By Eddie Graveline, FullContactWriter.com
Interim title fights are definitely a polarizing subject in MMA circles, but no matter where you come out on that issue, UFC 143 had to have piqued your interest. The main event featured Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit both vying for the right to fight Georges St. Pierre whenever he's healthy again.
Diaz and Condit were an incredible pairing on paper, because their respective skill sets are almost identical. Both are very good strikers and both are very dangerous on the ground. Both are also extremely aggressive fighters, so to me, this looked like a can't-miss barn burner of a fight. On top of that, you had Josh Koscheck and some other high profile fighters on the card, so it was almost certain to be a great night of fights. Keep reading to see how it all played out.
Ed Herman submitted Clifford Starks via rear naked choke in the second round. Herman had his hands full with Stark, who looked way bigger in this fight. Stark's strength seemed to be an advantage in the first round, as he manhandled Herman a little bit and landed some very nice strikes. Herman hung in there, though, and got some offense going. In the second round, Herman was able to make a take down stick and got mount pretty quickly. He got Starks' back and sunk the choke in. That was all she wrote.
Renan Barao defeated Scott Jorgensen by unanimous decision. Jorgensen ran into a serious problem in Barao, who happens to be a teammate of Jose Aldo. Barao had a size and reach advantage on Jorgensen and used it very well when striking. Jorgensen tried to fight in close, but ate big punches every time he did. Barao's take down defense also proved to be a problem for the former WEC title challenger and by the time the second round was winding down, it was looking like Jorgensen would have to finish Barao in the third in order to get a win. He wasn't able to do much, though, so it was pretty obvious that Barao would get the decision. It wasn't for lack of effort on Jorgensen's part, but Barao definitely looks like a guy to watch in the future.
Josh Koscheck defeated Mike Pierce by a split decision. Mike Pierce is a solid figher and a very good wrestler, but you've generally got to have more than that going for you to stand more than a puncher's chance against Josh Koscheck. Incredible striking and impermeable take down defense would be a better recipe in my book, but hey, you never know. A lot of times, when two good wrestlers fight, it's kind of boring. That's kind of how it looked like it might be in the first round, when they clinched a lot and neither fighter landed much in the way of strikes. They got with it in the last two minutes of the round, though, and the striking started to heat up. Both fighters landed some nice shots. One thing's for sure and that's that if Koscheck took Pierce lightly, he made a mistake. I wasn't sure how the judges had scored the first round, but Koscheck faired a little better in the second. Pierce seemed to slow down a bit and Koscheck got a nice take down that was the deciding factor of the round, in my opinion. Pierce took Koscheck down early in the third, but he popped right back up. Koscheck got warned a second time for using his fingers to measure distance, because he kept poking Pierce. Koscheck got a take down in the last 30 seconds of the fight and I think that went a long way toward him getting the decision from the judges.
Fabricio Werdum dominated Roy Nelson in a unanimous decision victory. I was really curious to see how this fight would go. Nelson is pretty aggressive, so his fights are generally pretty exciting. Werdum on the other hand is very skilled, especially on the ground. I might have actually given Nelson the edge in this one, due to his striking and almost equal ground skills, but I was having a hard time making up my mind on how I thought it would go. Early in the first round, Werdum kicked one of Nelson's legs as he threw a punch, knocked him down and quickly took his back. Nelson was able to get back to his feet, but Werdum displayed textbook useage of a Muay Thai clinch and landed knee after knee to a seemingly helpless Nelson's body and chin. The ref actually had to call time and have Nelson looked at, because he was bleeding so badly from his face. Nelson actually caught Werdum's leg and punched him at the same time, causing him to fall down, but he couldn't do much once he had him down there. Nelson took more punishment early in the second round, but hung around and started to swing the momentum his own way later on. He landed a couple of very solid strikes that seemed to slow Werdum's attack as they headed into the third round. Nelson just couldn't get much going and it was pretty obvious how the results would go.
Carlos Condit defeated Nick Diaz by unanimous decision to become the interim UFC Welterweight Champion. Like I said in the opening, I couldn't wait to see how this fight went. I was almost positive that it would be spectacular, no matter who ended up winning, but I was pretty pumped when it was finally time to find out. The first round was good. Condit moved a lot and tried some creative striking, but really didn't land much. Diaz was more effective, in my opinion, but seemed to be taking his time and letting the fight come to him. In the second round, Diaz got a little more assertive. He had one particular flury of punches to Condit's body that probably got the judges to notice. He also slapped Condit and did quite a bit of taunting. I don't want to make it sound like Condit was getting blown out, because he was hanging right in there and throwing a lot, but to me, Diaz's level of control increased even more in the third. He got off some good combos, had Condit backpedaling a lot and was really just dictating the action. I think Condit won the fourth round. He was more active and landed several kicks and put some combinations together. Joe Rogan was insisting that Condit was winning the fight at that point, but I didn't see it that way. Diaz got a take down and took Condit's back late in the fifth round. He kept trying to get one of his arms, but couldn't do it, nor could he lock the rear naked choke up. Personally, I had it either going 3 or 4 rounds in favor of Diaz. The judges saw it completely opposite. Two of them gave Condit 4 of the rounds and one had him winning 3-2. I don't know about that one.
Comments