UFC 141 Results: Nate Diaz Breaks CompuStrike Record in Win over Cerrone

While it has been his older brother Nick who has made the news more often, Nate Diaz might be the fighter in the family who advanced his skills the most in 2011.

After losing back-to-back fights to start the year in the welterweight division, the younger Diaz dropped to 155 pounds and won the biggest two fights of his career to close out the year.

A submission victory over Takanori Gomi at UFC 135 led to a one-sided decision over Donald Cerrone at UFC 141.

He looked the best he ever had against Gomi. And although he took more damage in the fight against Cerrone, he looked even better against “Cowboy.”

In fact, according to CompuStrike results from Friday night’s fight card, Diaz broke the record for striking accuracy in a three round fight.

The rising lightweight picked apart his opponent, landing an unbelievable 82% of his strikes.

Like Nick, Nate's “slap boxing” noticeably threw off Cerrone’s rhythm and Diaz used that to pick him apart with jabs and punching combinations for all 15 minutes.

Cerrone had never taken quite that kind of beating and he may never again.

Even with his expertise in Muay Thai kickboxing, Cerrone looked completely helpless at times as Diaz smacked him around while simultaneously talking trash right to his face.

He may not have the high ranking that Nick does at this time, but Nate Diaz is quickly rising the rankings in the lightweight division. With this win, he almost assuredly moves into the top 10. Some may even put him higher than that, given the dominant nature of the victories.

The lightweight division might be the most stacked division in all of MMA right now, and Diaz has a lot of work to do in 2012 if he wants to get into title contention.

Nevertheless, the division should keep their eyes on this kid, as it appears that he may finally have crossed the hump into becoming an elite fighter in the UFC. 

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