UFC 158: Who do you want to win vs Who do you think will win

Title says it all. Who do you think will win and is it the same as the person you want to win?
I would honestly like Diaz to win. Shake things up and I am always a fan of the upset. But I think GSP will win with his smothering and grinding for 5 rounds. But I would like to see that style countered with some good BJJ and Nick sneaking in a sub.

want diaz to win think gsp will.......i like both guys but i want to see gsp fight again....im tired of watching his great teakdowns and top controll.....nobody can argue not even dana that nick is a fighter and he always comes to fight.....and dont get me wrong..i think nick can win if its a fight rather than a wresteling match but i dont think gsp will "fight" nick...i hope im wrong

I always root for the more exciting fighter and am big time rooting for an upset tonite.
However, I feel this fight will be pretty one sided in GSPs favor. I don't think Diaz has a huge strength disadvantage, and dont thing he will be able to maintain top position on the ground or submit GSP from his back.

Rooting for GSP and I think he'll win. Probably just conrol Diaz, and rough him up with short GnP . Hoping he wins by sub though.

I'm thinking GSP, and he's pissed enough lay an epic beating on Diaz. Like Koschek, like Baby J, like Serra, Nick goes to the hospital hurt bad.

I'm surprised how much I want Condit to win and I think he will .... Everyone needs get beat down and It's Hendricks' turn.

Ellenberger cause ya'll know how I feel about the whole TRT thing.
From: ESPN June 2011
Nate Marquardt broke his silence Tuesday regarding the failed medical exam that kept him off the main event of last weekend's UFC card in Pittsburgh and led to his dismissal from the organization.
According to Marquardt's management team, the fighter, who was on hormone replacement therapy to address low testosterone levels, failed his medical tests when his testosterone levels exceeded acceptable limits.

Dana White Announces Nate Marquardt Cut From UFC for Failed Medicals
By Brent Brookhouse on Jun 25 2011... Bloody Elbow

I'm sure Nate has all of his missing testes juice all topped up, approved and good to go.

I want Bigg Rigg to win... But I fully expect Condit to put on his best Kalib Starnes impression.

I'm full on with Krieger

Well, GSP did his best GSP impression, but Nick wouldn't go away.

I know someone is gonna try to say different, but I actually never said Diaz would win.
Diaz actually surprised me with his decent/good TDD in the later rounds, but it was a GSP fight through and through for the majority of the fight. Diaz deserves credit for hanging in there and actually doing more damage to GSP than GSP did to him, but there was no doubt about the winner of this fight. I'll take solace in the fact that Diaz hung in there.

And if anyone "wanted" to see GSP win the way that he won, then I feel bad for them.

I don't mean that in a disrespectful way toward GSP or his fans, but you have to believe that GSP and his "worst beating ever" mentality feels a little bit lacking about the way the fight went. I- even as a Diaz fan -expected much worse.

What I found surprising was that it wasn't Diaz being active with subs, so much as it was scrambling that stopped the damage.

I was sooo sooo sooooooo happy to see that Condit didn't implement the same game plan that he used against Diaz.

I wanted GSP to win, but I too thought it would be much worse. I was terribly bored with the fight, I kept watching only on the chance that something would actually happen. At no time did GSP ever look like he wanted to finish the fight like he did in the Serra or the Condit fight. I'm glad GSP won, because I still stand by the fact that I think Nick would be a bad champion for the sport...but man what a boring fight. Booo

^^^^thats what i was getting at in above......gsp doesnt fight to win or finish...he fights to not lose...doesnt take any chances.....i suppose thats good for his money and career....but went from one of my favs to meh....its the same story with him.....takedown lay on you and and wait out the decision......what bothers me most about it is i believe he has the skill to finish anybody in the division but chooses not to......is he going for titos record of most time spent in the octigon???

oops....not tito...matt hughes...they mentioned that he tied the record......dont know why i thought tito had that record

Yeah GSP implemented his game plan well, but from the way he was talking in the lead up to this fight, I was actuall a little worried for Diaz.
Obviously, there wasn't much reason to be worried.
Aslo, like Snake said, I was surpised that Diaz was able to scramble to his feet as often as he did. He was more effective with that than most fighters have been against GSP, which is weird because Diaz is not known for his ability to do that very well. Hopefully if he doesn't retire again (LOL) he will be able to use this effectively in future fights.

The only thing that really annoyed me about this fight was the fact that when it seemed like GSP was gassing in the later rounds Diaz wasn't taking advangtage of it. GSP couldn't really get a TD, and when they were on the feet, Diaz was just kind of standing around. I'm not really sure what he was thinking.

