Nate Diaz taking his ectomorph to mesomorph levels; looking shredded ahead of UFC on Fox 17 bout vs Michael Johnson

https://m.reddit.com/r/MMA/comments/3x1y8g/a_few_days_away_from_his_fight_and_nate_diaz/




https://www.reddit.com/r/MMA/comments/3vv8u8/nate_diaz_is_looking_ripped_ahead_of_his_bout/






I don't think I've ever seen him in that good of shape! Perhaps he's finally taking this shit seriously and is getting tired of being overpowered when his boxing and jits game doesn't work.

a face only a mother could love.

Holy shit - He's a big dog too. Worth throwing a couple of bucks on him now...

Yeah I think Johnson is going to be in for a long night. At first i thought Johnson should UD him with ease seeing Diaz has been out for a while and Johnsons been on a tear but Nate looks freakin great. Not saying Johnson cant still win this but it wont be as easy as i first thought either.

Yeah I can't definitely give either guy the advantage in the boxing, as both are very sound, technical strikers. Diaz gets the ground game/transition game/jiu-jitsu jitsu advantage easily, but I was gonna give Johnson the strength advantage in terms of takedowns, top game control, and clinchwork. Now, I don't see that being the case. I don't see Johnson having a clear advantage over Diaz anywhere this fight could go.

johnson will be in and out in and out left right left right takedown, mixtures of jabs and haymakers. johnson by ud.

id love to see nate finish with a great submission tho. its been a while since he flipped the bird at cameras and i wouldnt mind that on a fox card

I don't know, Diaz has a 1-inch height and 2-inch reach advantage, so Johnson's gonna have to get in there, first. And Diaz has better accuracy and lands more strikes/minute.

Also, while I did say Johnson could possibly have the better top game, I just went back and checked and he hardly ever goes for takedowns to get the fight on the mat. He fights almost purely as a stand-up striker. Diaz actually lands more takedowns than he does.

Other than the Josh Thompson fight where Diaz's gameplan was apparently to stand there and let Thompson kick him in the head until his leg got sore, Diaz never loses stand-up battles.

Yeah, he certainly has put on some muscle.
My guess is he's stopped doing Iron Man Competitions. Hopefully his cardio holds up.

Yeah it would seem he's swapped out triathlons for an MMA strength-and-conditioning regimen.


UberNate???

horsemeat nate?

P-Natey-X??

FistK wrote:

Holy shit - He's a big dog too.  Worth throwing a couple of bucks on him now...

Woot! Woot! Christmas money!!! lol

Nate vs Connor now!!!!!!!

lol
I don't see how that even comes close to makings sense. But whatever.

well connor wants to go up to lw and fight the champ but before he does that why not increase your stock for that fight by fighting a guy who not only called you out but will fight your fight and has enough big name recognition to catapult your name to the top. A knock out win over Nate i think could do this and if he he beats by Nate then we know Connor has no place in the lw title picture.

A bit of a stretch but you have to admit this fight would sell very nice.

Yeah I get it.
It's just nate certainly did not look like world beater this weekend. For him to get a shot at the champ (regardless of division) just because he has a big mouth..... well whatever.

Yeah I don't think Conor would be willing to take any fight in the LW division that isn't a title fight. He's only looking to hold both titles, not work his way through the LW ranks.

i highly doubt that conor is going to go up and fight rda... if cowboy won it would be a different story.
imo of course.

personally i would love to see a nick diaz vs conor mcgregor fight at 155 or 160

I honestly have no desire to see Conor go up to 155.
I get it; he has this "the world is mine to take" mentality, but let's see what he can do as FW champ before we get too ahead of ourselves.

Maybe it's just me, but I think champs shouldn't be moving up in weight until they've basically cleared out their own division (i.e. Silva, Jones, GSP).

there is one thing i am certain more now of. no way that ufc or dana not telling fighters to stand up and bang. i see it a lot lately, last couple of year, when fighters that have a grappling advantage decide to strike and take risks against superior boxers, a la this fight. Johnson didnt even try to wrestle Nate, and that makes no sense. In a real mma fight, johnson would have ground a decision win against nate or at least tried.

I don't think so necessarily. It appeared Johnson was having trouble closing the distance to begin with and certainly possible Johnson did not want to go to the ground with Nate.
He also landed a few heavy shots, so in his own mind may have thought he was doing well in the standup game. By the 3rd round it was likely too late to try an LnP his way to a victory.

yeah i agree with stock. he couldnt get in on nate and if he shot for a takedown i think the risk was greater than the reward.
i thought johnson did good in his standup against nate. nate just did phenomenal ..

im glad to see that richard perez is back with the 209 click. that dude is amazing.

Yeah I touched on that above before the fight even took place. You might think Johnson would be able to take Diaz down at will, but you'd be wrong. We all know the Diaz brothers are not takedown-reliant fighters, but even Nate has better takedown success than Johnson, percentage-wise.
Johnson- either by choice or by necessity- is almost purely a stand-up fighter.

Also like you other guys mentioned, Diaz's reach was obviously keeping Johnson at bay, and it's not necessarily a great idea to take down a submission master, anyway.

still seems fishy. its not like nate is hard to take down, he is not a very mobile fighter, he just stands in frond and peppers you with boxing shots. his legs are there only to support him upright, heavily leaning on the front one. johnson is also shorter and can easily come under the punches without worrying about kicks.
the point is he didnt even try to close the distance, not once.
be it just bad game plan, maybe, but for me, too many have been forgetting about wrestling. as boring as it seems to just bleed fans, it wins fights. it might be that the fighters are buying into the fans demands, thinking that if they give them excitement, they will be propelled in popularity, or it may be that ufc is nudging them to do it. either is possible and realistic, since the trend is apparent.
to me.

I don't know, I think that's quite a reach to be honest.

Like has been said, even if Johnson could get inside and take Diaz down, would he want to? Johnson has never demonstrated a dominant top game, so would it be wise of him to mess around inside of the guard of a fighter like Diaz? I'd think he liked his chances better on the feet.