So Nick Diaz is scheduled to fight Takanori Gomi on Feb. 24th, Pride's 2nd American event. Interesting match-up to say the least. Gomi is very, very highly rated among MMA pundits (#1 Lighweight according to mmaweekly.com) but he's not very well known in the North America. Diaz, the motor-mouth trash talker, is a good fighter but got beaten by Diego Sanchez, Joe Riggs and Sean Sherk recently. He got back on track by winning his last two UFC fights.
Advantages Diaz has is he's bigger than Gomi, and there are different rules for Pride when they fight in North America. I don't believe he'll be allowed to knee to the head of a downed opponent like he is in Japan. Gomi however, has more experience and has been a headliner on the big stage before. He also had a hard-fought decision loss to BJ Penn in 2003. Penn was handing Matt Hughes derrier to him before tearing a rib cartilage towards the end of the second round of their September 06 fight, so there's no shame in that loss whatsoever.
Either way, this will be an awesome fight, as I've always liked Diaz because he seems like someone you love to hate, and not in a Chris Leben way.
til next time
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