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.
