Nick Diaz Video: Strikeforce Champion Speaks Out Against UFC's Rules and Judging

Current Strikeforce Welterweight Champion, Nick Diaz, made some controversial remarks about the UFC and their scoring system in an interview with MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani.

Paul Daley, who will challenge Diaz for his title this Saturday night at Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley, was fired from the UFC in May 2010 after losing a frustrating decision to Josh Koscheck.

The loss itself wasn’t what caused him to be fired, though. It was an extremely late punch that Daley threw, which caused UFC President Dana White to go on a tirade after the event and state that Daley would never be back in the UFC.

Daley’s frustrations seemed to stem from the takedown-heavy style Koscheck implemented after talking about how he would stand with Daley in pre-fight interviews.

Diaz seemed to understand where Daley was coming from.

“I hope he don’t hit me with a cheap shot, but I understand what it feels like to be held down for three rounds,” Diaz said.

This seemed to set him off, though, as he proceeded to go on a rant about how the UFC’s rules seem to favor fighters who “don’t try to fight.”

“This guy is avoiding the fight, and he wins the fight,” Diaz stressed. “So the guy who doesn’t fight, gets to win.”

The judging criteria in the UFC has been under quite a bit of fire, especially recently given some of the questionable decisions that have come out of some very important fights.

Diaz believes that the fight rules in the UFC, which have now been implemented in Strikeforce, are a big part of the problem.

“We used to have a whole other organization called Pride with different rules and I think it worked out way more for exciting fights,” he explained. “You get to see a lot more technical aspects coming out in the fight.”

Going into detail, Diaz broke down a common scenario under the rules that Pride and other organizations have used in the past.

“You get to see a guy get yellow-carded if he holds a guy, so it forces him to punch the guy,” he said. “He can’t just elbow the guy because he has to create some space to punch. So he can’t just hold the guy and cheat with little bumping elbows. He has to create enough space away from this guy to punch down on him. That’s space that he needs to make before he gets yellow-carded. It’s the same space I might be trying to make so I can get my ass back up and fight this guy when he’s not trying to fight me. So he should be carded for stalling.”

Unlike what Zuffa has been doing with Strikeforce in allowing it to function as its own separate entity from the UFC, Pride was ended very quickly after it was purchased.

“We’ve got this whole system going on and everybody’s bought up the other organization and thrown it away, tried to hide it, and it’s just wrong,” Diaz pleaded.

“I feel like the Japanese kind of knew how the martial arts went and how it should be. The more technical martial artists or wrestler or boxer, and the best man is going to win by these old rules. It favors the more technical boxer and martial artist.”

One of the major differences between the UFC and Strikeforce, and Pride, is the use of a cage to hold in the combatants rather than a more traditional ring. Diaz sees this as a major advantage for one style of fighting.

“All this UFC cage-fighting, it’s always been geared towards the wrestler,” Diaz said. “As soon as I started to fight in the UFC, I knew I needed to really pick it up and start playing that game, and learning how to fight that way.”

There is no doubt that the UFC’s scoring system does lean toward control of a fight rather than damage. But Diaz doesn’t believe it should be that way.

“I’ve won fights in the past on damage, in my eyes, in their eyes. But in the judge’s eyes, the other guy won,” Diaz explained. “But when I went home, and they went home, they know who really won the fight. But [my opponent] knew how to win the fight and they were aiming to go in there and win on that scoring criteria.”

Diaz will be fighting Paul Daley this Saturday night for Strikeforce, an opponent who is known for his heavy-handed striking.

But, Daley is also known for his struggles from his back. It will be interesting to see if Diaz “tries to fight” Daley on the feet, or if he decides to bring the fight to the ground where he will almost certainly have a significant advantage.

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