George St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz
George St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz

Georges St-Pierre continued his reign as the best welterweight on the planet, neutralizing the boxing of Nick Diaz with his jab and takedown game to cruise to a lopsided unanimous decision victory in the main event at UFC 158.

Diaz came forward to engage to start, while St-Pierre landed kicks before driving for a early takedown. Diaz showed off excellent defense on his back avoiding any big shots from the champion, as he looked for openings for submission attempts. St-Pierre dominated position from the top, cutting off angles as Diaz looked to roll into better positions. After the bell, a frustrated Diaz threw a late punch that missed, but was warned in his corner that he would be disqualified if it happened again.

St-Pierre went to work with his jab in the second, using it to set up another takedown. Again, the champion used his smothering style to leave little space for Diaz to work off of his back. Finally, Diaz was able to get back to his feet and land a flush left hand, but was unable to mount any sustained offense as the round wore down.

The champion came out in the third jabbing again, while the challenger started taunting. An excellently timed takedown from St-Pierre put the fight right back on the mat. This time, Diaz crawled to the cage to get back to his feet. Diaz managed to shrug off multiple takedown attempts, and finally got his boxing on track doing visible damage to the face of the champion. With just about a minute to go however, St-Pierre earned a late takedown to take back any momentum that Diaz may have mounted.

Diaz managed to defend several takedown attempts in the fourth round, but was hesitant to fire with the constant threat of getting put on the mat. Diaz taunted the champion with his hands by his waste, but St-Pierre landed his crisp jab and earned a takedown later in the round as he extended his lead in the fight.

The fifth round saw Diaz continue to fend off the takedown, but a slip while throwing a high kick put him right back on the canvas with St-Pierre on top. Diaz found a way to get back to his feet but still could not get his offense on track as he suffered yet another takedown. The champion scored with a few elbows before the bell to cap off yet another dominating performance.

Despite being soundly defeated, Nick Diaz raised the hand of St-Pierre before the decision was read. When it was, it was Georges St-Pierre (24-2 MMA, 18-2 UFC) that was awarded the unanimous decision victory with scores of 50-45 across the board. The victory marked yet another title defense for the champion, while also giving him a record-tying win total inside the octagon of 18.

A frustrated Nick Diaz (26-9 MMA, 7-6 UFC) has talked about retiring before, and in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, he said that he may be done competing in MMA.

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