Now my memory of this fight is Nate getting completely dominated and he did for 4 rounds. However in the first round in the clinch Nate wasn't dominated. There was very little ground action and what little there was saw Nate get up almost immediately, Benson couldn't hold him down in round 1. *THEN* Nate Diaz gets punched in the eye end of round 1 and the fight completely changes. I attribute the domination Benson put on Nate down to 2 possible reasons. The eye punch made him unable to fight properly, most likely. Second is he gassed from all the wrestling, considering he is known for his cardio it seems unlikely. People should rewatch that first round and see how competitive Nate was. I still think Benson won the first round but only barely. If Nate had no eye injury he may have ended up doing what a lot of people thought, subbing in the 4th or 5th round after tiring benson.
Bendo put on a great performance. Landed a good shot, changed the fight in his own favor and completely dominated Nate. Bendo is a beast.
just to clear things up. If Nate didn't get punched in the face by Henderson he would have done better?
Agreed he put on a domination after round 1. I would have preferred watching two fighters go at it without such an eye injury taking place but alas it did. Nate had the same thing happen to him in reverse on the Ultimate Fighter when the guy did his shoulder during a fight.
He mentioned getting punched in the eye at the post fight press, props to him for going the distance with impaired vision.
Well it's a bit shitty saying Benson will always dominate Nate Diaz merely from that performance is all I'm saying as it wasn't a "normal" performance from Diaz. He probably should have thrown in the towel by round 3 when the eye didn't clear up.
Must have taken some real effort to dig this one out of the archives. I bet some of these posters weren't even born when this fight took place.
Yep after round 1 he clearly got his ass whooped. Round 1 though is pretty even, with Nate showing he won't be held down and being able to spin Benson in the clinch which is quite impressive. Without the eye injury perhaps we could have seen this all night instead of him being held down by Benson unwilling to stand because he can't see properly.
He gassed because he didn't have the strength. Cardio and strength are related. When you train for cardio, you have to train at the desired strength requirement. You can excel at long distance running and still fail at lifting things repeatedly for intervals. It happened to me before. Strength allows you to have endurance.
Yeah it was quite early in the fight but I'd agree with you that the guy was winning before it happened. I think Nate was partly to blame for the injury as he twisted his shoulder as he came in, but the guys shoulder obviously wasn't 100% to begin with. These things happen in fights it just sucks when it ruins a fight. I'd like a rematch between the two but obviously I doubt many other people do after the round 2 -> 5 beatdown Bendo put on.
You mean you would have preferred if Nate won and you are blaming the eye injury. If by normal performance you mean his prior three fights where guys basically ran into his fists or do you mean the rest of his fights? Maybe he should work on some better defense if he doesn't want to get punched in the eye.
