Amadi's Take
AMADI: Key storylines coming out of Strikeforce "Diaz vs. Cyborg"
Jan 31, 2011 - 3:40:34 PM AMADI: Key storylines coming out of Strikeforce "Diaz vs. Cyborg"

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By: Jason Amadi, MMATorch Columnist

Is the skill of Nick Diaz going to go to waste?

It's no secret that Nick Diaz relies heavily on his boxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu game to carry him through fights, but it is his overall mixed martial arts game that might go untested as Strikeforce Welterweight Champion. The two most intriguing things about Nick Diaz as a fighter are his awkward volume punching style and his willingness to use it despite his proficiency on the ground.

This dynamic has served him well thus far against fighters who were afraid to engage him on the floor and lacked the stand up skill to put him in trouble on the feet. Diaz has been able to get by fighters like Frank Shamrock, Scott Smith, Marius Zaromskis, K.J. Noons, and now Evangelista Santos with relative ease. Now that Diaz has removed Evangelista Santos from the title picture, only Paul Daley and top prospect Tyron Woodley remain.

Nick Diaz isn't simply a big fish in Strikeforce's small pond; Diaz is a whale in a teardrop. He is the only top 10 welterweight outside of the UFC, and everyone at 170 pounds is itching to add his name to their ledger. Diaz displayed a bit more power than he is usually given credit for with his striking, and really nixed the idea that he'll be taken down and controlled by wrestlers by snatching the arm of "Cyborg" and immediately ending the fight once the fight hit the floor.

Tyron Woodley has been increasingly less impressive as his competition level has gone up, so it's hard to see Woodley unseating Diaz as champion. Especially since Diaz might have struck fear into the heart of every top position wrestler in MMA with the speed in which he submitted a fellow Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt.

At least with a violent striker like Paul Daley there is a chance that Diaz's punching output could be nullified by Daley's one punch knockout power. However, considering that he could land nothing significant on Josh Koscheck (until after the bell) or Jake Shields, Daley is really left with a only puncher's chance against the Strikeforce Welterweight Champion.


Do we really want to see more Herschel Walker?

The first foray into mixed martial arts for Herschel Walker was fun. It was exciting to see how he would adapt to MMA, what he could learn, and if he could even be successful. Then we got our answer when he steamrolled Greg Nagy last year. One year later, it simply isn't as fun. With two fights to his name, Herschel Walker is an actual MMA fighter, but not one who is terribly skilled or fun to watch. The intrigue in seeing a top athlete on the wrong side of 40 has dissipated and we're now left with an improving fighter with a serious ceiling on where he can go from here.

While it wouldn't do Strikeforce any good to put Walker in over his head and set him up to get lathered by even a middle of the road heavyweight, the formula of finding the worst opponent possible for the former Heisman trophy winner has grown stale after only two fights. Unless Strikeforce sets him up with Chad Griggs, Abe Wagner, or another journeyman fighter of that ilk, there really isn't a compelling way to sell Herschel Walker's involvement with MMA that would separate his legacy in the sport from that of Jose Canseco or Johnnie Morton. The only difference would then be that Walker got more media and easier fights.

What is the future of Brazilian jiu jitsu in MMA?

Compared to the sheer volume of top shelf amateur wrestlers that crossover into mixed martial arts, world-class jiu jitsu players are incredibly scarce. This weekend's Strikeforce card featured two true-to-the-definition world-class jiu-jitsu players, as Roger Gracie returned to make short work of South African wrestler Trevor Prangley and Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza strangled Robbie Lawler to retain his Strikeforce Middleweight Championship.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu hasn't been represented very well in MMA in the modern era. There are plenty of black belts, but we seldom see the type of jiu-jitsu player that can truly strike fear into of their contemporaries. Jiu-jitsu fighters the caliber of Ronaldo Souza, Demian Maia, Robert Drysdale, and Roger Gracie aren't throwbacks to Royce and Renzo Gracie, they're a new breed of top flight grapplers who not only have picked up enough tricks to get fights to the floor, but are making serious strides in order to round out their MMA games.

While it would be trite and cliche to declare Brazilian jiu-jitsu to be "back," if we are beginning to see an increasing number of fighters with legitimate competitive jiu-jitsu credentials, that can only be a good thing moving forward.