Nate Diaz Was a Waste of Leon Edwards's Life and Career

It's hard to think of a worse opponent than Nate Diaz for a ranked fighter trying to win a title; beating him means nothing, and yet he's still a dangerous striker with almost unlimited cardio. And to make it even more egregious, five rounds! Five rounds for a meaningless exhibition--an obvious gift to this cardio machine to pull some bullcrap in the last two rounds. It's like the whole situation was orchestrated to potentially assassinate Edwards' run at the title. They forced him to roll the dice on his entire career without getting anything in return. And before Nate, they were trying to make him fight Chimaev, another dangerous unranked nobody.

The truth became obvious when Edwards brutally mauled Diaz for four rounds, then took one hard punch in the 5th (which he was winning up to that point too.) Edwards' stock dropped and Diaz's stock went up. Edwards' reward? A ud on his resume against a 37 year old whose last win against a top 15 opponent was probably around ten years ago (remember, he beat Conor at ww.)

No top 3 contender should be forced to fight an unranked fighter. Dana White treats the elite like they're disposable in favor of low price bums like Mike Perry who have guaranteed slug fests. This is pretty much why MMA is still not a sport.
He never mauled Diaz. It was like four 10-9.8 rounds with one 10-8 round.
And you know, nobody forced Leon to fight Diaz.
 
holy fuck i'm not talking about legacy. don frye is not a nobody in mma history, but he is a nobody in mma RIGHT NOW. diaz is one step from retirement barely hanging as 15th ranked ww. that makes him a nobody to the top 3 title contenders.
2020 account makes sense.
 
It's hard to think of a worse opponent than Nate Diaz for a ranked fighter trying to win a title; beating him means nothing, and yet he's still a dangerous striker with almost unlimited cardio. And to make it even more egregious, five rounds! Five rounds for a meaningless exhibition--an obvious gift to this cardio machine to pull some bullcrap in the last two rounds. It's like the whole situation was orchestrated to potentially assassinate Edwards' run at the title. They forced him to roll the dice on his entire career without getting anything in return. And before Nate, they were trying to make him fight Chimaev, another dangerous unranked nobody.

The truth became obvious when Edwards brutally mauled Diaz for four rounds, then took one hard punch in the 5th (which he was winning up to that point too.) Edwards' stock dropped and Diaz's stock went up. Edwards' reward? A ud on his resume against a 37 year old whose last win against a top 15 opponent was probably around ten years ago (remember, he beat Conor at ww.)

No top 3 contender should be forced to fight an unranked fighter. Dana White treats the elite like they're disposable in favor of low price bums like Mike Perry who have guaranteed slug fests. This is pretty much why MMA is still not a sport.

Edwards likely got the biggest payday of his career against Nate.

And I don't think you have any clue what the term "Brutally mauled" means.

Was Edwards, winning the fight? Sure. Did he do any real damage the entire fight? Nope. He's a wrestler/point fighter

Edwards, calls himself "Rocky" and yet the guy couldn't finish a sandwich unless he's using an eyepoke. 13 fights in the UFC with exactly 3 finishes.

The highlight of Edwards career to date is decisioning a 400 year old RDA.
 
It's hard to think of a worse opponent than Nate Diaz for a ranked fighter trying to win a title; beating him means nothing, and yet he's still a dangerous striker with almost unlimited cardio. And to make it even more egregious, five rounds! Five rounds for a meaningless exhibition--an obvious gift to this cardio machine to pull some bullcrap in the last two rounds. It's like the whole situation was orchestrated to potentially assassinate Edwards' run at the title. They forced him to roll the dice on his entire career without getting anything in return. And before Nate, they were trying to make him fight Chimaev, another dangerous unranked nobody.

The truth became obvious when Edwards brutally mauled Diaz for four rounds, then took one hard punch in the 5th (which he was winning up to that point too.) Edwards' stock dropped and Diaz's stock went up. Edwards' reward? A ud on his resume against a 37 year old whose last win against a top 15 opponent was probably around ten years ago (remember, he beat Conor at ww.)

No top 3 contender should be forced to fight an unranked fighter. Dana White treats the elite like they're disposable in favor of low price bums like Mike Perry who have guaranteed slug fests. This is pretty much why MMA is still not a sport.
I agree with you.
But fact is: Leon signed the contract and took that gamble.

Plus, he was out of a fight for far too long, while his opponents were active, and that is also on him (to a point, of course, due to the pandemic... but he could have gotten a fight faster post covid).

