Anderson Silva supposedly returned to form last night as he dismantled welterweight, Nick Diaz.

While it is being touted as a turning back of the clock for the great ex-champion, Silva's form was never less than exemplary against men not named Chris Weidman. The fight was as one-note and predictable as expected, with Diaz following and Silva nailing him every time he stood still or lunged in.

Elsewhere on the card Al Iaquinta weathered some heavy leather to put away the bonus king, Joe Lauzon, Derek Brunson quickly stopped Ed Herman, and Jordan Mein showed for five minutes that he could be the future, before running onto a gut liquidizing round kick which ended the fight.

Plenty to talk about, plenty to learn, let's get down to business.

Diaz versus Silva

I have always had two constant criticisms of Nick Diaz: he can't or won't check kicks, and he can't cut off the ring. Extensive work with Artem Levin—who I rate as possibly the finest striker in combat sports today—and Joe Schilling seemed to have miraculously cured much of the former malady. Diaz actually attempted to check kicks for perhaps the first time since he fought Evangelista Santos.

The latter ailment, however, has cost Diaz two of his last three fights (and prevented him from doing much of use in the middle bout with Georges St. Pierre), and shows no signs of changing now.

Standing in the middle of the cage, Diaz ambled around after Silva, doing little of note except walking onto strikes and checking kicks. The throwing out of hands and smack talk started early and belied the difficulty he obviously has in this sphere of the fight game.

We know how much effective cage cutting effects Anderson Silva, against Chris Weidman it completely killed The Spider's game, twice. But there was none of it here. Silva circled freely, never in danger. And when Diaz did get in close enough, the strength disparity really showed. Where Diaz could move in and lean on men like Paul Daley and Evangelista Santos, Silva could simply throw Diaz past him onto the cage, hit him, and then circle out again.

From Silva, we saw lovely combination work, incorporating kicks with the previously broken leg, and the smashing back elbow of Tony Fryklund fame.

It was a consummate Muay Thai clinic, slapped on top of boxing footwork. The only disappointing part of the fight was that many would expect Silva to finish an inactive fighter with a significant size disadvantage, and he wasn't able to.



The classic double hand trap, to round kick, to same side punch.

An Aside on the Guard

Diaz repeatedly went to his bizarre lead elbow out guard. I'm getting dozens of queries as to what that's about. Some are looking for the same meaning as when Floyd Mayweather uses it repeatedly so that his opponent lunges onto his elbow. The thinking being the same as that regarding Jon Jones / Josh Koscheck's eye pokes in MMA and of Bart Simpson in fights with Lisa (“if they run onto it, it's not my fault”).

But Nick and Nate Diaz have both shown this high lead elbow and the backhanding out of it when they are fighting opponents who are not engaging them as they want. Nate showed it against Benson Henderson, Nick showed it here against Anderson Silva. Both were being out classed, with no real sign of a dive into the clinch. It seems to be one of those things the Diaz brothers do just because.

I will say that it was good to see both fighters using their shoulders and active elbow / forearm movement to block shots.

Putting on the earmuffs, pinning the hands to the head—as one can get away with in boxing and kickboxing due to their larger gloves—is just not well suited to mixed martial arts. Blows can circumvent 4oz gloves far easier than 8oz or 10oz ones.

Something we saw a little of earlier in the evening as Al Iaquinta stopped Joe Lauzon. Lauzon had been landing great right hands throughout and defending himself well, but once he was rattled by blows, he went straight to the earmuffs and the blows poured in like butterscotch and stuck to all his senses.



Here Iaquinta lands a Badr Hari classic—the 1-2b-3-2. A high low combined with circular and linear blows. Just a beautiful basic combination which sets up a right straight right through the standard boxing guard.

As the Greek poet, Archilochus put it, in times of great stress we don't rise to our expectations, we fall to the level of our training. Get in the habit of putting the earmuffs on in sparring and once your instincts take over, you'll find yourself doing the same thing.

While we're on the subject, Al Iaquinta looked like two different fighters in the same bout. Present were all of the Ray Longo trademarks, good footwork, hand trapping, hooking off the jab, catching punches with the forehead, weaves into strong kicks. But Iaquinta also got hit clean an alarming amount. Where Weidman is always ready to slip or at the least cover up, Iaquinta was taking a good few clean punches. Fortunately Iaquinta got it done before the damage was allowed to add up, but certainly something to watch out for.

Ringcraft, Ringcraft, Ringcraft

Returning to Silva versus Diaz, I say it time and time again (in fact the first few episodes of Fightland's upcoming How to Enjoy a Fight are built around it) but where the fight takes place is the most important point. If Diaz can't use the fence to manufacture exchanges, and refuses to force his opponent to come to him, he will continue to lose to fighters who are smart enough to circle away from him.

We can talk about speed disadvantage all day, but some of the best ring cutters of all time—Julio Cesar Chavez and George Foreman most notably—often fought with a speed disadvantage but made up for it with smothering footwork and anticipation.



Chavez cutting off the wickedly fast Hector Camacho, amid feints and direction changes. Why Chavez was one of the best.

In terms of ringcraft, one error (and an excellent capitalization by Thiago Alves) cost Jordan Mein a fight in which he had looked excellent. Mein truly looked to be the future of striking in MMA. He'd draw Alves' vaunted counter punching, and counter the counter. Those who have been following my work will have noticed that between Conor McGregor, Chris Weidman and the young up-and-comers in MMA I get plenty of opportunity to talk about this nowadays.



Drawing the counter, landing a counter corkscrew hook, but then getting slightly over confident.



A feint, and a legitimate jab a beat later. Lovely boxing.

But a moment of relaxation and Mein found himself along the fence. As he circled out, Alves threw a right straight, got Mein to raise his hands and connected a hard body kick as Mein circled into it. You know the phrase by now—creating collisions. Circle out into a strike and it hits twice as hard. Mein never had a chance to recover as Alves moved in on top of him. The wily veteran has lost a step in speed, and the guys coming up are getting crisper and crisper, but you can't give an old dog like Alves that kind of opportunity and expect to get away with it easily.

Overall, UFC 183 was a good night of fights, and main event was a decent fight, but outside of Diaz's antics in the opening round and some creative combination work from Silva, it said little about either fighters' place in their division or in the UFC. Only time will really tell if Silva's claim of 'I back' is correct.

Check out these related stories:

The Paths Meet: Nick Diaz and Anderson Silva Collide

UFC 183 Results: Two of MMA's Best Taunters Meet

Fight Doctor: The Recovery of Anderson Silva’s Leg