Nate Diaz dropping back to lightweight after UFC 129 loss to Rory MacDonald

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Following his loss to Rory MacDonald at UFC 129 last weekend, Nate Diaz is dropping back down to the lightweight division, according to his trainer and manager Cesar Gracie.

In comments made to MMAWeekly.com, Gracie discussed his conversations with Diaz after Saturday's event, and why it's time for him to move back down.

"I had a talk with him. I said let's go back to 55. I want to see him be the champ at 155 someday," Gracie said. "Really, the reason we weren't going to do it is he wants the big fights and everything and Frankie Edgar's up there and he's part of that whole Renzo Gracie affiliate, maybe we should just hang out at 170 for a little bit and you don't have to do the weight cut."

"It's one of those things Nate for his last fight came in at 174, 175, to the fight, and he's fighting these guys that are bigger than him. Granted, he looked flat for sure and props to the other guy that looked good. Nate looked like he woke up on the wrong side of the bed that day or something, I don't know what was wrong with him."

Diaz moved up in the first place in part because the weight cut was giving him issues. However, with a new diet in place, Gracie doesn't think that will be the case going forward.

"I thought the weight cut was hurting him at 155 before, but now he's walking around kind of smaller because he eats a much cleaner diet," Gracie said. "He's all into these raw foods and everything and he's just not getting that huge. Now I think if he goes back to 55, he's going to feel a lot better and beat some of these guys out there."

"If he wants to make it to that elite level, he's probably going to have to do it at that weight or below."

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Penick's Analysis: Diaz can definitely be a competitor at 155 lbs., he just needs to put everything together. He's had some issues in starting out slow in fights, and it led to a number of decision losses prior to his move up to the welterweight division in the first place. That said, he was very competitive in all of those fights, and his final lightweight fight was a fairly boring fight with Gray Maynard in which he dropped the decision but was in the fight the entire way. A move back is the right move right now, but we'll see if he can do anything with this run when he drops back down likely later this year.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_9256.shtml

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