler can win on his feet... he has the ability to keep the fight there, and the submission fighter is forced to go along with that gameplan because he can't decide where the fight goes. Maynard controlled that aspect of the fight too.

 

I agree, I was shocked to see one judge had it for Diaz.

 

Wow... you guys are so damn fickle. Lightweight doesn't interest you anymore because of this fight?atsch Maynard was in there swinging for the fences because he wanted to knock Diaz out. Simple as that. Maynard is undefeated and has now beat the likes of Frankie Edgar, Rich Clementi, Jim Miller, Roger Huerta, and Nate Diaz. ALL IN A ROW!

 

I'm not being Fickle man. You really think Maynard has any chance at all against BJ?

 

Don't you know Maynard? so try and be unbiased here

 

I definitely expect Penn to win that fight. However... there isn't a lightweight in the world that I wouldn't expect Penn to beat. Maynard definitely is the most qualified for a title shot... and definitely could see Maynard beating everyone else in the division. I haven't seen anyone at lightweight with a chance to beat Penn in quite a long time... but that doesn't make me lose interest in the division. I have a feeling Penn will be moving up soon, and then the talent level really evens back out with the chance of some really good matchups. Besides... this is MMA, and Maynard does hit very hard, and is a beast of a wrestler. It isn't impossible that he catches anyone and knocks them out... or that he takes them down and dominates them from top control. He at least has an outside chance of pushing Penn to become exhausted through grappling, which has been done before. If BJ becomes exhausted through fighting off Maynards takedowns, ect... and Gray doesn't wear himself out in the process... we could have an interesting fight. Let's remember that Gray trained with Penn for quite a while even after the Ultimate fighter show when Penn was his coach. So... he may have a good feel for him.

However... I always get the impression that Maynard isn't in a hurry to fight Penn because I don't think that he feels that he is ready yet. Either way... the lightweight division is still exciting.

 

I hear ya, I would actually favor Florian and Sanchez to beat Maynard though. You're right there are still some very exciting matchups, I'm actually kind of interested in seeing the Sherk/Guida fight (I'm pretty sure they are fightin in March on the GSP show). But I'm losing interest in the division in general because BJ as separated himself so far from the rest, WW is the same way. At least Middleweight has Belfort and Nate who I can honestly see giving Anderson problems, LHW has Shogun/Machida coming up eventually, Heavyweight is competitive at the top. I really don't think any of the WEC guys could beat BJ but who knows, maybe somebody's style can give him problems.

 

Double post

 

I know he has said that in interviews, but that just reinforces my point. The current #1 contender doesn't even want to fight the champion because he is not ready, doesn't make me all excited for the title fight

I really was turned off to see Maynard not going for the takedown at all. He should've taken him down a few times, mixed up his attack to see if maybe he could get close to a stoppage or sub (doubtful he was ever subbing Nate, but it could've happened if he stunned him or beat him up with GnP). but like I said above, if he was hesitant to take down Nate, what the hell is he going to do with BJ. I know what you'll say, he was winning the standup battle and was content to just do that. But after the 1st 2 rounds it was pretty clear he wasn't stopping diaz standing, so why not go for the finish and make a statement?

 

Answering the second part first... I think that Maynard did actually feel like he was close to stopping Diaz standing. He had him hurt several times in the 2nd round and it looked like Diaz was really wilting.

I am not all too excited to see Maynard fight Penn either. However, he is the best lightweight for the job right now. Like I said before though... not be all too interested in a title fight doesn't make me any less interested in the division. I would definitely tune in to watch Penn vs Maynard though... because we all know that in MMA anything can happen. It isn't like Maynard is a helpless, incapable fighter or anything. In reality... he is the type of fighter who has found the most success against Penn in the past.

 

Dan Hardy vs GSP? No. You're right. Maynard vs BJ Penn is a wait for the DVD to watch it title fight.

 

close fight. lots closer than gray's buddy is trying to say. diaz controlled the third until about 30 secs, gray clearly won the second and i thought the first was very close. saying gray clearly won the first is stupid.

 

You must've just been listening to the ridiculously biased commentating without even watching the fight.:yep

I disagree, Maynard landed cleaner, but Diaz had a higher workrate and landed more the entire way through. Maynard would land a decent shot and the commentators would be on his nuts for the rest of the round, regardless of what Diaz was doing afterward. He's sloppy and ugly to watch, but he was definitely doing the more constant work.

You're badly exagerrating. Maynard landed some hard shots, but he never really even hurt Diaz except for maybe in the last round, which was nullified by the fact that Diaz was dominating prior. Diaz is just a long, lanky guy with bad balance, so he's made to look hurt a lot more than he is. Rarely is he ever really shaken.

Diaz was piecing him up the entire third round, and outside of a huge right hand that landed in the second (which Diaz took beautifully) and a couple of other shots which weren't nearly as clean as was suggested, Maynard didn't do much on the feet. Diaz flat out-worked him and out-landed him.

He may've thought he was, and I guess the judges did as well, but I didn't. I don't strongly disagree with Maynard getting the decision on the grounds of clean striking and the fact that his blows were more effective. I just think he did it too far and few between, while Diaz kept the pressure up the entire fight and out-landed him. The fact that he wasn't visibly hurt at any point until the last round is what sways the fight in his favor for me. The Diaz brothers' fights are always very close and difficult to score, IMO.

 

http://mmajunkie.com/news/17530/gra...tly-pressing-for-title-shot-with-b-j-penn.mma
Maynard does not want any part of BJ right now.

Maynard - "If they want me to (fight Penn), I guess I will," Maynard said. "But it all depends on the timing. We'll have to see what they say."
Couture - "I think he's capable of beating B.J. Penn right now," the UFC Hall of Famer said. "But I think a little more experience would do him well. He obviously learned a lesson in this fight. You think Diaz talks some [expletive]? B.J.'s a pretty good [expletive]-talker too."