Nate Diaz returns at UFC on Fox 17 against Michael Johnson

Quote :

After a year away from fighting, former lightweight title contender Nate Diaz will return to action at UFC on Fox 17 against fifth-ranked Michael Johnson. UFC officials made the announcement on Monday evening.

Diaz (17-10) has faced the best of the best in the 155-pound division. He holds wins over Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, Jim Miller, Gray Maynard, and Takanori Gomi. But the younger of the Diaz brothers has had a rocky three-year patch. He’s only competed four times during that span and lost three of those bouts.

The Stockton native hopes to reinsert himself in the lightweight division’s title picture by taking out Johnson on Dec. 19.

Johnson (16-9) is coming off of a controversial split-decision loss to Beneil Dariush at UFC Fight Night 73 on Aug. 8. Looking to rebound from the poor decision that snapped a four-fight winning streak, Johnson plans to ruin Diaz’ octagon return.

UFC on Fox 17: dos Anjos vs. Cerrone 2 is headlined by a lightweight world title bout between champion Rafael dos Anjos and second-ranked Donald Cerrone. Cerrone hopes to avenge his 2013 decision loss to dos Anjos in the rematch at the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla.

http://www.mmaweekly.com/nate-diaz-returns-to-face-michael-johnson-at-ufc-on-fox-17-in-december

I honestly thought he was done. I was legitimately surprised when I saw Dana not only gave him a fight, but a fight against a top-ten LW on the main card of a Fox show.

With that said, I think this is actually a really good match-up for Diaz. Johnson typically wins his fights by outboxing his opponents, but he's not gonna outbox Diaz. There's very few lightweights who can.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Cowboy vs dos Anjos is the headliner, and there's a solid chance that Diaz is gonna get into a fight backstage with one or both of them and be physically removed from the arena by the police.

I like the fight a lot. For me which Diaz shows up will be the factor. If the Diaz that went toe to toe with cowboy shows up Johnson is in for a really bad night but if the Diaz that showed up against dos anjons than it's Johnsons fight to lose or win.

Tough call but i think Johnson takes this one for any other reason Johnson has been on a tear and fighting a lot while Diaz has taken a back seat for over a year now and i just dont think the usual Diaz will be at this fight.

Can Johnson wrestle?
Unless I'm mistaken, I seem to remember him being primarily a wrestler during his TUF stint, but lately he's been using his boxing to win fights.
When you look at Diaz's losses, he really only gets beat by guys who can take him down and keep him there, other than the Josh Thompson fight where Diaz for some reason kept walking up to him and letting kick him in the head really hard.
If Johnson has a good wrestling base, this might be the time to go to it.

Triggerman99 wrote:

Can Johnson wrestle?
Unless I'm mistaken, I seem to remember him being primarily a wrestler during his TUF stint, but lately he's been using his boxing to win fights.
When you look at Diaz's losses, he really only gets beat by guys who can take him down and keep him there, other than the Josh Thompson fight where Diaz for some reason kept walking up to him and letting kick him in the head really hard.
If Johnson has a good wrestling base, this might be the time to go to it.

Yeah Johnson has pretty solid wrestling the only thing i'm not overly sure of is his submission defense. Like you said before he has kind of gone the Jorge Gurgul route in the idea you have a good ground game but insist on trying to keep it standing so you can show others you can bang. In the end if diaz wasnt side lined for as long as he has been i would say Diaz walks through him. But with Johnson staying very active and Diaz being out for over a year i just dont think Diaz will walk away with this win.

the wrestling and sub defense will dictate this fight.

diaz is diaz and he is a world class striker and a world class bjj guy. he could finish johnson easily by a sub or tko.

if johnson is smart and uses his wrestling and drags this fight out i think thats his only chance of winning as trigg eluded too.

johnson tries to be a mini rashad

Yeah when you watch Diaz fight, that's his only real weakness.
Unfortunately, it's a really important weakness, and he's really weak at it. Lol