GSP vs Diaz and others

[MuddyPaws1]

Another boring GSP fight , seriously for someone who really wanted to put a "beating" on Diaz prior to the fight , all he could muster for the entire 5 rounds were takedowns? Are you serious? It was like he was afraid of going toe to toe with Diaz. I am not a Diaz fan but for a guy like GSP who has all the talent in the world , has the best coaches available to him, and for 5 rounds his only offense was the mighty take down. Is it me or is GSP seems to be afraid of getting hit in the face?

Laying on top a guy for 5 rounds isn't exciting, he doesn't even have the power to finish a fight. I mean you have to go back 9 fights to Serra to April of 2008 to find a fight he actually finished. Penn's corner threw in the towel in 2009 but that was even 7 fights ago and Penn still wanted to fight. He now holds the UFC record for most consecutive time without a finish, with 150 fighting minutes.

The Hendricks fight was good, I always root for him but would have liked to see a finish there too. This fight stole the spotlight from the GSP lame duck fight.

The Fletcher fight was lame as hell. The undercard fighters put on a way better show.

 

[droidbook]

Im a big UFC fan and was so dissappointed in the Diaz vs GSP fight... 5 rounds of him laying on the ground and putting on no offense at all and after all that trash talking. Other fights I enjoyed more.

 

[Face Ache]

It's up to the challenger to win the fight.

 

[bmt134]

Im a big UFC fan and was so dissappointed in the Diaz vs GSP fight... 5 rounds of him laying on the ground and putting on no offense at all and after all that trash talking. Other fights I enjoyed more.

It was a GSP fight after all. Lucky for him it was a Montreal crowd, otherwise he would've been booed.

 

[ipodlover77]

Come on, lets be honest. I WANTED diaz to win but GSP just schooled him. Theres no other way to say it.

EVERYBODY knows that GSP's bread and butter is wrestling. If you already know that and still get taken down, its no ones fault except your own.

Not only that, Diaz was also bested on the feet, which was a place where everybody, including myself, thought he would kill GSP.

Overall, the fight was not really action packed but it was interesting to see Diaz 100% neutralized. Thought it poor sportsmanship that Diaz would say he could beat GSP. When you lost 50-45 then there was no real chance to win. I mean even Condit had a better chance putting away GSP.

I do hope that Hendricks will be the one who dethrones gsp. WAR HENDRICKS.

 

[MarkCollette]

all he could muster for the entire 5 rounds were takedowns? Are you serious? It was like he was afraid of going toe to toe with Diaz. I am not a Diaz fan but for a guy like GSP who has all the talent in the world , has the best coaches available to him, and for 5 rounds his only offense was the mighty take down. Is it me or is GSP seems to be afraid of getting hit in the face?

Laying on top a guy for 5 rounds isn't exciting

Half the fight was stand-up boxing. GSP repeatedly jabbed and superman punched Diaz in the face. Even when GSP took Diaz to the ground, he was kneeing him in the ribs and punching him, not just laying on him. GSP probably did most of the ground damage when Diaz would push him away, and then GSP would lunge down and punch, dodging around Diaz's legs. So stop talking out of your ass.

What you may have been missing, that I was too, was knock-out power punches. Sure, the jabs did do noticeably facial damage, but it'd be nice to see GSP do a good KO.

 

[MuddyPaws1]

Half the fight was stand-up boxing. GSP repeatedly jabbed and superman punched Diaz in the face. Even when GSP took Diaz to the ground, he was kneeing him in the ribs and punching him, not just laying on him. GSP probably did most of the ground damage when Diaz would push him away, and then GSP would lunge down and punch, dodging around Diaz's legs. So stop talking out of your ass.

What you may have been missing, that I was too, was knock-out power punches. Sure, the jabs did do noticeably facial damage, but it'd be nice to see GSP do a good KO.

Talking out my ass? Are you kidding me? The MMA world is abuzz with the same comments. My brother, who also fights, was AT the fight. And he said he heard the came comments ringside about how lame the fight was.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Another boring GSP fight , seriously for someone who really wanted to put a "beating" on Diaz prior to the fight , all he could muster for the entire 5 rounds were takedowns? Are you serious? It was like he was afraid of going toe to toe with Diaz.

According to FightMetric GSP landed 105 significant strikes (210 overall) to Diaz's 41 (80 overall). Diaz is known for his strike volume and accuracy and aside from a flurry in the 3rd round (early 4th?) GSP neutralized Diaz's standup game. After the fight Diaz said that GSP made it difficult for him to find his range and timing. I don't remember the exact number but I think 11 or 13 minutes of the fight were spent standing (about half the fight) and Diaz couldn't capitalize.

