Through the Past Darkly: Reflections on UFC 158

MONTREAL – I don’t know what’s less surprising: the fact that Nick Diaz started talking about retirement after his unanimous decision loss to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 158, or the fact that so few people seem to be taking the threat all that seriously.

We’ve been through this before with Diaz. Even when he’s winning, he seems to have a love-hate relationship with this sport. In defeat he seems to temporarily forget the love part of the equation altogether. Then he takes some time, whether it’s 10 minutes or a few weeks, and he finds a reason to keep going. This time the reason might come from the IRS, which, once it gets wind of Diaz’s claim that he’s “never paid taxes in [his] life,” might show up with a bill that he can only pay in blood – his own or someone else’s.

What are we supposed to make of Diaz’s statement, which seemed like part confession and part cry for help? As UFC President Dana White said, “You wanna talk about sad? That’s sad.” And it is. That’s really the only word for it. Obviously it’s Diaz’s responsibility, but if the people around him (who have no trouble taking their cut when his fight purses roll in) aren’t looking out for him any better than that, well, it’s just depressing to think about. Maybe none of us thought Diaz was the kind of fighter who spent his off-time in his financial planner’s office, debating his level of exposure in the Stockton real estate market. But can’t someone in his camp at least keep him out of jail?

The thing is, it’s hard to know how seriously to take this. If you’ve watched just about any Diaz press conference, you’ve probably heard him say some pretty absurd things – things that make everyone around him burst into incredulous giggles –but it’s tough to say whether he a) means for it to be funny, or b) realizes why it is. Would it really surprise any of us if Diaz’s lawyer popped up with years of immaculate tax returns for his fighter and explained that he had no idea what Diaz was talking about? Would it surprise us more or less than if we found out that Diaz really did still owe back taxes on his win over Chris Lytle in 2002?

This is exactly the sort of thing that’s fascinated us about the man for years. And, for the most part, watching Diaz make a mess of his own life from a safe distance has felt like a harmless hobby. Now it’s starting to get serious. Now, if his tax evasion talk turns out to be more grounded in reality than his promises to retire, it might just get really sad.

The other Diaz brother has words for Mike Ricci, even if his motives remain a mystery

According to several sources, including MMA media member Mike Straka, UFC lightweight Nate Diaz instigated a verbal confrontation with Mike Ricci backstage following Ricci’s decision win over Colin Fletcher on Saturday. Minutes after it happened, Ricci still seemed unsure what promoted Diaz to start up with the trash-talk while Ricci was busy savoring his first UFC win. Was it the fact that Ricci’s Tristar Gym connection made him an ally of St-Pierre? Was it an attempt to get into the head of a potential future opponent? Ricci just shrugged.

“I don’t know what his problem is, but that was all him,” he told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).

Regardless of the reason, it didn’t seem to bother Ricci too much. It didn’t even change his opinion of the Diaz boys, he explained.

“I have nothing against the Diaz brothers,” Ricci said. “I’m actually a huge fan of the Diaz brothers. I love watching them fight. But if he doesn’t like me too much, that’s his business. I’m not going to lose sleep over it.”

Jordan Mein is literally kicking tail and taking names

Following his first-round TKO of Dan Miller, Strikeforce import Jordan Mein showed up backstage with a wide grin that seemed equal parts elated and relieved. After nearly getting caught in a Miller armbar, he managed an escape solely because, he said, Miller “didn’t have control of my thumb, so I just kept rolling.” When he heard his corner shouting for him to get up and go on the attack, he did. Moments later, he became the first man to finish Miller, thus allowing him to “put a smiley face” next to Miller’s name on the list he keeps of all UFC welterweights.

And no, that list is not a figurative one. If you’re a UFC welterweight, Mein really does have your name written down on a list in his bedroom.

“I do, on a whiteboard,” Mein said. “I wrote down every single welterweight in the UFC. … You’ve got to know who you’re going to fight. You’ve got to have goals set in mind. You’ve got to know what’s up, what’s next. I look at that list every day. Dan Miller was in there. I look at his name and I’m like, OK, I’m ready. I’ve got to train every day, look at it when you wake up every day.”

While Mein assured us he wasn’t “putting on lipstick” and staring at the list in a creepy way while alone in his room, it does tell us something about his career ambitions. The 23-year-old already has more than 30 pro fights, so clearly he’s not in the UFC just to see if he can hang. He’s got his eye on every man in this division. Now we wait to find out whose name he’ll zero in on next.

At Team Alpha Male, hints of a Ludwig-led revival

UFC bantamweight T.J. Dillashaw didn’t mince words when accounting for the improved striking game that helped him knock out Issei Tamura in the second round of their UFC 158 prelim bout. The change was due in large part to Team Alpha Male’s new kickboxing coach, Duane Ludwig, Dillashaw said.

