Strikeforce’s Nick Diaz Will Push Georges St. Pierre to the Limit at UFC 137

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One thing dominance tends to do is leave a champion that much less able to be embraced en masse.  Georges St. Pierre is finding that out right now after another victory in the same way Anderson Silva did before the Chael Sonnen fight.  It’s one thing to be a champion, and to reel off a number of consecutive victories over the best in any division, but to never be pushed to that limit makes some doubt if you really are the best.

Against Chael Sonnen, Silva took the beating of a lifetime but managed to pull off an improbable victory late in the fight, surviving four plus rounds of Sonnen’s fierce ground and pound to catch him with a triangle armbar.  When all is said and done about Silva’s career, that fight will most likely define his legacy in the same way Arturo Gatti and Mickey Ward are defined by their trilogy of fights.  It was the ultimate test of a champion and Silva passed.

St. Pierre has been as dominant as Silva, and some could argue moreso, but he’s never had that fight that pushes everything he has to the absolute limit.  His championship reign has been dominant to the point where it’s boring to see him not even tested by the best in the world.  There are only so many dominant decision victories a fighter can earn before he stops being interesting.  Earlier in his career he was a much more interesting fighter because there was that hint of mortality.  Matt Hughes getting an armbar, Matt Serra catching him with a fist and BJ Penn pushing him to the limit all made  St. Pierre an intriguing figure because it showed he was human.  He could be beaten and beaten up, thus there was a higher level of interest in his fights.  Now it’s nearly as much because that hint of mortality is only available in the UFC’s archives.

Enter Nick Diaz.

The one thing that has defined St. Pierre second title reign in the welterweight division has been that of him breaking the will of every opponent in the cage.  As the fight progresses his opponents will go from actively trying to win the fight to hoping to survive, to not be finished and at least carry the dignity of having gone the distance with the champ.  No one has pushed him to the limit and Diaz, for all his faults as a fighter, could be exactly that guy.  Why?  Because he’s not afraid of anything the champ will do.

It’s the one thing that has symbolized his career both in and out of the UFC.  Anyone willing to stand and trade with a former professional boxer (K.J Noons) and a man with a claim to the heaviest hands in the division (Paul Daley) , won’t be walking in with any sort of qualms about dealing with St. Pierre.  He still has the same deficiencies in handling wrestlers, his last fight with anyone with legitimate wrestling skills ended badly for him with Sean Sherk riding out a comfortable unanimous decision. But the one thing that won’t happen is Diaz letting the UFC Champion dictate the pace.  Diaz will be relentless and scrapping to the final minute of the fifth round, constantly talking trash and maybe unleashed the patented “Stockton Salute” once or twice before or during the fight.

Win or lose, and he’s the clear underdog in this fight, Diaz is sure to do one thing: bring the fight to the champ from the opening bell.  And that’s exactly what he needs: a fighter completely unafraid of his abilities and doing everything he can to turn an MMA match into a brawl.  The MMA world is calling out for someone who’s willing to push Georges St. Pierre to his breaking point, to show everyone what kind of heart the champion has. Nick Diaz might just be that guy.