Oh and Trigger, you mention GSP gassing in the latter rounds...when I saw that I was in shock. I never thought I'd see GSP look like he was wearing out, but it was obvious...was it me or did he look smaller than he did when he fought Condit...I remember being floored at how huge his quads and calves looked in his last fight...I thought he looked smaller this time.

There was simply no fire in this fight for GSP...which is sad and amazing all at the same time...because if you can thoroughly impose your gameplan and win a fight without question...when you didn't really come to fight, then imagine how effective he could be if he tried to finish.

Meh ... I saw GSP totally dominate NICK DIAZ for Christ's sake... a guy who has a legit chance of KTFO anyone in the WW division. He won every round decisively, beat Nick silly, out boxed the "best boxer in the ufc", was NEVER threatened on the ground, negated the vaunted Diaz Gracie ground game, he took some hard legitimate shots and kept moving forward.

I can understand the whole hate thing... but this smells to me just like the Anderson / Sonnen thing ... "Sonnen won MOST of the rounds." heh heh

The roar of the crowd was telling, everyone there seemed satisfied, the guys I watched the fight with LOVED it.

It's telling that most commentators that talk about GSP's failings don't talk about the failings of Nick Diaz,

Nick failed repeatedly to stop the numerous take downs.
Nick failed to train and adapt to a wrestling attack that he KNEW was coming over two years ago.
Nick failed to impose his "superior" boxing skills.
Nick failed to impose his "Gracie JJ" skills.
Nick failed EVERY submission attempt.
Nick failed to impose his will at all.
Nick failed to generate any significant offense.
Nick failed to win the belt.

Why did Nick fail in all of these areas? Because GSP, the far superior Mixed Martial Artist shut him down at every turn and won the fight.

hard to say the guy didn't generate any significant offense...


Is there a post fight Diaz pic for comparison?

I agree with everything you said Krieger...and I'm a very big GSP fan...but IMO he didn't fight with any fire on Saturday...none. He shut Nick down thoroughly but was boring while doing so and never once tried to end the fight.

I'm not trying to get into a big GSP debate, I thoroughly believe he is the best WW ever and his skills are far superior to anyone he's come in contact with since he first loss to Matt Hughes. But his fights have become predictable and safe.

Krieger wrote:

Meh ... I saw GSP totally dominate NICK DIAZ for Christ's sake... a guy who has a legit chance of KTFO anyone in the WW division. He won every round decisively, beat Nick silly, out boxed the "best boxer in the ufc", was NEVER threatened on the ground, negated the vaunted Diaz Gracie ground game, he took some hard legitimate shots and kept moving forward.

I can understand the whole hate thing... but this smells to me just like the Anderson / Sonnen thing ... "Sonnen won MOST of the rounds." heh heh

The roar of the crowd was telling, everyone there seemed satisfied, the guys I watched the fight with LOVED it.

It's telling that most commentators that talk about GSP's failings don't talk about the failings of Nick Diaz,

Nick failed repeatedly to stop the numerous take downs.
Nick failed to train and adapt to a wrestling attack that he KNEW was coming over two years ago.
Nick failed to impose his "superior" boxing skills.
Nick failed to impose his "Gracie JJ" skills.
Nick failed EVERY submission attempt.
Nick failed to impose his will at all.
Nick failed to generate any significant offense.
Nick failed to win the belt.

Why did Nick fail in all of these areas? Because GSP, the far superior Mixed Martial Artist shut him down at every turn and won the fight.

Wow...
I can't even begin to point out how wrong you are on all those observations.

Look, GSP won the fight; there is no doubt about that. But......

-Diaz defended a LOT of takedowns.
- Diaz's TDD was much better than it was in the past. Considering he was fighting one of the most proficient TD fighters in the game, I'd say that's pretty impressive.
-Diaz lumped up GSP waaaaay more than GSP tagged Diaz. GSP's punches did much less damage than Diaz's. Just look at the pic that Chrom posted as proof.
-The fact that GSP couldn't damage Diaz on the ground is proof that Diaz's defensive BJJ is fantastic. Watch the GSP/Penn fight as proof that Diaz's defensive BJJ is top notch. GSP is going to take anybody down, but Diaz's defensive guard negated practically all of GSP's ground offense.

I'm not really sure what you were watching, but I saw Diaz lose on nothing more than failure to out-muscle GSP, not getting "beat silly". That absolutely, 100% did not happen.
If anybody in this world really believes that Diaz took a serious ass-whooping in that fight, they need to have their head checked.

