The Nick Diaz Hype Train

The Nick Diaz hype train is going at full steam.

Ignoring his positive test for marijuana, Diaz has won 10 of his past 11 fights, against some solid competition.  Not many fighters are on a better run.

All of this aside, I've been bothered recently by some of the out-of-control hype being generated about Nick Diaz.

This was no more apparent than at the TUF finale during a Nate Diaz fight, when Joe Rogan called Nick Diaz a possible top 10 pound for pound fighter.

I could feel the synapses in my brain snapping, as I tried to reconcile that idea with the rest of the thoughts in my mind. It didn't work out.

Certainly Diaz is a good fighter, but let's try to put him into perspective here for a second.

Before we start trying to make an argument for him being a top P4P fighter, let's try to at least rank him in his weight class.

This task is complicated slightly, as Diaz has fought fighters across three weight classes.

As Diaz has struggled to both make weight at lightweight, and also in the cage against KJ Noons, it is unlikely that he is best served to be ranked as a lightweight.

Diaz's most recent fights have been against fighters who are traditionally middleweights, in Scott Smith and Frank Shamrock.  Both were impressive victories, but let's attempt to place Diaz within the division.

Diaz has some unorthodox striking, as well as excellent Brazillian Jiu Jitsu.  But the middleweight division is full of fighters who would match up well against that skill set.

Almost every fighter in the top 10 in that division (regardless of what ranking set you look at) is a BJJ black belt.  So it is unlikely that Diaz would have much of a grappling advantage over any of them, while he would almost certainly be at a grappling disadvantage against BJJ black belts like Demian Maia, Thales Leites, and Ricardo Almeida.

Meanwhile, stifling wrestlers like Yushin Okami, and Dan Henderson would probably simply bully Nick Diaz, if they did not out-strike him.

And while Diaz does have a fairly well-rounded arsenal, the middleweight division is full of these fighters as well.  Fighters like Anderson Silva and Nate Marquardt might just beat Diaz at every single aspect of MMA.

Yet there are those who might argue that Diaz is really a welterweight, and should be ranked there instead.  Yet Diaz lost at welterweight to Sean Sherk, Karo Parisyan, Joe Riggs, Jeremy Jackson, Kuniyoshi Hironaka, and Diego Sanchez.

Despite all of Diaz's subsequent improvements, I personally do not believe that he would match up well against any of the top five fighters in the welterweight division. Furthermore, other fighters like Martin Kampmann, Mike Swick, and Carlos Condit have done much more to validate their positions within the welterweight top ten.

After writing this, I feel like I've been unnecessarily bashing a good fighter, but that is not my intention.

Simply, while many people have been arguing for Diaz to be placed in the top ten pound for pound, I think there is a more immediate question: Is Nick Diaz definitely a top ten fighter in any weight division?

I've personally see him as a top 15 fighter within the welterweight division, and worse at middleweight, where he is too small, and lightweight, where he lacks the necessary power.

So please, let's generate a little discussion here.  Where do you think Diaz stacks up?