He was off but there's no excuse for round 4. He had McGregor reeling and he's supposed to be a cardio machine. His techniques got slow and sloppy and his output was a fraction of what it was in round 3. He let McGregor back into the fight and deserved to lose.

I'd like to write this off to injuries but Nate had no offense in the late rounds against Benson either, and that's the only fight he'd gone 5 rounds before last night. That was a bit different because Benson crushed him with wrestling, but he wore down all the same.

Nick also faded round 4 against against Anderson and GSP, with GSP outworking and outstriking him on the feet. Nick had a single fight before this where he went 5 rounds vs. Noons, which seems to be what the Diaz cardio legend is based upon.

I never thought I'd say this but maybe their cardio is just overrated. Perhaps endurance racing just isn't the strongest possible cardio base for mma.

Does anybody actually know what level they compete at in triathlon? Doing a triathlon in itself does not make you magically fit, and triathletes range massively in fitness levels. I just ask cos it never seems to be backed up by anything, you just hear "the Diaz bros do triathlon so they are super cardio machines."

All this may be true in hindsight. It is the triathlon plus I think I read the amount of vining they do weekly once and it was a lot.

Part of the legend to me is they are almost always attacking at the final bell even when they have been beat to the point others would be finished. This is not necessarily a good indication and likely overweighted cuz I'm a fan.

I've done multiple triathlons, never fought but doubt I was ever in good enough to shape to go three rounds.

Smoking weed all the time can't be great for cardio I would imagine.

Nate did get rocked multiple times and Conor was throwing a good amount of body punches and kicks so that def could have sapped his tank.

Apparently Nate checked a kick in the 1st which is when Conor hurt his shin.

https://streamable.com/izvx

http://adventuresportsweektahoe.com/...6/xtcage16.htm

Erm, I'm trying to work out if those times are for an Olympic triathlon or not, hard to believe they are since those times are so bad.

Hmm, seems like it's a little shorter than Olympic but this is the bike ride:



Fair enough.

Here's a Nick Diaz triathlon. It's from 2011.

https://www.athlinks.com/Events/154160/Courses/235835/

His time isn't particularly impressive. He finished 6/23 in the M 25-29 age bracket and there's two guys above him who are posting times that suggest they take triathlon seriously. Half a dozen or so guys who clearly weren't v. well prepared too.

Bike course is pretty tough:



It's a decent time but I'd expect a full time athlete known for doing triathlons and being a cardio freak to go better. I'm sure there are multiple guys in the UFC who would go better with a month of training.

Their triathlon times are basically what I'd expect the average 155 to 170 lb UFC fighter to do if say they had a triathlon a couple of months after a fight. If you're a full time athlete in a cardio intensive sport, know how to swim & practice running long distances after cycling long distances you should post around what they do. I might bet on Conor to beat that time if he had a month to train. If he really dedicated himself for the month he's a big favourite.

Those times aren't impressive at all for elite athletes. Their swim times are certainly nothing special, their cycling seems reasonable (but hard to tell given it's off-road), and then their running seems very poor for elite athletes, taking >1hr for a "relatively flat, fast" trail run. They seem to have put in a performance that I would say was reasonable for a semi-serious recreational triathlete.

I doubt they are trying to win the race. They are probably getting high as **** and doing a Tri. It's not easy to gauge times off of trail running or mountain biking even if you have the elevations.

They could also be pacing themselves in the swimming for tough running and cycling courses. They aren't training 24/7 for triathlons and they aren't the smartest when it comes to training in the 1st place.


Nate admitted almost never training wrestling because he doesn't like it in his post fight presser.

I always wondered why the Diaz brothers are so bad at wrestling when they train with Jake and Gil.


It's also worth noting that Nate received a life changing amount of fame and fortune 5 months ago and it would be ignorant to think this isn't going to effect the way he trains. Then add the media obligations on top of this.

There's a difference between a "relatively flat, fast" trail run & a "relatively flat, fast" trail run after cycling this:



If Mo Farah tried to run after biking ^^^ I'm not sure he does much better, it's not an easy skill. Obviously he does much better with some training, but trying to run after basically doing an 80-120 minute continuous thigh/hamstring workout is a whole different experience.

In my experience, I always ran around 10% slower on the run leg of a tri compared to a standalone run. Even if you bump that up to 20% because the bike course is very tough, that still means they're only running around 50:00 for 10k. I realise they're not running specialists, but for elite athletes that (I assume) at least semi-regularly train/compete in triathlon, that's pretty poor. The swim is also very mediocre.

They were 2:40 through the swim & the bike. In the 2011 triathlon Nick did the whole course in 2:46 (run in 53:50) so the 2016 swim/ride was certainly much tougher than anything I've ever done so I won't judge. In 2011 Nick's swim was 24:59 which is pretty solid. I don't think you can read much into Nick's 2016 time he hasn't fought in over a year.

Basically:

" They seem to have put in a performance that I would say was reasonable for a semi-serious recreational triathlete."

Is perfect.

I guess the swim can be so variable because courses aren't always measured accurately. Anyway my main point is that they're not these elite cardio machines that they're often made out to be. In a triathlon I would be competitive with them (similar swim, worse on the bike, easily faster on the run) and I'm far from an elite athlete. Of course also, you can't draw a great comparison between how someone does in a 2hr endurance event and how they do in a 15-25 min fight.

triathlons aside. Nate got pummeled by Conor's best shots for several rounds. I do believe he was injured in the lead up, but even without that he kept coming and coming. Nobody else does that. He was attacking at the end of the fight after taking what many here believe to be one of the goat offensive onslaughts today and still was finishing take downs at the end and looked like he was ready to keep going at the bell. What exactly is expected to be considered elite? His eyes were both full of blood in the fourth which slowed him down as well.

Anyone who thinks Nate's gas tank isn't elite is silly. He lost a pint of blood or maybe more. At some point that's going to effect your cardio.

Swim variance is huge. My best time was ~35 minutes and worst 55, the former was in calm lake the latter in Lake Michigan on a VERY windy day. The latter took the bike and run out of me to some extent too. BTW sounds like you flamingo legs.

This is a great point, work ethic when you're poor / up and coming vs. when you've made it is totally different. All Nate had to really do was show and not embarrass himself.

In fact, losing a decision might have been in his best interests if you think he only wants to fight again for big money (which is what he is saying when he says he'll wait for Conor).

This definitely happened to me (with poker) and I saw it happen to others, I imagine it's very common in fighting.

I actually saw a peer reviewed study that found no difference in endurance/cardio markers for weed smokers. Who knows though.

Nate getting ****ed up definitely didn't help. Still he was very dominant in the latter half of round 3 and suddenly dramatically faded

You're right though, he picked up again in 5

Not everyone reacts well to fame either. Look at what happened to his brother leading up to the 1st gsp matchup and this is much higher visibility.

I think Nate faded due to damage and Conor caught his second wind. I was actually impressed with Conor's toughness in this fight. I kind of thought after their previous fight that he didn't have the championship grit guys like Cormier, Robbie, JBJ, Gus have.

Flamingo legs?

I may be wrong here, but lol at pint of blood. That seems an insane amount.

Btw I wasn't suggesting that Nate doesn't have great cardio, just that the triathlon thing is totally irrelevant/misleading.

Yea true I thought he was a quitter too but he def proved me wrong. Also did better kicking than I expected.

Conor vs Aldo 2 odds out. Conor -200 Aldo +155.

Pretty much the exact same before either of the Nate fights which I find weird.

conor needs to grind striking and defense with his back against the cage for like 50% of his next training camp D: