Joe Stevenson vs. Nate Diaz
Joe Stevenson defeats Nate Diaz At some point in this match, Nate Diaz must have pictured Joe Stevenson as a hairless Clay Guida. If you remember the Guida/Diaz fight from UFC 94, then you’ll know how Diaz lost this match. Lucky for us, Joe Stevenson has a larger arsenal of tools than Clay Guida. In all fairness to Guida, Joe’s hugging is not as enthusiastic. It seemed that training with Greg Jackson’s camp gave Stevenson the edge in this fight. He thankfully departed from his boxing-only strategy that he used against Diego Sanchez. As a result of Stevenson’s diverse attacks, Diaz was never able to get anything going. Joe was always the first to attempt something. The judges like to reward those who push the pace. Neither fighter was close to being finished because they both have solid ground skills. However it became clear early on that Joe was the stronger of the two. He wasn’t able to put Diaz in serious jeopardy, but he was able to out-muscle him. Of the three fight of the night honors doled out, this one was the least deserving. The match was an interesting to watch because there were lots of neat position changes going on. At the very least, it’s nice that the UFC rewarded two guys who were using technique more than just raw aggression. Next Fight: Ross Pearson vs. Andre Winner
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