The Nate Diaz Welterweight Experiment: Creating a Monster?
A little over a year ago things were looking great for Nate Diaz, the welterweight. He battered Rory Markham, thumped and throttled Marcus Davis, and was looking to bigger things at 170lbs.
Unfortunately he found one of those bigger things in the form of smothering Korean Dong Hyun Kim on New Year’s Day. Soon after, he was put in against fast-rising prospect Rory MacDonald, and the result went from smothering to frightfully one-sided. Diaz was hurtled about the octagon like a proverbial sack of potatoes by MacDonald, and people began to call for an end to his welterweight experiment.
After pondering it, Nate obliged the calls for a return to the UFC’s lightweight roster, his home between 2007 and 2010. Saturday night at UFC 135, the fruits of that decision were evident as he battered an overmatched Takanori Gomi for the better part of a round before finishing him with an armbar.
Diaz is the classic example of a man who has no natural weight class. He struggles to get to 155 – he can do it, but his life is self-professed misery if that’s the target weight – but is too small for 170, as was evidenced once he was put in against bigger men with grappling chops. Now with his welterweight experiment over at least temporarily, he can focus on returning to the upper echelon of the lightweight division. He was a great lightweight before, and if his dismantling of Gomi is any indication, he can be again.
The reason? If history has taught us anything, it’s that experimentation often breeds monsters.
Dr. Jekyll accidentally created Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein came from science run amok, and half of the video games currently retailing have you blowing away monsters and zombies that came from experiments gone wrong. In the case of Nate Diaz, his welterweight experiment might have created a monster at 155.
Stepping into the cage against bigger, stronger, more challenging opponents for most of 2010 and the first half of 2011 may well have changed his approach to conditioning and training, allowing him to re-evaluate what needs work while tightening up what he’s already good at.
Against Gomi, he looked stronger and more chiselled, and backed up the look with serious substance. His jab was stout and powerful, yet he maintained that Stockton Slap style that has become a Diaz family trademark. He then went on to finish the Japanese legend with some vintage jiu-jitsu, transitioning from triangle to armbar for the tap.
There aren’t many men at lightweight who are going to be able to withstand the pace of punishment Diaz can put on them, and if he’s backing that pace up with power and tighter technique now, there’s no telling where he could go.
It’s an interesting story, and in the case of most that revolve around an experiment not quite turning out as planned, there is a lot to consider. After the MacDonald fight, the world was wondering where Diaz would go. The size and strength of welterweights seemed too much, and the strain on his body to get to 155 looked equally as bad for him.
Now, as is often the case, the experiment that many wrote off as anywhere between a slight failure and a total disaster may well have produced a fresh contender in the shark tank that is the lightweight division.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Dr. Frankenstein and his namesake.
Nate Diaz the welterweight and Nate Diaz the lightweight? Could be.
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