Anderson Silva and Nick Diaz entered the cage to fight at UFC 183, and it was hard to tell how it would go. Would it be a war? Would it be weird? Would it be flashy action fighting?
Well, it turned out to be a combination of all of those things. But Silva was the one that came out on top, taking a unanimous decision on the judge’s scorecards. The scores were 49-46, 50-45, and 50-45.
Diaz came out in total clown mode. After a little bit of inactivity, Diaz started talking and begging Anderson to engage. He even laid down on the mat at one point, and went over to the cage wall and invited Anderson over. Once they started engaging, both men were landing solid shots. Diaz found a home for his jab and combos, but Anderson probably got the better of him late with a barrage of offense. Both men were landing kicks.
The action was a bit slow in starting in round two as well. Anderson finally jumped in with a hard right. Diaz landed a series of left leg kicks, which Anderson chose to answer with one of his own. Diaz actually shot in for a takedown but Anderson easily stuffed it. Diaz then picked his shorts out of his butt. Seriously. They engaged more in the last couple of minutes, but neither man had much of an advantage.
Anderson definitely increased his output in round three and Diaz was getting marked up. Silva did a little of everything – punching combinations, leg kicks, a flying knee, a wheel kick, and some solid evasion of Nick’s punches. Diaz continued to kick the legs but wasn’t getting a lot going with his hands. He did score with a short right hook late though.
Round four started with a whole lot of kicks from both men. Diaz then circled for a while. They engaged in close with both men scoring with hard punches. The action came in fits and bursts though, will a few lulls in between where they stared at each other. Anderson was in control overall though.
Diaz started talking again in round five. And dancing. Anderson responded with a hard left hook. Diaz finally found his range and scored with his own right hook. Nick just wasn’t being as active as he needed to be though. Anderson got flashy again with another wheel kick and flying knee, but they didn’t connect. Silva did connect with a few combinations though, which was more than Diaz did. Diaz was a bloody mess by the end of the fight. Silva didn’t have a mark on him.
Silva (34-6) got back to his winning ways, picking up his first victory since October 2012. Diaz (26-10, 1 NC) dropped his third straight bout, albeit against top competition.