UFC 51: Super Saturday—If at First You Don’t Succeed …
Nick Diaz vs. Drew Fickett
Feb 2, 2005
DIAZ: Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter Nick Diaz is the Stockton Pankration
champion, the WEC middleweight champion, the IFC U.S. and Americas
welterweight champion, a Warriors Quest veteran and an Ultimate
Athlete eight-man tournament finalist.
He trains with Cesar Gracie, Gil Castillo, David Terrell, Steve Heath and the rest of the Cesar Gracie Team with a 10-2 record in MMA.
Diaz has two losses, one to UFC veteran Jeremy Jackson in the UA
tournament final and the other was a somewhat controversial split
decision loss to Kuniyoshi Hironaka in
SHOOTO.
In 2003 Nick beat Lion’s Den fighter Joe Hurley in the WEC, defended his IFC title against rival Jeremy Jackson and then defeated Jackson again in both fighters’ UFC debut.
FICKETT: Drew Fickett is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu stylist training under 2001 Abu Dhabi veteran and multi-time jiu-jitsu National and World champion Gustavo Dantas (2-0 in MMA). Fickett also works with former AMC Pankration fighter and KOTC veteran Trevor Lally.
As a representative of both the Nova Uniao team and Arizona Combat Sports, Fickett placed first in the second U.S. Nationals Grappling Games in the middleweight and open weight divisions and placed second in the no-gi division. With more than nine years of wrestling behind him, he took first in the second edition of the Desert Quest and took first in the third and fourth editions of the AZGC.
Originally a Kajukenbo Karate stylist, Drew wrestled and boxed in high school (9-1 as an amateur boxer) and moved to submission wrestling at the Tucson Judo Club with Steve Owens (who has also trained with Don Frye).
He moved from the University of Arizona to Pima Community College so he could wrestle under coach Joe Solorio for a year, but a near fatal motorcycle accident squashed his wrestling hopes. After two years of recovery and transferring to Arizona State University, he found himself training with Lally and Dantas.
The “Soviet Bear Slaughterer” is a 16-time Rage in the Cage veteran and 24-2 in MMA with wins over UFC veterans Edwin Dewees and Dennis Hallman. He was supposed to fight Jeremy Jackson in RITC but Fickett felt the bout was called off because Jackson didn’t want to lose his shot in the UFC.
MY PICK: Diaz. Fickett is very tough and has undoubtedly earned his shot, but on paper Diaz rates higher in most every category. But as the saying goes “that’s why they fight the fights” and anything can happen.
Though he was stifled in the bout with Parisyan, Diaz has excellent striking and showed the ability to bang against Lawler. It will be jiu-jitsu vs. jiu-jitsu as proponents of Cesar Gracie and Gustavo Dantas take to the mat. The experience and overall team favors Diaz with so much experience and many champions in camp. I feel it will be Diaz by TKO in the second round.
He trains with Cesar Gracie, Gil Castillo, David Terrell, Steve Heath and the rest of the Cesar Gracie Team with a 10-2 record in MMA.
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In 2003 Nick beat Lion’s Den fighter Joe Hurley in the WEC, defended his IFC title against rival Jeremy Jackson and then defeated Jackson again in both fighters’ UFC debut.
At UFC 47, Diaz shocked many by easily picking apart UFC poster boy
Robbie Lawler before
knocking him out in the second round. In his most recent
appearance, a bout at UFC 49 against judo stylist Karo Parisyan, Diaz came up short
and lost a split decision.
FICKETT: Drew Fickett is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu stylist training under 2001 Abu Dhabi veteran and multi-time jiu-jitsu National and World champion Gustavo Dantas (2-0 in MMA). Fickett also works with former AMC Pankration fighter and KOTC veteran Trevor Lally.
As a representative of both the Nova Uniao team and Arizona Combat Sports, Fickett placed first in the second U.S. Nationals Grappling Games in the middleweight and open weight divisions and placed second in the no-gi division. With more than nine years of wrestling behind him, he took first in the second edition of the Desert Quest and took first in the third and fourth editions of the AZGC.
Originally a Kajukenbo Karate stylist, Drew wrestled and boxed in high school (9-1 as an amateur boxer) and moved to submission wrestling at the Tucson Judo Club with Steve Owens (who has also trained with Don Frye).
He moved from the University of Arizona to Pima Community College so he could wrestle under coach Joe Solorio for a year, but a near fatal motorcycle accident squashed his wrestling hopes. After two years of recovery and transferring to Arizona State University, he found himself training with Lally and Dantas.
The “Soviet Bear Slaughterer” is a 16-time Rage in the Cage veteran and 24-2 in MMA with wins over UFC veterans Edwin Dewees and Dennis Hallman. He was supposed to fight Jeremy Jackson in RITC but Fickett felt the bout was called off because Jackson didn’t want to lose his shot in the UFC.
MY PICK: Diaz. Fickett is very tough and has undoubtedly earned his shot, but on paper Diaz rates higher in most every category. But as the saying goes “that’s why they fight the fights” and anything can happen.
Though he was stifled in the bout with Parisyan, Diaz has excellent striking and showed the ability to bang against Lawler. It will be jiu-jitsu vs. jiu-jitsu as proponents of Cesar Gracie and Gustavo Dantas take to the mat. The experience and overall team favors Diaz with so much experience and many champions in camp. I feel it will be Diaz by TKO in the second round.
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