“It’s a huge difference,” Dillashaw said. “It’s not just for my striking, but also for practicing and being confident and having that person who’s working as hard at his job as I am at mine.”

But what of Ludwig’s own fighting career? He suffered a knee injury in his last fight against Che Mills, and he likely won’t be back to full strength until September, he said. Until then, he’s actively avoiding making any decisions about the future of his career inside the cage.

“I’m not even thinking about fighting right now,” he told MMAjunkie.com. “It’s kind of nice.”

You can see how it would be. Between kickboxing and MMA, Ludwig has been fighting at a steady clip for nearly 15 years now. Thanks to the coaching job at Team Alpha Male, he moved his family from Colorado to California and, for the first time in his adult life, now has the ability to leave his work at the office. When training for his own fights, Ludwig said, “I get so obsessive.” As a coach, he can hammer his fighters into shape in the gym, maybe study some tape, then go home and give all his attention to his family.

“Mentally, it’s really rejuvenating,” Ludwig said.

Does that mean retirement is imminent? He wouldn’t go that far. Not yet, anyway. Like almost every fighter, he’d rather go out on a win than an injury TKO loss. Then again, he’s clearly pretty good at this coaching stuff.

Darren Elkins robbed of a clear finish, but will it matter?

Coming into his fight with Antonio Carvalho, UFC featherweight Darren Elkins had won four straight in the octagon, but still had trouble gaining much traction in the division.

“I had this good win streak going,” Elkins said. “The one thing I was missing was a finish.”

After a big right hand in the first put Carvalho on wobbly legs, that seemed like it was about to change. But as Elkins charged in with a follow-up punch, Carvalho dropped ever so briefly before bouncing back up like he was spring-loaded. He was clearly hurt but still in the fight. It was the perfect chance for Elkins to prove that he could finish, but referee Yves Lavigne beat him to it and called off the bout before we got a chance to see what would come next.

After the fight, Carvalho was surprisingly – almost shockingly – calm about the quick stoppage.

“I was trying to tell [Lavigne] I was OK, but he’d already made his decision, and he’s obviously not going to go back on it,” Carvalho said. “I respect Yves as a referee. He’s reffed other of my fights before. We talked about it, and we laughed and I said, you know what? Thank you for protecting me, too. I don’t know what would have happened after that.”

For Elkins, the question is whether the win accounts for enough of a finish to rocket him up the ranks. He definitely showed he can do more than wrestle, but where does that leave him in the featherweight division?

“I think it’s going to push me to a top 10 guy for sure,” he said. “I think that win, going for a finish, more of an exciting fight, more a stand-up fight, it’s a fight that could definitely do that.”

With title tilts, a question of expectations and results

Now that it’s over, I think it’s safe to say that GSP’s win over Diaz was not the worst beating we’ve ever seen in the octagon. It wasn’t even the worst beating we saw that night. That’s bound to leave some people disappointed, especially after all the talk about dark places and disrespect and bully payback that got drilled into our heads through ads so repetitive they felt like unsubtle attempts at brainwashing. The UFC promised us bad blood and a beatdown for the ages. What we got instead was more of the same from St-Pierre.

He came. He saw. He decisioned. What else did you expect?

What’s that you say? You expected a grudge match on par with the one the UFC sold you in the lead-up to this event? Yeah, well, sorry. The UFC can market the sizzle, but it can’t do much about the steak. That part is up to the fighters, and St-Pierre has no need or obligation to deliver what the UFC promised on his behalf. Face it, GSP gonna GSP. Why wouldn’t he? It’s the UFC’s job to get butts in seats. It’s his job to win, which he does by playing it nice and smart and predictable.

The trouble for the UFC is, it can only go to that well so many times before it comes up dry. Every fight can’t be a grudge match, and when even the grudge matches don’t look like grudge matches, people start to wonder whether they’re paying for empty promises. That’s why the GSP vs. Johny Hendricks bout – if, in fact, it materializes as it should – should be a refreshing change.

Clearly, these two aren’t going to talk much trash. That much was evident as they sat next to each other at the post-fight presser, praising one another’s skills like doubles tennis partners. Maybe this one can just be about the fight, and about the specific combination of talent and tactics that each man brings to the table. It might not make for sexy promo spots or juicy sound bites, but at least it’s a promise that has a greater chance of being fulfilled.

Meanwhile, all Jake Ellenberger can do is watch and wait. With a first-round TKO of Nate Marquardt on Saturday, he did all he could possibly do to keep his name alive in the welterweight sweepstakes. But that’s the hard part about being on a card where so much about one division gets determined in one night. With all that welterweight action, it’s all too easy to get lost in the shuffle.

For complete coverage of UFC 158, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.