Nick Diaz: Is He in Over His Head Against GSP?

After a five year leave, former Strikeforce welterweight champ Nick Diaz is set to return to the UFC octagon in October for a championship scrap with UFC champion and pound-for-pound great Georges St-Pierre.

Diaz, who is known for his controversial pre and post-fight antics, has already cracked the floodgates of trash talk leading up to the UFC 137 main event.

There have been reports of Diaz accusing St-Pierre of ducking him, which leaves only one question. How can you duck someone in a completely different promotion?

While Diaz is a terrific fighter, the tremendous amount of hype surrounding his newly-acquired "world-beater" status is interesting to say the least. Riding a 10-fight win streak, Diaz's only win over a viable top-10 welterweight was his most recent against Paul "Semtex" Daley.

There is no doubt that there have been some major improvements in the Stockton native's overall game, but it would be foolhardy to overlook consistent weaknesses.

Wrestling has always been a major issue for Diaz, who struggled greatly in past UFC decision losses to Diego Sanchez, Sean Sherk and Joe Riggs.

Many would look at those bouts and point to the fact that they occurred nearly five years ago, but a closer look at Diaz's recent résumé helps his past performances stay relevant.

In all 10 of Diaz's recent victories, none of his opponents were standout wrestlers.

Diaz could improve his wrestling, but it really isn't his style. He tends to use his world-class boxing to wear opponents down with a high volume of strikes. The opening for a take-down is generally always there. Diaz is confident in his ability to utilize his black belt level BJJ to sniff out submissions from his back.

This is a great tactic until fighters crack into the upper-echelon parts of the division. Guys like St-Pierre, Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck or Diego Sanchez are incredibly hard to submit. If you throw in the fact that all of these guys are world-class wrestlers, then you have tough stylistic pairings for a fighter like Diaz.

With the announcement of the UFC and Strikeforce deal, fans have become infatuated with champion versus champion bouts. From a pure fighting perspective, a world title in itself isn't the most important thing in the sport.

The barometer of success with fighters should be measured by performance against quality opposition for a consistent period of time.

This isn't to say that Diaz hasn't defeated good opposition. Evangelista Santos, K.J. Noons, Scott Smith and Hayato Sakurai are all good opponents, but as Diaz's teammate Jake Shields learned, St-Pierre is a completely different monster.

A multitude of welterweights have stepped up and fallen to the French Canadian in lopsided fashion.

Will Diaz be the one to succeed where everyone else has failed?

UFC 137 will serve as the ultimate test for Diaz and his 10-fight win streak.