Sherdog's Top 10: Greatest Pride Fights

5. Nick Diaz vs. Takanori Gomi | Pride 33 (Feb. 24, 2007)

Diaz-Gomi is easily the greatest fight in MMA history to end in a no contest, and even received a first-place vote. In fact, of Diaz's many fantastic triumphs and fights during his career, this is his best one, even if it was overturned into a no contest by the Nevada State Athletic Commission due to the Stockton, California, native testing positive for marijuana. At the time of the fight in early 2007, Gomi was still considered the best lightweight in the world, though that reputation was getting shaky. He had suffered a shocking submission loss to Marcus Aurelio and had only avenged it via a razor-thin split decision, though he had also scored devastating stoppages of David Baron and Mitsuhiro Ishida. Diaz was only 23 years old and while no one disputed his talent, his status in the MMA hierarchy was a matter of debate. He had gone 6-4 in the UFC then, scoring impressive stoppages of Robbie Lawler, Drew Fickett, Josh Neer and Gleison Tibau, but also dropping three decisions in a row to Diego Sanchez, Joe Riggs, and future lightweight champion Sean Sherk. There were questions about whether he could defeat a truly elite opponent. Diaz was thus eager to prove himself against Gomi.

The fight began and immediately Diaz came forward only to be hit with a double-leg takedown. Personally, when I saw this live, I feared that Diaz would lose in a similar manner as he had against Riggs, Sanchez and Sherk, simply being outwrestled to a decision. Diaz managed to get back up, but forgoing conventional wisdom, flipped onto his own back for an absolutely crazy kimura attempt! Gomi then battered him with ground-and-pound, but made the curious decision to stand up just two minutes into the stanza. Gomi was already breathing a little heavy and Diaz came forward like the killer in a slasher movie, giving no thought to defense and tanking blows to the head while throwing shots of his own. However, he left himself too open, and Gomi absolutely blasted Diaz with his signature right hook, dropping him to the floor. The Japanese star delivered follow-up ground-and-pound, but Diaz's legendary chin, toughness and recuperative abilities allowed him to survive. Gomi then decided to stand, and although only three minutes had elapsed in the fight, he was visibly gassed. Diaz, showing zero reticence despite being almost knocked out a minute earlier, once again came forward like The Terminator. This time, Gomi was too tired to smash him with a counter and Diaz landed a number of short, hard punches of his own. On a few occasions Gomi, with hands down and bouncing off the ropes, summoned enough energy to throw a big right hook, but Diaz evaded it each time and continued pelting his foe with more punches. What followed was an absolute beating for the final minute of the round, as Diaz bashed Gomi with punch after punch while the Japanese fighter drunkenly stumbled around and threw a few wild haymakers, the crowd on its feet and screaming its lungs out the whole time.

As soon as the second round started, Diaz resumed his assault. Gomi had recovered a little between rounds though and landed several hard right hands of his own. Gomi got a further respite when the ringside doctor wanted to check the gruesome cut Diaz has underneath his right eye. Luckily, the battle continued. Gomi landed a nice left cross, but Diaz soon retaliated with a terrific one-two. Gomi panic-wrestled and got Diaz down. However, the American immediately began bending his legs back for a gogoplata. With Gomi too exhausted to get out of the hold, he ended up having to tap a few seconds later, to deafening applause from the Las Vegas crowd. Diaz had finally achieved the victory over a great opponent he was looking for, athletic commissions be damned. Furthermore, it was a terrific striking battle that ended with one of the greatest, most unique submissions ever. While the entire fight lasted a little less than seven minutes, it was a classic the whole way through.

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