Issue 154
May 2017
It didn’t matter to Nate Diaz that he approached the biggest fight of his life without a training camp. It didn’t even matter that his opponent got the better of him in round one.
He was certain he would beat Conor McGregor. That’s why when he turned things around in the second frame and won with a dramatic come-from-behind rear naked choke he wasn’t surprised…
Mother**kers.
‘Fresh’ from shooting tequilas and a bout of food poisoning in Cabo, Diaz wasn’t expecting to be too sharp in the first five minutes. He was prepared to take some shots.
But more than a decade of MMA experience told him his time would come if he stayed in the fight.
“He came out like I expected,” Diaz said. “On the real, people who really try to fight me like I do – I’ve been dealing with that my whole career. It’s kill or be killed. If you don’t take me out it’s most likely you’re going to get taken out if you don’t get the job done.”
McGregor didn’t. Then he started to lose the striking exchanges. Rocked, wobbled and overwhelmed on the feet, he abandoned the strongest part of his game to enter Diaz’s world. That was a bad move.
“I land a lot of punches on people and they always shoot on me, that’s why I get a lot of submission finishes. They shoot because they don’t want any more punches landed on their head. The submission comes from the punches, otherwise it’s going to be a knockout.”
Post fight, he added: “All of a sudden he’s shooting and I’m like, ‘Oh you’re a wrestler now? Remember, I’m the black belt in jiu-jitsu and you’re shooting on me? You and me know this is a wrap.’”
Seconds after McGregor’s botched double-leg attempt, it was all over. Diaz sprawled, swept into side control, took mount, landed heavy punches and finished the fight. He shocked the world, but not himself.
SPECIAL SIMPLICITY
Critics might ask what was so impressive about this submission.
It was ‘just’ a rear naked choke. But at the highest level of MMA, finishing this kind of bread-and-butter technique is not as easy as it once was. Defensive standards are so high, it can be almost impossible to have success with such a fundamental move.
Combined with the feat of making a phenomenal comeback, grappling guru, Ricky Lundell explains why Diaz was able to succeed in such an impressive way against one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the sport:
“He did the next step – the part where you have to quickly hit that guy and get him to open up."
“The majority of grapplers now out there, you’re not going to submit them easily by just jumping on their back and sinking in a rear naked choke because they know what’s happening.
“One thing that Nate Diaz is incredibly good at is his transitional game. Where he really excels is how quickly he can transition from position to his strikes to his submissions.
"What was extremely impressive to me was not just his winning mount and taking (McGregor’s) back when he was putting his hooks in.
“When he was going for the choke and Conor caught the hand right when he was coming in, Nate hit him one time on the side he wasn’t choking to knock his head over his arm to get the choke.
“There’s so many people out there that don’t know those small details and don’t combine their grappling with their striking in a way that strikes help their submissions get better.
"So many people let go of submissions to keep striking and Nate Diaz used his strikes to help his position.”
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