Nate Diaz’s Chance to Shine

Nate Diaz’s Chance to Shine

Come December 8, Nate Diaz will have his chance to shine bright, after spending years under the shadow of his brother.

While the TUF 5 winner has been on a tear lately, it seems that his older brother Nick Diaz has managed to steal the limelight, despite being on a year-long suspension after testing positive for marijuana metabolites after his controversial fight against Carlos Condit.

Nate is only 27, and surely has a long career ahead of him. But after years of hard work with Cesar Gracie Jiu Jitsu and the Skrap Pack, he gets his chance to prove that he is one of the best lightweights in the world.

After a rough stretch as a welterweight, losing to Kim Dong-Hyun and Rory MacDonald, he dropped back to the 155 lb division and won 3 fights in a row, and three bonus awards in a row (submission of the night twice, and one fight of the night). He displayed markedly improved boxing against Takanori Gomi before submitting him with a beautiful armbar, had a tough back and forth fight against Donald Cerrone where he drew his opponent into a strike-fest, and put on a true MMA-clinic against Jim Miller, finally submitting him in the 2^nd round with a guillotine choke.

While he isn’t as brash as his older brother, he is also known for his antics both inside and out of the Octagon. On TUF 5, he was seen getting into an argument with Rob Emerson, taking off his shirt and wanting to throw down. And against Cerrone, he had no qualms about flipping the finger (well two fingers) in between rounds.

Benson Henderson will have the size advantage and almost certainly the wrestling advantage, but will Diaz be able to draw Henderson into the kind of fight he is best at?

He managed to pull Cerrone into a boxing match in the 1^st and 3^rd rounds, ultimately getting into his head and put on a slugfest. Against Miller, his trash talking and “gestures” got to him, and Diaz was able to pull off what Rogan called a “power guillotine”.

Henderson, however, probably won’t be so easy to get to. His ideal game plan would be to either throw combinations and move out of harms way, or to take a slight risk by taking Diaz down and out-wrestling him.

Diaz will have to either work hard to land his shots clean on Henderson, or work very well off his back (which he is comfortable off). There is a fair chance Diaz will be able to pull a quick submission off at one point, and that may be his only chance at beating Henderson to become the champion.

Either way, this will be Nate Diaz’s chance to show the world what he can do, and Henderson will definitely push him and bring the best out of the Stockton fighter. One hopes that Diaz takes this opportunity to make the most of it – chances like this don’t come around too often.

(Article by The Coffee Boy)