Conor vs Nate was a classic case of a cherry pick gone wrong

[SmilinDesperado]

Aldo and Edgar were offered first and they couldn't take it. Not a knock on them.

Faber was tossed around but never seriously taken.

Khabib was already booked in a headliner for a LW #1 contenders match that was happening in a few weeks.

Pettis was on a 2 fight skid. Cerrone just got stopped in the first by RDA and followed it up with a win over... Who?

Diaz just dominated a rising top ten prospect in Michael Johnson.

Conor picked Diaz. Then Diaz began bargaining.

Doesn't sound like a cherry pick to me.

Cerrone also had a fight scheduled as well , so it wasn't like he was free.
Khabib who? Hadn't fought in forever. It wasn't a sellable fight on last minute. Diaz was clearly the best option money wise.
A lot of guys were trying to get their red panty night, but only one of them made sense and was available

 

[Possum]

Cherry pickin gone wrong was rockhold picking bisping to beat up on. Yea that turned out well.

 

[moreorless87]

The ironic thing of course after all the hype around Conor is that he's actually quite similar to the Diaz brothers striking wise. Granted he has a kicking game they lack but its not very well intergrated into the business end of his standup, defendively he isn't great and depends on his reach to out work opponents.

I'm happy it exists but again I think Dana/Zuffa have always had a clear weakness that they buy there own hype which results in them booking matches for their hyped fighters they might not if they have a more realistic view of their abilities.

 

[LEXTHEANARKIST]

Yep. GSP was in the crowd conveniently placed for Conor to call him out after he beat Nate, but we all know what happened instead.

Wow, there cant be a better gif reply for this thread than this.

 

[n.diazismylife1999]

Khabib was begging for it.

Like I said, Khabib already had a fight.

 

[Pepy]

guys do not forget

Dana wanted Faber....

 

[machidafan99]

is that worse than a failed cherry pick attempt a.k.a. woodley

 

[AusMMAfan]

Why was GSP there? Why were they filming him commenting on that fight?

I guess you can say GSP was imprezzed by Nate's performance?

 

[12ga.]

Aldo and Edgar were offered first and they couldn't take it. Not a knock on them.

Faber was tossed around but never seriously taken.

Khabib was already booked in a headliner for a LW #1 contenders match that was happening in a few weeks.

Pettis was on a 2 fight skid. Cerrone just got stopped in the first by RDA and followed it up with a win over... Who?

Diaz just dominated a rising top ten prospect in Michael Johnson.

Conor picked Diaz. Then Diaz began bargaining.

Doesn't sound like a cherry pick to me.

Why do you say Conor Picked? Dana said he gave him three names and Conor said pick whatever im going to gym. Its Dana who picked. Big mistake. But Dana always undervalued Diaz skill and paid them like shit.

 

[jeremyemilio]

Conor is going to beat Diaz next week and make it look easy.

Then all you bums will be saying "Diaz was never that good to begin with", just like you did with Mark Hunt.

Meh. Even if we accept that as truth, without debate (because that's a whole other topic, not worth arguing here), none of what you've said changes the plausibility of the theory provided in the OP.

In fact... it may strengthen the theory.

 

[IntelligenceQuo]

Conor is going to beat Diaz next week and make it look easy.

Then all you bums will be saying "Diaz was never that good to begin with", just like you did with Mark Hunt.

 

[RiotWyatt]

Why do you say Conor Picked? Dana said he gave him three names and Conor said pick whatever im going to gym. Its Dana who picked. Big mistake. But Dana always undervalued Diaz skill and paid them like shit.

"Dana said..."

 

[Aluminati]

I agree with the cherry-picking, but I look at it a little differently.
On short notice, in order of importance, who would:

A. Result in the highest number of buys.
B. Present a good matchup, and thus, a good fight
C. Provide solid promotional/marketing material
D. Present the least possibility of an embarrassing loss.

The answer, out of who was available at the time, was clearly Nate Diaz.
No one in the fight game was really predicting Diaz to win, due to short notice.
The fact that he did, underscores that "any given night" theme, and makes it even more interesting the second go round.

 

[prodigal savage]

I was saying this before the fight, so this isn't just me pulling a captain hindsight, but if you thought conor was gonna run over nate easily the first time around slap yourself. Even on 11 days notice I knew nate would be dangerous. & if you think conor doesn't have a chance in the rematch, slap yourself.

gonna be a double KO. nice