Strikeforce Diaz vs. Daley: How Nick Diaz Stacks Up Against the UFC's Best

There's a reason why Nick Diaz is the Strikeforce Welterweight Champ—just like there is a reason why you occasionally hear people whine when a pound-for-pound list or a Top 10 Welterweight list doesn't include Nick Diaz in it.

He's gone outside of the UFC to earn his stripes as being one of the best Welterweights in the world, and he looked very dominant in doing so, leaving only the Welterweights in the UFC as potential contenders to his status as a top Welterweight...provided he keeps his belt against Paul Daley this Saturday, that is.

Against the UFC Welterweight division, some say he'd stack up very well, but is that the truth of what Diaz's now-inevitable return to the UFC holds, or are people just getting excited to see Diaz against the UFC Welterweights for the sole reason that Diaz is a Welterweight Champion?

The few Top 10 lists that do have Diaz ranked don't even have him in the Top 5 of Welterweights, although some of those Top 10s are outdated and haven't been updated for months.

With that in mind, I'd like to include ten of the UFC's top guys in this list and hopefully aid you guys in figuring out how much of a shot Diaz would have against these guys.

Diego Sanchez

Some lists have Sanchez just below Diaz, others have him above Diaz, while most fans don't have him on their list at all.

Keep in mind that there's one thing Sanchez has going for him aside from being one of Greg Jackson's boys—besides the BJJ black belt, the intensity, the Wrestling, and the heart—and that's the fact that he did beat Diaz before.

Granted, that was a different time, and Diego and Nick were both different fighters back then compared to what they are now.

The only disadvantage I could see working for Sanchez is the fact that Diaz seems to lack much KO power in his shots.

Then again, you don't need to knock Diego out to beat him—most everyone that's beaten him has gotten by merely by hurting him, and sometimes damaging his face.

That could be something Diaz can use to his edge if he ever got Diego again.

Martin Kampmann

Take a very diverse fighter with good BJJ (for a brown belt), good submission grappling, very dangerous Muay Thai and mix in some Xtreme Couture training, and what you have is a guy like Martin "The Hitman" Kampmann.

Oh yeah, and couple in that the guy has good takedown defense as well as good takedowns as well.

Either way, Diaz would have a rough time against Kampmann, who would try to use his elbows and his knees to put Diaz in trouble.

If the fight got to the ground, though, would Diaz really have an edge?

You'd think he would against a brown belt like Kampmann, but Nate Diaz is a brown belt and yet he's shown some awesome-looking Jiu-Jitsu skills.

I wouldn't be shocked if this one went to the judges.

BJ Penn

He had to pull out from UFC 132 due to a yet-to-be-disclosed injury, but BJ is quickly re-cementing his status as one of the toughest Welterweights in the UFC.

His UFC 127 bout against Jon Fitch didn't do him much in the form of favors, though, as many feel that Fitch took the win in that bout.

Against Diaz, there is one thing besides the BJJ which might do BJ a favor, and that comes in the form of his own striking prowess.

BJ's stand-up is more Boxing than anything else, but few things in his career can take a backseat to the knee that helped him finish Sean Sherk at UFC 84.

Only two edges Diaz has that could possibly neutralize that striking game, and those edges are his height—which would likely make it tough for BJ to land many significant strikes—and his reach—even a few jabs at a time could be enough to keep BJ at bay and frustrate him to where BJ makes a mental error.

As far as Jiu-Jitsu goes, I'd say that leans towards the favor of the man who can take his foe down first.

Carlos Condit

Of all the fighters in the top 10 of the UFC Welterweight division, I'd say this is the only fight—or at least one of the only fights—in which Diaz would be facing almost a mirror image of himself in terms of skills.

Condit's never had the best striking, but his stand-up has looked as good as you'll find in the UFC, and his ground game is one of the toughest to contend with in the sport.

Many of you will recall that much like Diaz now, Condit's punches did well enough to just hurt opponents, but that all changed when he fought Dan Hardy at UFC 120, so he definitely has KO ability.

The only problem there is that Diaz has only been finished once by strikes, and he's been tough to KO ever since.

On the other hand, the same can be said for Condit.

All the more reason why this fight would be as difficult for Condit as it would be for Diaz.

Dan Hardy

Any fight in which you have to walk towards a cage before you can get down to fighting is the type of fight that can hardly be called "easy".

However, in the case of a Dan Hardy-Nick Diaz affair, the bout is as simple as Diaz's last fight against Evangelista Cyborg was, even though that fight was also far from easy.

See, all Diaz would have to do is two things:

1. He'd have to make sure that his Boxing was better than Hardy's, and

2. He'd have to make Hardy work to get past the punches-in-bunches that Diaz is known for throwing in fights—and he'd have to work himself in order to get a takedown and get the fight where he definitely has an edge over the still-improving Hardy, which is the ground.

