Shamrock vs Diaz: Strikeforce April 11th

[calgaryballer]

Diaz - I smoke weed before every fight

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2009/4/9/828602/nick-diaz-makes-mockery-of-csac

can pass a drug test in eight days with herbal cleansers. I drink 10 pounds of water and sweat out 10 pounds of water every day. I'll be fine.

 

[Liquidrob]

Diaz - I smoke weed before every fight

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2009/4/9/828602/nick-diaz-makes-mockery-of-csac

didnt work in the gomi fight

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

All the more reason to love Diaz. He is MMA's resident Pothead.

 

[calgaryballer]

didnt work in the gomi fight

He only drank 9 litres that day

 

[EmpireWF]

Diaz never does anything to disprove his stature as MMA's resident punk.

Still, he's a damn good fighter.

Frank Shamrock is better.

 

[Liquidrob]

You know how I do it Rob. Nick by jumping heel hook.

and I know if you were putting money on this fight you would pick frank

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

and I know if you were putting money on this fight you would pick frank

Unfortunately the good people @ Bet365 havent dabbled into letting me bet on Strikeforce events. One day I hope.. one day.

 

[CrimsonGhost56]

TheMMAFiend:Shamrock is considered a legend in the sport by a lot of people; does that put any added pressure on you, or does it just motivate you more to get in there and beat him down?

Nick Diaz: He’s not a legend to me. Back in the day he was fighting fixed matches in Japan and supplementing himself with who knows what. Before that he was in a California Youth Prison for robbing houses. If that’s your idea of a legend you might want to reassess your thinking.

pretty strong words there ....

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

Nick is throwing bombs before he even gets in the cage..

 

[Liquidrob]

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[Liquidrob]

Some Pro's picks, love Nate Diazs pick, lol

Frank Shamrock and Nick Diaz will meet in the Strikeforce “Shamrock vs. Diaz” main event this Saturday in a fight that could stamp and exclamation point on the return of mixed martial arts to the Showtime network.

On one side stands the self-proclaimed legend of the sport, Shamrock, a man who almost single-handedly redefined how professional fighters prepare for upcoming battles. A submission wiz and underrated striker, Shamrock was at one point the prototypical mixed martial artist and has been involved in some of the sport’s most memorable wars. On the other side stands the brash Diaz, a veteran who has deceptive punching power and some slick jiu-jitsu. His hatred toward opponents harkens back to the days of the legendary Roberto Duran, and, like his opponent, Diaz has dazzled fight fans with electrifying performances, both in victory and defeat.

The MMA world seems torn as to who will walk out of the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif., as the victor. Sherdog.com contacted dozens of professional fighters and trainers to gauge their opinions on the fight.

Cung Le: Frank Shamrock wins by TKO [by] punches. The fight [will be] stopped due to cuts.

Gabe Ruediger: That’s actually an interesting matchup. I’m not sure how Nick will deal with Frank’s size advantage. Cardio is never a problem for either fighter, and both are competent strikers. Nick is a better submission guy, but Frank is really hard to submit. If it was five rounds, I would go with Nick, but I think Frank will win a decision. Great fight, though, and either guy could finish it before the allotted match time.

Guy Mezger: Frank wins by overwhelming dominance in the pre-fight smack talking. It is like beating up on a little kid. This will carry over into the actual fight. Frank should win in a convincing manner.

Alan Belcher: Frank will give him problems with his size and power. Frank will win a decision.

Micah Miller: Diaz. His superior jiu-jitsu will be the difference.

Renato Verissimo: Frank Shamrock.

Erik Paulson: Frank Shamrock, either by KO or leg submission.

Jeff Monson: Nick Diaz by decision.

Pete Sell: I’m going with Diaz by submission. He’ll do it by gogoplata (laughs). Seriously, Diaz by whatever submission he gets. His ground game is better than Frank’s. It’ll happen in the second round.

Frank Shamrock: Shamrock by KO in two rounds and looking good at 179. That’s all I got.

