Resolute Condit not flashy but classy

I am a mush.

Carlos Condit proved as much again Saturday night.

Mixed martial arts fans will have to wait for Nick Diaz and Georges St. Pierre to see if all those fighting words make for a good fight, because Condit entered the octagon at Mandalay Bay Events Center for UFC 143 with a purpose and left with a championship belt.

Diaz made it seem like fans will have to wait forever.

Condit is the interim welterweight champion after scoring a unanimous main event decision over five rounds.

He also is total class.

I wanted him to lose because Diaz and St. Pierre promised great theatrics before a title fight, two guys with an intense disdain for each other and one -- Diaz -- who will say anything at any time and never make sense with any of it.

Which he did following the loss.

At least the part about saying anything at any time.

"I'm done with MMA," Diaz said. "I've had a good career, and you guys paid me too much. You know, I don't need this (bleep). (Condit) ran from me the whole time, giving me little baby kicks the whole fight. I don't want to play this game anymore."

In Diaz Language, that means he's retiring for now, although he probably changed his mind 10 times before reaching the locker room while talking to himself. I suppose it depends on what the voices in his head were saying.

Whatever the bizarre Diaz does, and I'm guessing Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White won't fret either way, he won't get the first shot at St. Pierre. That now belongs to Condit, the family man from Albuquerque, N.M., whose fitness turned what appeared to be Diaz's night early into victory.

Who knows. It wasn't so one-sided either way that the decision came as a surprise. The fact Condit was awarded scores of 48-47, 49-46 and 49-46 isn't a shock. He was more disciplined all night, careful, controlled, smarter, sort of like a certain Wyoming basketball team in Laramie earlier in the day.

"It's pretty surreal," Condit said. "I started to find my flow (late in the fight). My endurance has always been a strong part of my game. Nick Diaz is a warrior. I have nothing but respect for him and the way he fights.

"It's an honor to (be fighting St. Pierre next). Georges is a guy I looked up to when I was younger, before I got here. This is why I got into the UFC, to fight guys like Georges."

Man, does this guy ever make it hard to root against him.

I couldn't have picked a nicer guy to lose.

The mush strikes again.

■ BIG COUNTRY A BLOODY MESS -- If this means Roy Nelson won't again come close to positioning himself for big-money matchups of the UFC, I suggest White add another nightly bonus of $65,000 to any card Nelson appears.

The Everyday Joe Bonus.

Nelson would win in a landslide.

The list of why MMA has surpassed boxing for many mainstream sports fans continues to grow, and watching Nelson in a cage only should strengthen that opinion.

I could watch the guy fight over and over and never expect him to beat anyone all that great, happy with the fact someone who looks like he should be off filming an episode of "Ice Road Truckers" instead is huffing and puffing all around an octagon near you.

Nelson lost his heavyweight fight against Fabricio Werdum, lost because his Brazilian opponent was a lot better, and my guess is it's tough to keep punching hard when you can't breathe from all the blood pouring down your face.

Nelson is Las Vegas born-and-raised-tough, because the first-round knee he took to the nose from Werdum would have dropped most humans and even an elephant or two.

It's not looking great for the rotund Nelson as his division moves forward, having lost three of his past four fights. He still has a great right hand, which he used to floor Werdum in the first, but never could hurt the guy who needed to win as badly as he did.

Werdum is the one who in 2010 beat Fedor Emelianenko, who legend has it was at one time more ferocious than Sasquatch, the Loch Ness Monster and the Abominable Snowman all in one.

But then Werdum disappointed in a loss to Alistair Overeem and needed to show well against Nelson to keep in the heavyweight title conversation.

That's probably not in the cards for Nelson.

It's too bad, because you know that line about watching a guy in a professional sport and thinking you could be him, that you also could get paid to do what he does?

Nelson makes most of us feel that way.

Until we remember that right knee would have killed us on the spot.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday on "Monsters of the Midday," Fox Sports Radio 920 AM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.