UFC 143 Fight Card: The Strenghts and Weaknesses of Each Main Card Fighter

Coming up on Saturday night is one of the most anticipated fights of the year so far, as Carlos Condit will face Nick Diaz for the interim welterweight title.

The rest of the main card features stars from the bantamweight division all the way through the heavyweights, each fighter with their own distinctive strengths and weaknesses.

Some are great strikers, wrestlers or jiu-jitsu players, and some are weak in each of those departments.

Let's take a look.

Ed Herman

Strength: Submission Offense

Weakness: Submission Defense

It seems that Herman's greatest strength is also his greatest weakness, as most of his wins have come via submission, and most of his losses have come via submission as well.

Lately, Herman's submission defense has not been an issue, as he has not been submitted since 2008 against Demian Maia.

With that being said, his weakness is a bit of a stretch, but he is a very well-rounded fighter, who isn't overly weak in any area.

Clifford Starks

Strength: Wrestling

Weakness: One-Dimensional?

Clifford Starks has had only one fight thus far in the UFC, and it was an uninspired decision over Dustin Jacoby at UFC 137, in which he scored a takedown in each round, and kept Jacoby down.

Starks formerly wrestled at Arizona State University, where he was a teammate of former heavyweight champ, Cain Velasquez.

Overall, Starks is 8-0, and will have a few questions about him answered on Saturday night.

Renan Barão

Strength: Submissions

Weakness: Unknown

Many know of Renan Barão and his incredible unbeaten streak. For those that don't, he is 27-1 [1 NC], and he lost the first fight of his career. For those that can't figure it out, that's 28 fights without a loss.

Barão is 4-0 in the UFC/WEC, with three submission victories. Most recently, Barão defeated Brad Pickett via first round submission after rocking him on the feet.

He gets his first fight with a top contender on Saturday. We'll get to see if the hype is for real about this guy.

Scott Jorgensen

Strength: Wrestling

Weakness: Dominick Cruz

Scott Jorgensen is one of the top fighters in the bantamweight division, and is also one of the most well-rounded.

Jorgensen has great wrestling, as he was a three-time Pac-10 champion, and a former All-American. During his time in the UFC and WEC, he hasn't shown all that many weaknesses, as he has gone 9-3, with the three losses being decisions.

Unfortunately, in Jorgensen's title fight against Dominick Cruz, he dropped all five rounds, and went on to lose the fight 50-45 on all the judges' scorecards.

Josh Koscheck

Strength: Power

Weakness: Striking Defense

Josh Koscheck is easily one of the most powerful fighters in the entire UFC welterweight division.

Whether he's using his striking to knock people out in brutal fashion, like he did against Matt Hughes and Yoshiyuki Yoshida, or if he's using his outstanding wrestling to get the fight to the ground, Koscheck is a powerful dude.

Unfortunately, he isn't the greatest when it comes to defending the strikes. In the past, he was brutally knocked out by Paulo Thiago, and he was jabbed for 25 straight minutes by GSP.

Then Matt Hughes used a stiff jab—like GSP did—earning some early success.

Mike Pierce

Strength: Wrestling

Weakness: Striking

Mike Pierce, like Koscheck, is a former D-1 wrestler, and can use that skill to get the fight down to the ground any time that he wants.

It's not that Pierce's striking is bad, it's just that he doesn't rely on it to win fights, and it isn't up to the same level as Koscheck's striking.

If Pierce tries to strike with Kos, it'll be a fast night.

Overall, Pierce is 5-2 in the UFC, and has only lost to Jon Fitch and Johny Hendricks. There could be big things in store for him.

Roy Nelson

Strength: Iron Chin

Weakness: Cardio

Roy Nelson has more than just one strength. He has some slick jits, and solid striking, coupled with knockout power in his right hand.

However his biggest strength has got to be his iron chin. He survived for 15 minutes with Junior dos Santos. He stood in there for 15 minutes with Frank Mir. He was able to defeat Mirko Cro Cop.

Those three men could knock anyone out at any minute, and he survived with all of them.

However, in fights against Mir and JDS, Nelson looked absolutely gassed out by the end of the fight.

Against Cro Cop, he showed a slimmed down physique that may have helped with his cardio, but we'll get to see him again on Saturday.

Fabricio Werdum

Strength: Jiu-Jitsu

Weakness: Striking

Fabricio Werdum is one of the top heavyweight submission specialists in the world today, and perhaps of all time in MMA.

Werdum has submitted notable fighters such as Fedor Emelianenko, Alexsander Emelianenko, Alistair Overeem and Mike Kyle.

People fear his ground game, and specifically his dangerous guard.

Werdum's weakness has always been his striking, as he has never truly had to rely on it to win fights. In his last fight against Alistair Overeem, he was outstriking the K-1 champ, but kept deciding to jump guard instead of standing.

Fighting Nelson will get a chance to show us how much his standup has improved.

Nick Diaz

Strength: Boxing

Weakness: Wrestling

Nick Diaz is another fighter with more than one strength. His boxing is some of the best in the welterweight division. His jiu-jitsu is some of the best in all of MMA. His cardio is absolutely unparalleled in the sport.

He has many ways which he can win fights, and he showcased his entire skill set in 2011, as he earned a submission victory, TKO victory and a decision victory.

Diaz hasn't faced a true wrestler in six years, so for all we know, his wrestling has greatly improved in that time.

Until we see otherwise, it would be safe to assume that Diaz' weakness is still his takedown defense and wrestling.

Carlos Condit

Strength: Striking

Weakness: Takedown Defense

Carlos Condit is very similar to Nick Diaz. He has multiple strengths, and not a whole lot of weaknesses.

Condit has a more varied striking attack than Diaz, as he comes at opponents with punches, kicks, elbows and as we saw recently, knees.

He also has great jiu-jitsu off his back, and he has a variety of sweeps and submissions that he utilizes effectively.

In his last fight, he was taken down by Dong Hyun Kim—which is what he needs to improve on—but he was able to sweep Kim right into the mount.

We'll certainly see every aspect of both Condit and Diaz tested on Saturday night as they face off for the interim welterweight title.

Tim McTiernan is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. For the latest news on everything MMA, follow me on twitter @TimMcTiernan.