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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Nick Diaz's loss to Carlos Condit in February has the Cesar Gracie camp a little paranoid and wary of any fight going to the judges moving forward with the Diaz brothers, and its with that mindset that Nate enters next weekend's UFC on Fox 5 event.
Speaking with Inside MMA on AXS TV on Monday, Diaz said he needed to do everything in his power to stop Benson Henderson, because he doesn't think things will go his way if it reaches the judges.
"I don't think I've got any chance of winning any type of decision," Diaz said (transcribed by MMAFighting.com). "So I got to go out there and do what I can do, try to finish my opponent, try to be the better fighter and win the fight. But, either way, if it goes to decision, I'm going to be the one out-scoring and out-pointing, out-doing him."
It's a thought process reinforced by his trainer, Cesar Gracie, who added his thoughts to the proceedings on the show as well.
"Unfortunately, pretty much it is [the camp's mindset now]," Gracie said. "It's almost like in Nick's case, he figures he's fighting his opponent and he's fighting the judges. So he's got to finish people. These guys fight like that anyways."
"Unfortunately we've got to get those finishes, or maybe win something so lopsided that we get a decision. We saw that with B.J. Penn. I've never really seen a close decision where the nod was given to the Diaz's. I always see them, if it's close they're going to lose. I don't know why. I think maybe the judges really don't care for them that much."
Penick's Analysis: There's no conspiracy against the Diaz brothers when it comes to judging, but it's definitely tough to be on the wrong end of close decisions more than once, and it's not surprising they feel the way they do. Still, when you go back to the Condit fight, just as many people feel Condit should have won that fight given what actually happened in the cage, so now in Nate's case, it's got to be a great performance to leave no doubt that he's the better fighter next Saturday in Seattle. It may take him finding a way to stop Ben Henderson, but if he does what he has to do, he shouldn't need to worry about the judges.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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