On the ground I thought the fight was interesting as well because Diaz has great BJJ which means GSP spent a lot of timing defending (or preemptively avoiding) submissions, reversals, etc.,. After the fight Diaz said that on the ground it felt like GSP knew what Diaz was going to do a moment before Diaz did it. I thought it was an entertaining wrestler vs BJJ battle that reminded me a bit of the Guida/Pettis fight a while back. Of course for fans that don't like and/or understand the grappling aspect of MMA I can see how the ground game can appear boring.

Diaz's game plan seemed to hinge on goading GSP into becoming reckless and turning the fight into a brawl but GSP is probably the last fighter on Earth to fall for such antics. Koscheck had a whole season of TUF to rattle GSP and he couldn't do it. If you are looking for a barn burner with guys headhunting then you should just skip GSP's fights as that's just not his style. He is disciplined enough not to get suckered in to brawls and talented enough to dictate where and how the fight happens.

The Condit/Hendricks fight was more exciting though I feel like Hendricks looked really one dimensional against Condit. The bullrush-and-throw-bombs tactic won't work against GSP and Hendricks will not be able to take GSP down at will like he did Condit. Hendricks certainly deserves the shot but I don't think he's well rounded enough to control the fight.

 

[MarkCollette]

According to FightMetric GSP landed 105 significant strikes (210 overall) to Diaz's 41 (80 overall). Diaz is known for his strike volume and accuracy and aside from a flurry in the 3rd round (early 4th?) GSP neutralized Diaz's standup game. After the fight Diaz said that GSP made it difficult for him to find his range and timing. I don't remember the exact number but I think 11 or 13 minutes of the fight were spent standing (about half the fight) and Diaz couldn't capitalize.

Thanks, good to see the actual stats.

Talking out my ass? Are you kidding me? The MMA world is abuzz with the same comments. My brother, who also fights, was AT the fight. And he said he heard the came comments ringside about how lame the fight was.

Hey, if you subjectively felt the fight was lame, cool, whatever. But saying "for 5 rounds his only offense was the mighty take down" and "Laying on top a guy for 5 rounds" is pure hyperbole.

 

[MuddyPaws1]

Hey, if you subjectively felt the fight was lame, cool, whatever. But saying "for 5 rounds his only offense was the mighty take down" and "Laying on top a guy for 5 rounds" is pure hyperbole.

Watching the fight, that's exactly what it was. Slap Slap Slap.....takedown, sit on him and slap him some more.

GSP has zero finishing ability.

The stats are valid, but you have to take them how they are scored. If you are not actually into MMA then you wouldn't understand. A significant strike means little if it doesn't do any damage. People think because the word significant is in there it means it was a damaging hit, but it isn't. And each slap while he was laying on top of Diaz counts.

So GSP lands 105 sig strikes....which is almost 4 times more than Hendricks landed in his fight, yet there is no finish. The Hendricks fight stole the night. It was much more entertaining. Sig strikes means nothing if they are just slaps.

You like stats...GSP holds the record for most time in the ring without a finish. EVER. It's been 4 or 5 years since his last finish.

 

[LethalWolfe]

So GSP lands 105 sig strikes....which is almost 4 times more than Hendricks landed in his fight, yet there is no finish. The Hendricks fight stole the night. It was much more entertaining. Sig strikes means nothing if they are just slaps.

And landing heavy punches doesn't mean anything either if you can't finish the guy. Hendricks couldn't finish his fight either and only won because of his takedowns which he did nothing with other than getting hit in the face by Condit. I think Johny actually received more damage while on top than he dished out. If Condit stuffed a takedown or two in the third, or the fight was 5 rounds, Hendricks gets KO'd or TKO'd. I know Hendricks busted his hand but if wants to beat... hell, just compete against GSP he needs much more than just his power left hand. If GSP only landed slaps that did little/no damage what does that say about Diaz if he can't even compete in a fight against a guy who can't damage him? That seems more insulting to Diaz than to GSP. Diaz landed 178 significant strikes against BJ at UFC 137 and couldn't put BJ away. Are you going to say Diaz hits like a kitten now?

I'd love it if GSP finished more fights but I think a combination of caution, injury and not having a mean streak has led to his record amount of decision wins. That and no one has figured out how to beat him yet. I think the loss to Serra made GSP very risk averse as he never wants to get caught like that again. GSP tore his groin midway through the Alves fight and lost vision in his left eye midway through the Shields fight due to an unintentional eye poke yet neither challenger was able to take advantage of his injuries. GSP broke Koscheck's face in their 2nd fight but Josh gutted it out and GSP could've cranked harder on Dan Hardy's arm to make him tap at UFC 111 but I don't think GSP is the type to be okay with breaking someone's arm in the cage.

While sometimes not thrilling, GSP's ability to consistently neutralize his opponents' strengths and dictate where the fight happens is amazing to me (as is his ground game especially since he did not come from a wrestling background). To each their own though.


EDIT: changed "no one can beat him" to "no one has figured out how to beat him yet".