Is there any Nate Diaz prototype fighter in his Prime in the UFC (Endless Cardio, unbreakable Chin)

560ti said:
Nate fought for the belt and then went on to beat a guy in his prime that becomes the champ that same calendar year.

Never understood this whole "Nate wasn't doing the thing Nick could of done" narrative. Nick would have had to gone the Michael Bisping route of getting a title shot without beating a gauntlet of contenders to even have a shot (no way he gets a win streak against guys like Hendricks, Woodley, and Rory who were coming up during that era).
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To be fair, WW in the UFC has mostly been a wrestler's division since Hughes in the early 2000s. You could even argue since Mikey Burnett in 1998 as he kind of got robbed vs. Militech for the inaugural WW title fight. Nick peaked as a WW and his biggest weaknesses were wrestlers and leg kicks...and pot, lol.

I think prime Nick might have a better shot in the current WW division, though there are still enough grapplers who could keep him pinned on the ground or against the cage that he probably couldn't get a title shot. If he didn't quit MMA in 2013 (besides a fun but meaningless fight with Silva at MW), I think he had a legit shot against Robbie when he was champ. That was his one opportunity, but the loss to GSP, and close/weird loss to Condit would make it hard for him to get another title shot without facing several werstlers.
 
mkess101 said:
For sure, but that 37 year old had massive power too. That was one guy Ilia didn't want a firefight with. He just wanted to use his superior skill and get a win.
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I agree with you on Lopes BTW. On paper, he should beat guys like Volk and Ilia that he towers over. But a 36-year old Volk who was 5 inches shorter beat him in what was essentially a boxing match. I wouldn't call Diego a lost Diaz brother. Nick would've thrown everything but the kitchen sink like 500 times at Volk before losing...while taunting him non-stop.
 
mkt said:
I agree with you on Lopes BTW. On paper, he should beat guys like Volk and Ilia that he towers over. But a 36-year old Volk who was 5 inches shorter beat him in what was essentially a boxing match. I wouldn't call Diego a lost Diaz brother. Nick would've thrown everything but the kitchen sink like 500 times at Volk before losing...while taunting him non-stop.
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Yeah at their best the Diaz bros threw massive volume. They just didn't have a fear of getting hit so stalking and throwing a ton of punches was second nature.
 
mkt said:
That was his one opportunity, but the loss to GSP, and close/weird loss to Condit would make it hard for him to get another title shot without facing several werstlers.
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Exactly. That's why I don't know why people use Nates back half career losses against him in regard to his brother being better when they were almost all exclusively against top 5 guys.

If Nick had continued fighting past the GSP bout they would have booked him against guys like Rory, Hendricks, Maia, Woodley all in their primes.

It's like they discredit Nate because he actually did it, but Nick would have had the same issues if he continued let's not kid ourselves
 
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560ti said:
Nate fought for the belt and then went on to beat a guy in his prime that becomes the champ that same calendar year.

Never understood this whole "Nate wasn't doing the thing Nick could of done" narrative. Nick would have had to gone the Michael Bisping route of getting a title shot without beating a gauntlet of contenders to even have a shot (no way he gets a win streak against guys like Hendricks, Woodley, and Rory who were coming up during that era).
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Technically Connor was still a champ too, just of the 145 division. So he was undeniably in his peak.
 
mkt said:
Even prime Condit, who loved to strike and went toe-to-toe with Lawler, used a very evasive leg-kicking gameplan against Nick.
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Which was infuriating, as Condit had plenty of jaw to withstand Nick's pitter patter. Should have waded in and dusted him. Gave Nick too much imo.
 
Prior to his last fight, Max Holloway was everything the Diaz bros fanbases had ever hoped for, minus the anti-hero angle.

Plus, he fit the OP's description. Incredible cardio and uncrackable chin.

Unfortunately for him, Tony Ferguson used to be that too. His chin wasn't as good as Max's, but his cardio was something else during his prime.
 
GGpX said:
Unfortunately for him, Tony Ferguson used to be that too. His chin wasn't as good as Max's, but his cardio was something else during his prime.
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Tony was more likely to submit someone than Max, though.... after his opponent was exhausted and Tony got some kind of zombie 4th wind late in the fight. Same with Nick and Nate.

Sadly, we don't have a near indestructable version of a Diaz bro, Max or Tony in their late 20s right now to challenge Ilia and take him into deep waters.
 
nobody mentioned Vettori?
dude has idiot level chin.
 
I think someone like Movsar could be a very difficult fight for Ilia. Endless cardio, supreme conditioning, grapple for days and has a solid chin.
 
mkess101 said:
I'd say Sandhagen too. Ate pretty clean shots from Munhoz who can crack, Umar, Yan. Never seen Corey look rocked from a strike.
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Yan threw him to the ground with a 360º punch (lol)
 
I don't think TS really knows what "prototype" means.

It definitely isn't "a similar but newer model."
 
Hymen Crusher said:
Nick was legit champ level fighter. If gsp isnt there he could have won a belt. Nate was never doing that
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Nick MIGHT have had championship level skills. I'm not trying to underrate him, he was great. He definitely didn't have the mental parts locked down, though, so idk about GSP being the only reason he didn't get a belt.
 
mkt said:
Tony was more likely to submit someone than Max, though.... after his opponent was exhausted and Tony got some kind of zombie 4th wind late in the fight. Same with Nick and Nate.

Sadly, we don't have a near indestructable version of a Diaz bro, Max or Tony in their late 20s right now to challenge Ilia and take him into deep waters.
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Another fighter I just thought of, and I can't believe I forgot about him: Carlos Condit.

Condit in his prime was unkillable. He had bad defensive wrestling, but he was amazing on offense.

In the modern UFC, we'll see how he does against the top fighters, but Jean Silva looks like he has something.
 
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GGpX said:
Another fighter I just thought of, and I can't believe I forgot about him: Carlos Condit.

Condit in his prime was unkillable. He had bad defensive wrestling, but he was amazing on offense.

In the modern UFC, we'll see how he does against the top fighters, but Jean Silva looks like he has something.
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Yep. Condit's only TKO loss was the leg injury against Woodley. I wish he would've stood with Nick Diaz and given us the war we all wanted, though. That's the only time I saw him fight with an evasive, leg kick-and-run gameplan.

Prime BJ is another one. His only two TKO losses were getting GnP'd on the ground by WW champs (Hughes and GSP) until he was like 36 and way beyond his prime. He also had a rib injury in the Hughes loss. He stood with freaking Lyoto Machida for 3 rounds when he was young.
 
Natural Order said:
Which was infuriating, as Condit had plenty of jaw to withstand Nick's pitter patter. Should have waded in and dusted him. Gave Nick too much imo.
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Those are the fights that Nick excels in, when people go all in and get in a firefight with him.
 
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