Three years after his painfully close decision loss to Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz’s grand return to the stage saw the UFC icon take on former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, the artist behind the iconic showtime kick. And he did not disappoint. In characteristic fashion, Diaz’s performance was as impressive as it was entertaining, earning him a deserved unanimous decision win. Yet despite his many impressive performances, Nate’s style has earned him a reputation as a brawler, who wins scrappy fights with a mix of cardio, grit, and an iron chin. But whilst Nate undoubtedly has these characteristics, the emphasis currently placed on them by the MMA mainstream overlooks Nate’s skill as an athlete. Against Pettis however, Diaz showcased his often underrated skills.
Watching the fight back, its easy to think that Pettis lost because he couldn’t keep up with Nate’s cardio. Showtime’s game plan seemed to be to land heavy leg kicks (which have historically been a weakness of Nate’s) to slow Diaz down and set up his head kicks, whilst looking to counter Diaz as he closed the distance. In short, he was looking to set up the knockout. And for the first round at least, this strategy seemed to work. Pettis caught Diaz coming in several times with strong right-hand counters that seemed to rock Nate, forcing him to back up and giving Pettis some space. But as the rounds wore on Pettis began to fade, and Nate slowly came to dominate the stand-up. He got tired, and he got overwhelmed. But this is only half of the story, and it is important we understand why Pettis started to wane.
Firstly, although Pettis’ cardio might not be up to Nate’s iron man standards, it has rarely been a problem, and it is reasonable to expect the former champion to have the conditioning necessary for a three-round fight. Therefore, we must recognise that Pettis did not begin to fade simply because his cardio is inferior to Nate’s.
Instead, Nate’s Jiu Jitsu is one of his deadliest weapons, and his technical prowess forced Pettis to rely on his physicality to compete, draining Pettis’ stamina whenever the fight went to the ground.
A second degree blackbelt under Cesar Gracie, Nate’s Jiu Jitsu is some of the smoothest in the division, giving him a technical advantage over almost anyone who wants to engage him in a Jiu Jitsu battle (although wrestling is a different matter). This is not to say that Pettis’ Jiu Jitsu is not excellent in its own right, but training with magicians like Kron Grace, as Diaz does, breeds grapplers of the slickest kind.
This level of BJJ meant that Nate was often one step ahead in the chess-match that plays out on the ground, forcing Pettis to counter Nate’s technical advantage with athleticism. But relying more on strength and speed than technique is an unavoidably tiring strategy, and one that left Pettis exhausted when the fight returned to the feet. This is why Nate did not come to truly dominate the stand-up until later in the second round, after two separate grappling exchanges in which he forced Pettis to work much harder than himself.
There are several examples of this throughout the fight, the first of which came in the first round. After Nate finished a beautiful single leg takedown off of one of Pettis’ kicks, Showtime immediatly grabbed hold of a guillotine. But without both legs around Nate’s body to apply pressure, it was always unlikely that Pettis would finish Diaz from this position. Knowing this, Diaz relaxed, lying down flat to ensure that Pettis can’t free his right leg. But Showtime holds onto the choke regardless, trying to squeeze and muscle his way into a submission that isn’t really there. This sees Pettis burn unnecessary energy whilst Nate simply relaxes, catching his breath while he waits for Pettis to loosen his grip.
Similar situations occur whenever Diaz finds himself in Pettis’ guard. Often, rather than control Nate’s posture and look to disguise his submission attempts within a longer chain of techniques and strikes, Pettis looks to explode up with his legs and catch an off-guard Nate in a triangle or an armbar. Not only is this energy-intensive work that further depletes Pettis’ stamina, but these big, exaggerated movements give Diaz the space to get under Pettis’ hips, stack him, and pass his guard, giving Pettis ever more tiring work to do.