Of course, Hardy has shows traces of an improved ground game in his title fight with GSP at UFC 111 and his UFC Fight Night 24 bout with Anthony Johnson, but a Jiu-Jitsu game is not defined in full by a fighter's skill in being able to be active from off his back.

For Hardy to be leaps and bounds superior in Jiu-Jitsu compared to Diaz, he'll need quite a few grueling months, maybe even a few years to soundly perfect his game to the point where Diaz will be lucky to survive.

At this point, though, I don't see Hardy being able to compete with Diaz on the ground.

At best, he might keep Diaz in a super-tight guard and punch him from off his back, but that's it.

Josh Koscheck

One common problem that even a guy like Diaz might face are guys like Koscheck.

If you put a guy up against a solid wrestler who stays active and does significant damage with even the short shots he lays in on the ground, it won't matter how good that dude is on the ground because he's going to have a tough time working his game on a guy who will try to ground him for the duration of the fight.

Koscheck might stand for a little while, but he's eventually going to try and take Diaz down, and then smother him.

Diaz's best bet?

Takedown defense.

If he can stuff Koscheck, and I wouldn't put anything past that happening, he'll force Koscheck to stand with him, and Koscheck may be an AKA product, but that doesn't translate to solid striking for the TUF 1 alumnus.

He'd likely be at the mercy of Diaz's standup and eventually finished by the unrelenting stand-up of Diaz.

Thiago Alves

Real simple: Alves is a purple belt in BJJ and a scary-dangerous Muay Thai practitioner who is still remembered for his win over Matt Hughes at UFC 85.

Even more simple of a fact: Diaz's key in this fight would need to be strength, as well as picking his spots to move in on Alves.

Alves showed some good takedown ability against John Howard, but the ground isn't the best place for him to go against Diaz unless he's hoping to get submitted.

Diaz can get the advantage on the feet if he lands his shots first, however.

If his "pitter-patter" shots connect before any of Alves' heavy shots land, Alves will be stunned, and if Diaz continues the onslaught he could get a TKO.

Realistically though, Diaz would likely be hurt from an Alves counter-shot, and while he wouldn't likely get knocked out by anything outside of a knee, he would be damaged.

Even if Diaz would not get finished by Alves, he could lose on points to the much larger Alves.

Jake Shields

Valerie Macon/Getty Images

HOLLYWOOD - MARCH 17: Strikeforce World Middleweight Champion Jake Shields attends the CBS' Strikeforce MMA Fighters Open Media Workout on March 17, 2010 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Valerie Macon/Getty Images)

Let's pretend that Shields wasn't a Cesar Gracie boy for a minute--let's pretend these two were on different teams and wound up facing each other with their current skills, yet not at all knowing much about the other.

What would Diaz have to do?

Simple: Just keep the fight standing, and if he drops Shields, go in for the finish.

Perhaps a trip to the ground would be a good idea for Diaz, but with a guy that grapples the way Shields does, I don't recommend doing so.

Besides, it's not a secret that Shields' striking has been OK-at-best.

Diaz's style may not be the best or the most effective, but it must be somewhat lethal if it still manages to hurt people.

Jon Fitch

This one is a no-brainer...it's Jon F'N Fitch, dude.

Sure, he might be throwing a few punches to see if Diaz will trade with him, but Diaz is going to either tire out or get caught in a situation where he gets thrown off balance.

Once that happens, it's "Hello, Takedown Boulevard".

The only difference between Diaz and everyone Fitch has faced?

Some of those guys don't look too much like hell after going through Fitch, even though he does stay more active than people want to credit him for.

Diaz might actually look like hell after Fitch, but then again, Diaz could also expose some deficiencies in the one strength that everyone knows Fitch has, which is his Wrestling.

While I don't believe a Wrestler the caliber of Fitch is one that Diaz has contended with before, Diaz's Jiu-Jitsu is at a level of craziness the likes of which I don't believe Fitch has seen before.

Once this one goes to the ground, it'll be interesting to see if Fitch can really make Diaz look like he went through a meat grinder or if Diaz will break off a few bones in one of Fitch's limbs.

Georges St-Pierre

Phenomenally fluid Wrestling game, effective stand-up, cardio, heart, and the ability to whoop someone's ass to where they can't effectively utilize their strengths--in a nutshell, that is The Fighting Pride of The Great White North, the man they call Georges "Rush" St-Pierre.

Is this a fight that Diaz can use his Boxing and BJJ in, the same way he could use it in the previously mentions fights?

Is this a fight in which GSP can truly make use of every skill that has brought him this far as a Mixed Martial Artist?

I'll leave you guys to argue over whether Diaz can or can't beat GSP outside of a robbery on the scorecards.