AND Leon could have done a better job capitalizing on his backstage encounter with Masvidal, and sold that fight harder, at the time Masvidal was at the top.
he missed that train as well.

So all in all, I do think that it is not all against him, and he did gain a lot of eyes by fighting Nate. He needs to capitalize on it though.
 
It was probably the best thing to happen to Edwards. But ok. Outside of the Nate fight not a single casual would know who he is. Fuck before Nate the only thing I remember him for is Masvidal lighting him up backstage and a reference to KFC. I couldn't tell you who he fought before Mas/KFC without Google. Nate literally put him on the map.
i don't think this is true at all. in the eyes of the casual he's that much better fighter who nate almost knocked out. "nate still has it" is all they came away with. no casual gave a crap about edwards' performance, even tho i agree they should have.
 
what's to duck? why would a rank 15 fighter avoid a high paying match against the second best ww in the world?
That’s my point exactly, there were several folks on here that claimed Nate would never fight Leon and lots that said the fight was never going to take place after they bout agreement was signed.
 
I agree with you.
But fact is: Leon signed the contract and took that gamble.

Plus, he was out of a fight for far too long, while his opponents were active, and that is also on him (to a point, of course, due to the pandemic... but he could have gotten a fight faster post covid).

AND Leon could have done a better job capitalizing on his backstage encounter with Masvidal, and sold that fight harder, at the time Masvidal was at the top.
he missed that train as well.

So all in all, I do think that it is not all against him, and he did gain a lot of eyes by fighting Nate. He needs to capitalize on it though.
i don't see how he could have said no. you're not taking a gamble if you're being forced to do it. if he said no to Diaz, he would've been glued to Dana White's shit list for all time, and he would have made his mma career a living hell.
 
That’s my point exactly, there were several folks on here that claimed Nate would never fight Leon and lots that said the fight was never going to take place after they bout agreement was signed.
i don't what they were thinking tho. it seems like a huge gift to fight the best guy when you're a nobody on the back end of your career.
 
i don't see how he could have said no. you're not taking a gamble if you're being forced to do it. if he said no to Diaz, he would've been glued to Dana White's shit list for all time, and he would have made his mma career a living hell.
Oh, I do agree with you... though I find hard to believe he was not in Dana's shit list already ;)
But IMO he was only in this position because of his long inactivity.
 
Edwards likely got the biggest payday of his career against Nate.

And I don't think you have any clue what the term "Brutally mauled" means.

Was Edwards, winning the fight? Sure. Did he do any real damage the entire fight? Nope. He's a wrestler/point fighter

Edwards, calls himself "Rocky" and yet the guy couldn't finish a sandwich unless he's using an eyepoke. 13 fights in the UFC with exactly 3 finishes.

The highlight of Edwards career to date is decisioning a 400 year old RDA.
lmao did you even watch this fucking thing?? oh right i forgot, nate diaz always gets a free pass to get his face sliced off with elbows and combinations for 5 rounds.
 
If you cannot finish a Diaz bro, then it is not a real win.

what are you new to MMA?
 
It's hard to think of a worse opponent than Nate Diaz for a ranked fighter trying to win a title; beating him means nothing, and yet he's still a dangerous striker with almost unlimited cardio. And to make it even more egregious, five rounds! Five rounds for a meaningless exhibition--an obvious gift to this cardio machine to pull some bullcrap in the last two rounds. It's like the whole situation was orchestrated to potentially assassinate Edwards' run at the title. They forced him to roll the dice on his entire career without getting anything in return. And before Nate, they were trying to make him fight Chimaev, another dangerous unranked nobody.

The truth became obvious when Edwards brutally mauled Diaz for four rounds, then took one hard punch in the 5th (which he was winning up to that point too.) Edwards' stock dropped and Diaz's stock went up. Edwards' reward? A ud on his resume against a 37 year old whose last win against a top 15 opponent was probably around ten years ago (remember, he beat Conor at ww.)

No top 3 contender should be forced to fight an unranked fighter. Dana White treats the elite like they're disposable in favor of low price bums like Mike Perry who have guaranteed slug fests. This is pretty much why MMA is still not a sport.

Dude they fed him Diaz as the easiest fight with the biggest name and he wasn’t up to the task. Wasn’t as good as we all thought. When you fight like that, ultra risk averse and tactical, you have to have a perfect slate or else what’s the point? You just stunk the fight out for no good reason. No dominance to show for it.
 
