Condit follows game plan to perfection, rattles Diaz in UFC 143

Only one thing stood in the way of a potential megafight between Nick Diaz and longtime Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre.

A perfectly designed and flawlessly executed game plan by Carlos Condit.

Condit avoided a brawl with Diaz by ignoring his taunts and continuously moving around the cage, refusing to get involved in the kind of undisciplined slugfest upon which Diaz has built his reputation.

He was rewarded with a unanimous decision victory and the interim welterweight title in the main event of UFC 143 at Mandalay Bay Events Center on Saturday night.

Condit often circled the cage and found himself backed against the fence, only to land a strike or two to escape and repeat the process all over again.

"It's pretty surreal. All credit to my team and my coaches," Condit said. "They prepared me for this fight. I did what they prepared me to do and I walked away with the victory."

The decision did not sit well with the enigmatic Diaz, who said it will likely cause him to stop fighting.

"I'm not going to accept the fact that this is a loss," he said. "I don't need this (expletive). I pushed him backwards, he ran from me this whole fight and landed his little baby kicks. I don't want to play this game anymore. I'm out of this (expletive)."

Condit never wavered in his strategy, though Diaz came close to stealing the victory when he got Condit down late in the fifth and final round and took his back.

Diaz nearly secured a choke, but Condit escaped in the final seconds and actually won the fifth round on two of the three cards.

Diaz, who participates in triathlons in his spare time, is usually the much stronger fighter in the late rounds. Condit won largely because he was able to keep moving throughout the fight.

"My endurance has always been a strong point," he said. "It's always been a part of my game where I felt I could over come my opponents and outlast them."

He didn't completely rely on moving away from Diaz. Condit actually got the better of many exchanges in the center of the cage and threatened with several spinning back fists and elbows. He also peppered Diaz throughout with leg kicks.

According to CompuStrike, Condit outlanded Diaz 146-110 in total strikes largely because he landed 104 kicks to only 19 by Diaz. Diaz, however, landed 86 arm strikes to 42 by Condit.

The scorecards were all over the place and exemplified the closeness of the action. On two of the cards, Diaz won only the third round, a round that Condit appeared to control.

Diaz won both the second and fifth round on the third card. The Review-Journal scored the bout 48-47 for Diaz.

Barring a setback in St. Pierre's recovery from anterior cruciate ligament surgery or taking another fight in the meantime, Condit will likely fight St. Pierre to unify the belts late this year.

Fabricio Werdum and Josh Koscheck also picked up decision victories on the card.

Werdum landed a huge knee that appeared to break the nose of Las Vegan Roy Nelson in the first round. Nelson was able to survive all three rounds and even landed a few punches that appeared to stagger Werdum, but Werdum proved to be too much for Nelson.

The Brazilian heavyweight was making his UFC return after a successful run in Strikeforce.

Koscheck won a split decision over Mike Pierce in a somewhat lackluster welterweight bout.

After losing the first round on all three scorecards, Koscheck won the final two on two cards to earn the favor of two of the three judges.

Renan Barao won his 28th straight fight with a unanimous decision win over Scotty Jorgensen to put himself in position to challenge for the bantamweight title down the road.

Also, Ed Herman overcame a slow start to win for the third straight time since missing nearly two years due to injury.

After Clifford Starks landed several big shots to control the opening round, Herman tripped Starks to the ground and locked in a rear-naked choke to end the fight early in the second.

Stephen Thompson stole the show on the undercard with a devastating head-kick knockout of Dan Stittgen in the first round of a welterweight bout.

Matt Brown knocked out Chris Cope in the second round of a welterweight bout and top featherweight prospect Dustin Poirier pulled off a triangle armbar submission of Max Holloway in the first round.

Rafael Natal and Matthew Riddle each picked up decision victories.

Alex Caceres was deprived of a victory when he was docked two points for repeated low blows on Edwin Figueroa. Caceres would have won the decision, but the rare two-point deduction swung the bantamweight contest in favor of Figueroa

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509.