Dude I would put money on Cerrone straight up whooping Diaz's ass in a rematch.
Headkick leading to punches on the ground tko
I'd take Nate but Cerrone has improved for sure. I just think Nate's a tough match up for him.
He got careless that's for sure but getting that black belt before the fight was a bit of showmanship just like with that hair and the toothpick. If you think Bendo isn't a bit arrogant you're fooling yourself. He was the reigning champion, on a 7 fight win streak, and had only been submitted once before in his career.Pettis is still the clear favorite. He's the better striker, and neither has the offensive wrestling to control the other with it for long.
However I don't discount Cowboy's chances. I make him a live dog.
Come on. A blue belt could've subbed Bendo? WTF?? He got subbed because he was hurt bad from a body kick. "Arrogance" had nothing to do with it, that's just ignorant.
And you insult GSP by comparing him to Guida. Guida landed plenty of GNP? Again WTF?? He "landed" some worthless shoulder strikes. Other than that he defended submissions. Neither fighter deserved to win that fight. Comparing that, which wasn't even full LNP because he spent so much time *defending* while on top, to the dominance GSP used to display is preposterous.
I think Nate got in his head the first time around. Cerrone just played right into his hands. He actually had a lot of success with low kicks and tripped Nate to the floor several times with them. His ego forced him into what primarily consisted of a boxing match with MMA gloves though and very few guys beat a Diaz in that type of fight.
I know this is going to sound weird but Cerrone has weird fights when his opponent is Mexican-American or the like. Alvarez, Diaz, Pettis, and Bendo (who could be mistaken for Mexican-American) all gave him trouble or made him look off. He could have finished Alvarez but chose to lay on him in the third round. I'm not saying anything is up but he lives with Leonard Garcia on a ranch.
Cerrone vs. Bendo is just a really good match up of two really good fighters. They've fought three times and twice they've gone to a razor thin decision.
I wouldn't say that Alvarez made Cerrone look off. He had a nice moment there with those clinch uppercuts, but other than that Cerrone whipped his ass like he owed him money.
With Diaz and Pettis, he did look off. Part of that is due to tough stylistic match ups, the other part is that Cerrone just doesn't seem to fight well when he's emotional and there's been a bunch of talk leading up to the fight.
If I was a fighter facing Cerrone, I'd take note of that and run my mouth and try to get in his head.