A final example of this happens in round two. With Diaz trying to take his back, Pettis throws up a feeble kimura attempt, looking to fall back and throw Nate into the submission. But all Nate does is follow Pettis as he falls, earning him a dangerous side control position with essentially no effort. Nate then quickly locks down his hips, forcing Pettis to explode out and throwing him into another chain of transitions and exchanges in which he calls on his athleticism to survive. Such exchanges undoubtedly drained Pettis, eventually allowing Diaz to extend his dominance from the ground onto the feet.
Thus, it is not that Nate simply outlasted Pettis. Unable to match Diaz’s silky, technical Jiu Jitsu, Pettis was forced into a tiring ground battle, where his reliance on athleticism burned energy at a much faster rate than his relaxed and technical opponent.
But Nate’s win depended as much on his game plan as it did his Jiu Jitsu. Everyone in MMA knows that Pettis’ most dangerous weapons are his kicks. Coming from a Taekwando/Kickboxing background, Pettis is one of the most technically efficient kickers on the roster, and is adept at using a variety of kicks to set up an even wider range of combinations, any one of which poses a serious threat to his opponent. Hence why, from the start of round one, Diaz sought to close the distance on Pettis. By determining the range of the fight Diaz looked to take Pettis’ kicks away from him, forcing him into a battle without his favoured weapons.
Generally speaking, Nate did this using long push kicks and teeps to the body, and after a few stabs would often feint a push kick to disguise his step in, and then look to clinch behind a barrage of characteristically short punches.
Although this teep tactic did get Pettis backing up, its safe to say that he generally seemed happy to do so – which is perhaps unsurprising given his stellar KO of Wonderboy Thompson that came with his back against the cage. Moreover, for the first round at least Showtime was also able to land some good right-hand counters as Diaz closed in, backing him up and earning Pettis some space. And for a while Pettis looked capable of really hurting Diaz.
But as their grappling exchanges chipped away at Pettis’ power and speed, Nate was able to close the distance with ever-growing ease. This not only deprived Pettis of his kicks, but allowed Diaz to use both his clinch and boxing ability.
With regards to the first, fighting against the cage is one of the most underappreciated aspects of MMA, but it is also one that Diaz excels at. If they are not looking to rest and catch their breath against the cage, most fighters search for a takedown, spending their time fishing for underhooks as they lean their weight on their opponents. But this strategy is not in the Diaz playbook. Instead, Nate is constantly looking to hurt his opponent, hunting for wrist control as soon as a clinch is initiated. This prevents Pettis from defending that side of his body, and allows Nate to fire knees that wear on an already tired Pettis. Throughout the fight Diaz looked deadly in the clinch, smothering Pettis with a combination of knees and short punches that sucked the air from his lungs.
But whenever the clinch wasn’t working, and sometimes even when it was, Diaz would simply disengage slightly, taking one step back into a close boxing range.
This is another area in which Diaz is extremely dangerous, and against Pettis he illustrated the the boxing/dirty boxing ability that he showcased so well against McGregor. Standing at arm’s length, Diaz’s high-volume style begins to suffocate his opponents. And by releasing a torrent of short, accurate and seemingly endless punches, Diaz started to brutalise and overwhelm a fatigued and increasingly damaged Pettis.
In this way Nate’s tactic of closing the distance worked not only because it deprived Pettis of his favourite weapons, but because it provided Diaz with his. By turning the fight into a dirty boxing/combat Jiu Jitsu hybrid, Diaz was able to utilise his punishing clinch work as well as his technical and relentless boxing to dominate the former champion, and complete his impressive return to the Octagon.
To conclude, Diaz did not best Pettis because he out-paced him. Rather, the fight took place where Nate was able to use his best weapons (his boxing, Jiu Jitsu and clinch work) whilst Pettis was unable to use his. By dragging Pettis into his world, Nate was able to outmanoeuvre and eventually overwhelm the former champion. Distance is key to any fight, and if Nate can back his opponent up to the fence, and roll around with a Jiu Jitsu rather than a wrestling specialist, he can pose a threat to almost anyone in the Welterweight division.