But regardless, he did in fact lose that fight; no doubt about it.

agree trigg...those "facts" are obviously biased coming from someone who clearly HAS hate blinders on and cant admit that diaz did a good job against one of the best in the biz at what he does.....im pretty sure diaz losing wasnt enough for some of the haters...im sure they were looking to see the beat down of a life time...some prison rape shit....and now that that didnt happen and its clear in the pic above who took more damage its a hard pill to swallow.....

2nd observation.....its pretty ridiculous that some of those things were said because even gsp himself contradicted half of those statments and gave credit where credit was due.....and thats from the guy that was in the cage with diaz not someone who was possibily a 6 pack deep sitting in a living room eating potato chips.....i actually think its a funny list and a clear stretch to make up for the beating that didnt happen.....you know like when a dude buys a big truck to make up for his own inadaquisies(sp?)...ya this is like that but to make up for the champs inadaquisies and lack of finishing power.

Diaz did lose a decision which is a loss...no arguing that.....but who took more damage??...see the above pic and you get a pretty clear immage, when diaz finally made it to the presser he didnt have a scratch on his face to the point that if you didnt see the fight there is no way you would think gsp won....hell gsp was still bleading at the presser.

I give credit to both guys mainly because I don't have the balls to get into the octagon...hats off to them both for sure.

But having said that I don't think EITHER man fought nearly close to their potential. GSP dominated sure...and he won the fight CLEARLY. But he coasted to the win...he did nothing to end that fight at any time whatsoever. Plain and simple he was boring.

Diaz peppered GSP throughout the fight...enough to mess his face up...and he stuffed a few takedowns...but he did nothing of any substance. Given his training and the fact that he's been mentored by Gracies his whole life and there wasn't much movement on the ground from him...few submission attempts and never once even remotely an inkling of GSP being in trouble while on the mat. Furthermore he was given the fight he wanted MANY MANY times in the 5 rounds...and again...small peppering shots that swelled GSPs face, but did nothing in the long run.

Both fighters looked boring and like they didn't care to be there...heck aside from hearing Nick in between rounds say "He hits like a bitch" to his corner man I didn't even see Nick's typical thug antics.

Such a huge buildup for such a poor display.

And I don't blame one guy over the other I suppose. I felt that GSP was more emotionally tied up in this and said things like "Diaz deserves a beat down" or whatever he said...so I full exptected him to come out and give him a "Serra-esque" beatdown with a referree stoppage...he did nothing of the sort...not even close.

Same with Diaz...all his pre-fight hype and he didn't do anything to attempt to secure a win.

i agree with you sam that neither fighter fought to thier potential and it was a boaring fight....but while nick didnt do much offensivily(i hate the my new windows doesnt have spell check) he did lots defensivily to not take damage while on the bottom....maybe didnt lock any subs in but while attempting a kimoura or leg lock gsp was tied up defending it and not landing elbows and punches so in my mind it was an affective jitz defence and it kept him safe......and i can say this....while on top for as long as gsp was he didnt even try 1 sub.....not 1....

i hate to say it and i dont want to sound like im talking shit....but i think gsp is scared.....i think he has his comfort zone with takedowns and wet blanketing people.....i dont think hes afraid to get in the octagon which is #1 reason for respect but i do think hes afraid to "fight" afraid to get hit afraid to take a chance and go for the finish because he might lose the belt......

if gsp didnt have the belt i feel like its argueable that hes much like fitch......not exciting to watch, and if he didnt have the belt to offer, by this point many people would have lost intrest in his boaring ass style and take a poop break when his fights come on.....

I totally agree with your statement about GSP being afraid Matt...and like you're saying, not afraid to fight with a guy, or afraid to get into the octagon...but simply afraid of losing his belt. He takes zero chances anymore, he fights safe fights. Which is, quite frankly, a double edged sword...we've all said it before, if you know there's something you're REALLY good at...then what would you do? Of course you'd capitalize on that and we shouldn't down a guy that uses his strengths...but the problem with that is two fold, 1) it's freaking BORING, and 2) it's not like GSP riding a guy for 5 rounds is his only strenght...he's amazing in every aspect of the game...he can finish guys anyway he wants...he just chooses not to and takes the much less bumpy road to the finish line. That's what bothers me...he doesn't fight this way because he has to like Rampage only boxing, because that's all he has...or like Hendo with his Hbomb...because that's all he has...no, GSP has everything at his disposal, he just chooses not to use it.