Nathan Diaz: Diaz. [Expletive] Shamrock.

Marvin Eastman: Frank Shamrock [by] decision.

Dewey Cooper: Nick Diaz versus Frank Shamrock will be an exciting fight, for sure. I think the experience of Frank Shamrock will be the advantage in this bout. Nick Diaz always comes to fight, though. He talks loads of trash, but he backs it all up. I feel Nick’s disrespect will push Frank to give a better effort than what he did in the Cung Le fight. Shamrock wins by second-round stoppage.

Mike Whitehead: This is a tough one, but I’m going to have to go with Diaz by decision.

Leigh Remedios: Frank by close decision. I think he’ll work kicks with angles to frustrate him, and his mind games will probably work well on Nick, who is quite hot-headed. Both are too tough to be stopped in a three-rounder -- Nick because of his chin and Frank because of his ego.

Robin Black: Well, Nick Diaz is certainly angrier, but Shamrock can counter that with his ultra smugness. I think Diaz can outbox Shamrock, and I think his high-level modern jiu-jitsu game is better than Frank’s catch wrestling. Diaz’s youth and aggressiveness is also gonna be tough to deal with. He sees Frank as a guy trying to take his money. He ain’t havin’ that. I see Diaz winning an action-packed unanimous decision.

Brad Blackburn: This is not a fight that I would want to put my money on. I think they’re both well-rounded fighters with good stand-up and ground skills. I think Diaz is hungrier and Shamrock is bigger. So I’m actually really excited to watch this fight.

Ray Steinbeiss: I see them standing up and Diaz setting a fast pace but Shamrock being able to land big right hands that cut Diaz and hurt him. Diaz, as always, will fight to the end showing a lot of heart. The fight won’t go to the ground very much, but when it does, Shamrock will be able to get back to his feet, where he will outbox Diaz to a decision win. Look for Frank to also land very hard middle kicks and for Diaz to try and work the clinch. I am picking Frank Shamrock by decision over a very game Nick Diaz.

Stephane Vigneault: I am a big fan of both fighters, but I think Shamrock, because of his size, is gonna win a decision.

 

[Liquidrob]

Good article

Take away spring training in baseball and the Harlem Globetrotters in basketball, and you don’t find too many tenured sports that hold contests for the hell of it. Every game “means something,” usually as an avenue to a world title.

The UFC, MMA’s slightly less PC version of the MLB, organizes and arranges nearly every fight with the expectation that participants could someday vie for a divisional belt. Very rarely will they throw two athletes in a burlap sack for giggles. (The upcoming Wanderlei Silva/Rich Franklin catchweight fight a notable, noisy exception.)

This is a good thing. As a longtime sufferer of obsessive-compulsive disorder, my psyche insists on several things: that white socks don’t mix with black, that the TV remotes are arranged in descending order of size and that fights have a point beyond inflicting a bunch of bruises.

Saturday’s sore-thumb fight between Frank Shamrock and Nick Diaz -- held at a catchweight of 179 pounds -- will do my affliction no favors. It will not satisfy any questions about The Best in any particular weight class. (Though Shamrock, jovial, professional Internet troll that he is, would probably delight in making his very own 179-pound title out of cardboard and ego.) It will not add anything of significance to either man’s career. With Diaz bulking up and Shamrock slowing down, it’s a Frankenstein monster of a match.

And yet I’m looking forward to it nearly as much as any fight this year.

Something is clearly wrong with me.

It could be the residual goodwill I have for Shamrock, who has remained one of the few athletes in the sport to marry a dynamic personality with a dynamic in-ring presence. (Most athletes can muster one or the other, but rarely both.) Maybe it’s because Diaz is his perfect foil, an attitudinal Stockton bruiser with bravado so foaming he’s willing to attack an opponent while the two are in the same hospital wing.

Make no mistake: Nick Diaz will strangle you with your own IV tube. And that’s pretty endearing.

