#3 Nick Diaz
The elder brother of Nate Diaz, and the original Stockton bad boy, Nate Diaz is considered to be one of the best boxing technicians in the sport of MMA. His BJJ game is fearsome as well. Although, Nick’s wrestling game, leaves a lot to be desired, he more than makes up for it, by constantly threatening submission attempts off of his back.
Diaz started off as a grappler, with a BJJ base. However, he, eventually, fell in love with the art of boxing. His fight with KJ Noons that was stopped due to Nick suffering a dangerous amount of facial cuts, some threatening his eyes, propelled him to further improve his boxing.
Nick has been in several dogfights and back-and-forth brawls with the best MMA had to offer. His fight with British striking specialist Paul Daley, is, to this date, considered to be one of the wildest fights in MMA history.
Nick has been through several ups and downs in his long and illustrious career. However, his beard hasn’t betrayed him in the vast majority of them. Nick and his brother Nate, both have the bad habit of leaving leg kicks and low kicks, unchecked. This, in turn, has led to several fighters using this blueprint, in order to hurt them.
This is where Nick’s chin plays a huge part in his fights. The constant dosage of leg kicks that most opponents feed Nick with, soften up his legs, and take the spring out of his movements. When the opponent tries to move in, eventually, looking to capitalize on this, Nick stands his ground. He eats a few strikes to land a few, and in a firefight with a Diaz brother, the last man standing, is usually a Diaz.
Diaz, for all his shortcomings, deserves the credit for having excellent boxing defense. He may not check leg kicks, but try to jab him, and he’ll deliver death by a thousand cuts. He has a high volume style of technical punching.
Furthermore, his amazing, seemingly never-ending cardio, also serves to significantly increase Nick’s durability. His incredible stamina and fearless approach to every fight raises his durability to an incredibly high level, above and beyond that of his opponents.
Stand toe-to-toe with Nick and no matter how much his opponent lands, the last thing the opponent will see is Nick dropping him with a crisp 1-2 and then flipping him the bird.
