The highly anticipated fight between UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and Nick Diaz has finally come to a close and St-Pierre walked away with another decisive victory.
The Bell Centre in Montreal was avidly pro St-Pierre from the moment Diaz walked to the cage to the moment the cage was cleared. It was the action inside of the cage that showed everyone why St-Pierre is the world's best at welterweight.
St-Pierre wasted no time establishing the takedown and controlling Diaz on the ground. While Diaz did everything he could to stay active and create space, St-Pierre was equal to everything Diaz attempted. St-Pierre stayed on top of Diaz in ground situations and did a tremendous job of maintaining his position. Diaz is a high level ground expert, but the strength of St-Pierre was too much for him.
In the stand up department, St-Pierre also did a good job of using his takedowns to open up space for his jab and quick superman punches that stung Diaz. In the third round, St-Pierre showed some signs of slowing but Diaz was unable to take control of the fight.
When the final horn sounded the judges awarded the bout to St-Pierre with unanimous scores of 50-45. It may not have been 'the worst beating in the history of the UFC,' it was however clearly a very good showing by George St-Pierre.
During the post-fight interview, St-Pierre gave Diaz credit for what he was able to do in the cage. "I didn't want to fight with him in a boxing range because he's the best boxer in mixed martial arts, and his jiu-jitsu is amazing," St-Pierre told Joe Rogan. "When you fight a guy like this, it's almost impossible to get ready for them."
In defeat, Diaz again left the door open for retirement just as he did following his loss to Carlos Condit. "I think I'm going to have to just kind of figure out if I want to keep doing this," Diaz said. "To be honest, I don't think I've really got it anymore."
When Rogan suggested that Diaz take some time to thing about possible retirement Diaz replied, "I have been thinking it over for about a year now." Diaz also mentioned that he had been 'looking for a way out of MMA' for a while now. The payday for a fight like he just had will probably set him up pretty well and make retirement financially an option.
With this win St-Pierre will be looking to his next challenger. That man will be Johny Hendricks who earlier in the night defeated Carlos Condit by split decision.
The official attendance in the Bell Centre was 20,145. UFC 158 aired Saturday night live on pay per view.
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