UFC veteran Nate Diaz will take on surging welterweight Khamzat Chimaev in the final fight of his UFC contract. Diaz’s coach, Cesar Gracie, believes that Nate Diaz has a better stand-up and grappling game than his opponent, telling Submission Radio that Diaz’s path to victory is to bring Khamzat “into deep water”.
Khamzat Chimaev is an undefeated welterweight with serious wrestling chops. Until his most recent fight, against top contender Gilbert Burns, Chimaev had a 100% finish rate in the UFC. Most observers expect to see Khamzat run through Nate Diaz, but Gracie expects Chimaev to attempt to finish the fight quickly, a strategy that, so far, has played into Nate Diaz’s hands.
Cesar Gracie: Nate Diaz is a Better Grappler Than Khamzat
““He’s putting the pressure on himself to finish this fight pretty quick, and if he comes out hard like that, I think that’ll work into Nate’s favor, to be honest with you.
I think Nate has to bring him into deep water. Obviously, gotta be in shape to do that. Nate’s always in shape. Standing up, I give the edge to Nate. On the ground, I think Nate’s a better grappler. But you’re fighting a younger guy that’s strong. It’s definitely a tough fight, but there’s ways to win this fight.”
Gracie also claimed that he wanted Nate Diaz to fight Michael Chandler, a lightweight, rather than a terrifying welterweight like Khamzat Chimaev.
“This is an interesting fight for sure. I can tell you it wasn’t on my list. I was trying to have him fight (Michael) Chandler, actually, because Chandler wanted to come up in weight and I said, ‘Man, this is an exciting guy. Look, he’s going to go for it. Nate’s an exciting fighter, let’s have this fight happen.’ Nate wanted to fight Poirier because they’ve had a few, they were supposed to fight before.”
Obviously, I’m not privy to what the UFC is talking about, but what you just described is exactly how I feel about it. So, what the fans are thinking is – it’s no secret when you wanna leave the UFC, they wanna make sure you’re not gonna leave as a winner. They wanna make sure that you’re not gonna help another organization out is what I’m thinking. So the fights that made sense, with Poirier, and there’s a lot of other fights that made a lot more sense, they said no to.”
Do you think Nate Diaz can submit Khamzat? Let us know in the comments.