The fight itself appears destined to be three rounds of video game-style button-mashing. Diaz’s volume punching is probably not going to work against Shamrock, who escaped to stand-up training when his legs gave up on him. Likewise, Shamrock may have few answers (and not enough knee cartilage) if Diaz decides to shoot in on him. There’s never any complete guarantee against boredom, but these are not two guys who stand still and wait for something to happen.

Size is a non-issue. Shamrock, one of the smallest light heavyweights of his or any era, carries sparsely more muscle than Robbie Lawler, whom Diaz flattened. And while he may be built like a supplement ad, Shamrock has never relied on brute force for conflict resolution. He’s a craftsman, and so is Diaz.

What really interests is how Diaz’s new face -- Frank Stile, MD -- will hold up against Shamrock, easily the most accomplished and foreboding striker Diaz has met since having scar tissue removed and collagen implanted to reduce his frequent lacerations. A couple of years ago, I would’ve picked Shamrock via brow slicing. If Diaz embraces strategy and takes him down, it could be a different story.

A story with no gold MacGuffin, just bragging rights. The opposite is true of the following weekend’s Anderson Silva/Thales Leites bout, which is unique in that Silva has an opportunity to set a new all-time UFC record for consecutive fights won in the Octagon (nine). Leites, unfortunately, is a generic personality; Silva did himself no favors by engaging in a bizarre performance against Patrick Cote last October. It appears to have robbed him of the fanfare surrounding his previous performances.

Silva would, likely as not, knock both Shamrock and Diaz out of their kneepads and into the concession stands -- maybe even on the same night. But context is everything. Robert De Niro may be a far better actor than his peers, but damned if I’ll sit through “Righteous Kill” again.

Most of the time, a fight should mean something, a contest that adds order and balance to a sport that’s still struggling with cohesion. Other times, a fight should just be a fight, with nothing more on the line than the audience’s attention. Shamrock gets me because he gets storytelling: the idea that you have to have an emotional stake in a fight or fighter in order to get nervous for them. For most athletes, the title is the story. Frank takes more authorship. He is the only first-generation MMA athlete still competing on a high level, and that’s a tale worth following.

Fifteen years on this gig has taught him how to make us care about his exploits. And he does it better than anybody.

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

Rob you need to become Frank's PR man... you promote the hell out of the guy. You're a good friend for sure.

Lol @ Robin Black having an opinion. Has dude actually become a legitimate fighter? One fight I saw him in he was as bad as his music.

 

[Liquidrob]

Rob you need to become Frank's PR man... you promote the hell out of the guy. You're a good friend for sure.

lol, I just do it on this board because I like you guys, frank doesnt need any help promoting

I like to talk about fighting, not just UFC fights, DREAM talk is tough to get going because it is usually at weird hours or tape delayed for a week

Strikeforce will be easy to watch on Showtime and with the CBS deal, should get some non UFC love from the mainstream

 

[Liquidrob]

just read on another board, not sure how accurate

but strikeforce already sold 14,000 seats, best seat you can get now is a $100 seat

looks like it will be a big night for strikeforce, another 7 figure plus gate

 

[Liquidrob]

Some weigh in pics

 

[EmpireWF]

This sucks...Cyborg weighed in at 152 pounds (six pounds over) and was given until 11pm eastern to get under the limit. No word yet on if she made it or not, or if her opponent is going to take the fight.

 

[EmpireWF]

Shit, Strikeforce can't catch a break...Cyborg couldn't make weight and Akano's camp refused to take the fight.

 

[Liquidrob]

Shit, Strikeforce can't catch a break...Cyborg couldn't make weight and Akano's camp refused to take the fight.

they are still working on it, she got down some more an hour later

it isnt scrapped yet

would suck, like watching cyborg fight and the women usually steal the show

 

[EmpireWF]

oh i see, in other words, Akano's people will want more $$$ to take the fight.

Basically, if she accepts the fight, it's negotiating for a big ass whoopin'.