Oh, I do agree with you... though I find hard to believe he was not in Dana's shit list already ;)
But IMO he was only in this position because of his long inactivity.
he was only out for one year because of COVID, which most fighters were. and he fought two or three fights a year like a machine in every prior year. if this is the kind of crap that makes the promoter try to destroy you, then add that to my list of reasons why mma is not a sport (which seem to all go back to dana white.)
 
It's hard to think of a worse opponent than Nate Diaz for a ranked fighter trying to win a title; beating him means nothing, and yet he's still a dangerous striker with almost unlimited cardio. And to make it even more egregious, five rounds! Five rounds for a meaningless exhibition--an obvious gift to this cardio machine to pull some bullcrap in the last two rounds. It's like the whole situation was orchestrated to potentially assassinate Edwards' run at the title. They forced him to roll the dice on his entire career without getting anything in return. And before Nate, they were trying to make him fight Chimaev, another dangerous unranked nobody.

The truth became obvious when Edwards brutally mauled Diaz for four rounds, then took one hard punch in the 5th (which he was winning up to that point too.) Edwards' stock dropped and Diaz's stock went up. Edwards' reward? A ud on his resume against a 37 year old whose last win against a top 15 opponent was probably around ten years ago (remember, he beat Conor at ww.)

No top 3 contender should be forced to fight an unranked fighter. Dana White treats the elite like they're disposable in favor of low price bums like Mike Perry who have guaranteed slug fests. This is pretty much why MMA is still not a sport.

Didn't edwards want this fight? I don't remember anything about him being forced. I think he was pretty cocky about getting the win and Diaz's high profile would get him some publicity.
 
Dude they fed him Diaz as the easiest fight with the biggest name and he wasn’t up to the task. Wasn’t as good as we all thought. When you fight like that, ultra risk averse and tactical, you have to have a perfect slate or else what’s the point? You just stunk the fight out for no good reason. No dominance to show for it.
You guys are changing the narrative. Diaz was almost totally passive in that fight, doing weird shit like showing Leon his butt and spinning around. Leon came forward the whole time and mauled him.
 
Didn't edwards want this fight? I don't remember anything about him being forced. I think he was pretty cocky about getting the win and Diaz's high profile would get him some publicity.
I hope he did want it, and I hope he's happy with the result (which he should be proud of even if everyone tries to downplay it), but my whole point is this thing reeked of a set up.
 
lmao did you even watch this fucking thing?? oh right i forgot, nate diaz always gets a free pass to get his face sliced off with elbows and combinations for 5 rounds.

Ah so because Nate was bleeding he was getting mauled? Nate bleeds in strong winds.

Do you know Edwards only outstruck Nate by exactly 1 strike for the entire fight? Which guy almost finished the fight btw? I didn't expect Nate to win the fight. wrestlers have always been Diaz kryptonite but thinking Nate was getting beaten because he got cut is pretty funny.

Edwards won the fight on takedowns and positional control.
 
Ah so because Nate was bleeding he was getting mauled? Nate bleeds in strong winds.

Do you know Edwards only outstruck Nate by exactly 1 strike for the entire fight? Which guy almost finished the fight btw? I didn't expect Nate to win the fight. wrestlers have always been Diaz kryptonite but thinking Nate was getting beaten because he got cut is pretty funny.

Edwards won the fight on takedowns and positional control.
Yeah, exactly my point. This guy bleeds if you look at him and eats everything you throw with his face, so instead of paying attention to how bad he's getting his ass kicked, everyone ignores it because of how desensitized they are.

And don't give me those bs fight metrics, Nate's offense looked like dogshit. Edwards did NOT win on "control", he was beating Nate's ass. This is the worst kind of gas lighting mma fans are always doing when it comes to their fav fighters.
 
Good guy Nate actually looked up at the whole roster and said he's gonna give this guy a money fight coz nobody is giving him that much attention and credit despite "doing the right things like GSP". Yep, those were Nate's words.
Seriously everyone always talking about people ducking Leon then Nate Diaz basically does what fans asks and gets barely any of the credit . He took on a world class talent with little name value , of course it wasnt completely alturisit he knew he'd get a title shot with a W but this is literally what we are on our asses asking fighters to do lol. Give the man respect Nate Diaz is a real fighter
:meow:
 
he was only out for one year because of COVID, which most fighters were. and he fought two or three fights a year like a machine in every prior year. if this is the kind of crap that makes the promoter try to destroy you, then add that to my list of reasons why mma is not a sport (which seem to all go back to dana white.)
July 2019 to March 2021 is more than one year.
And it has to be said that the UFC was out for about 2 months, then they started doing fight island and Apex fights...

And more importantly, the top fighters on his division came back far sooner than he did.
 
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