Nate Diaz Has Some Judging Ideas Of His Own

“When it was over I knew that they were going to give it to him for sure because he had the top position and that’s the way the judging goes... I think the scoring should be like, say a guy gets a takedown, it should count for a takedown for sure. What is a takedown in wrestling, two points? In a grappling match it’s two points, so he gets a takedown. But if he takes you down and lands in your closed guard and gets punched in the head forty times, is he still ahead on points? If you’re on top, you’re winning, and I think it’s ridiculous."

...

“I’ve been training with Jake (Shields) and Gil (Melendez) and really good wrestlers for years. I think I could probably go into every fight and jump guard on guys and be just fine in the fight. It’s weird because if you jump guard wouldn’t you have the control because you went to the back where wanted to be and take him down... Sometimes it comes down to less fighting will win you the round,” said Diaz. “Sometimes maybe we need to fight less to win the round. There’s round-winners and there’s fighters. You know, but in order to be a good UFC fighter or cage fighter I guess I’ve got to learn how to win the rounds. You’ve got to not fight. That’s what I’m saying. You’ve got to score. Apparently I’ve got to grab him and hold him, otherwise he’ll just grab and hold me... Everybody is like, ‘you need to work on your wrestling. Maybe I don’t need to work on my wrestling. Maybe I just need to do the wrestling and not the fighting.”

It should come as little surprise here that Nate Diaz is chiming in on two popular MMA debates. The Wrestling Stall and Judging criteria have been a hot topic for debate for many years in Mixed Martial Arts. Diaz, who holds a 13-6 professional record has only lost once via stoppage (to Hermes Franca early in his career) the other 5 defeats where way of decision to dominate wrestlers. While no one can question Nate's heart, one has to wonder if training with such high level MMA wrestlers regularly why wouldn't his team shape better game plans knowing that wrestlers beat a gritty "Real Fighter" inside the cage?