With Pressure to Finish Foes, Does Gray Maynard Fall Prey to Nate Diaz?

The year was 2007. The exact date is only known to a small group of UFC employees, and the young, starving fighters who were gunning for those six figures. The fight was to determine the opponent for Manny Gamburyan at The Ultimate Fighter 5 Finale .

The first round of the fight was won by the much bigger and stronger Gray Maynard. Although he didn't necessarily dominate the round, Maynard controlled where the fight took place, and he even split open the forehead of Nate Diaz.

As the second round began, the fight appeared to be on the same track as the first, with Maynard out-wrestling Diaz. Then, Diaz hit the switch, winding up on top.

Maynard had to work fast to get out of this precarious situation, but still a little bit green in the fight world, he wound up in a very tight guillotine.

Diaz went on to win the six figure contract, but now, almost three years later, Maynard has the chance to even the score.

While Diaz was getting the over-hyped publicity that most TUF winners seem to get, the over-shadowed Maynard went back to his gym at Xtreme Couture to work on his flaws, which has really seemed to pay off.

He has improved tremendously in his years with the UFC, particularly with his striking. As a wrestler, he use to shoot in blindly towards the clinch, but now he scores the takedown by setting up the shoot with a mix of combinations.

As of now, in the new decade, Maynard is sitting in the top five as one of the very few contenders left standing in the shadow of the champion, the lightweight kingpin of the world, B.J. Penn.

Despite having a perfect record over some of the division's most accomplished fighters, Maynard still receives flak for his finishing ability, or lack thereof. His last five wins have all ended in a decision, causing some minor concern to those who are trying to promote how much of a test he could be against Penn.

In a neck-to-neck race towards the No. 1 contender's spot, Maynard appears to be losing the battle to fellow lightweight stand-out Frankie Edgar, despite having secured a victory over him in April 2008.

Some would say, this author included, that since the showdown, Edgar has looked more impressive over a set of higher caliber opponents, picking them apart en-route to a clear cut victory while Maynard jockeyed for position against his foes.

Nevertheless, that is a never-ending argument that will undoubtedly go on until one of the men fall from their horse, that is unless Maynard absolutely destroys Diaz with an impressive finish this coming Monday on Ultimate Fight Night 20 .

Maynard has been bullying tough opponents inside the octagon for some time now, and he is so close to the title shot that he can taste it. He knows that if he finishes Diaz in an awe-inspiring fashion, that the UFC big wigs would have no other choice but to give him the title shot.

So that raises the question, with the weight of "can he finish opponents" resting on his shoulders, will Gray Maynard fall into the jiu jitsu spider trap set by Nate Diaz?

Unless Maynard has secretly been training with jiu jitsu masters since his last outing, it appears doubtful that he will score a submission victory, especially over the brown belt of Nate Diaz.

So it appears Maynard's usual regimen of ground-and-pound will be in order this Monday, and, like in most Nate Diaz fights, the crass Stockton fighter will probably receive a healthy dose of it.

While Maynard is raining down those heavy hands, he may have to calm himself in the midst of his blood-lusted kill frenzy. If he doesn't, he may find himself in the deadly clutch of Diaz's versatile submission attack.

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"Patience and fortitude conquer all things." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Diaz is dangerous but i think a strong wrestler like gray who has spent the last two and half years with robert drysdale and neil melanson will have enough sub defense to win this. I will be interested to see how the striking unfolds.

gulliard was murdering diaz and got a little ahead of himself. if maynard gets caught up in looking impressive the same thing will happen. however, i can't imagine with maynard's background in wrestling he'll allow the same thing to happen to him again. especially after watching diaz do the same thing over and over again.

Does MMA Reporter access sherdog forum for his narrative? The only thing on Gray's mind is coming out of his fight with a win . His priorities are very simple. Train hard and fight smart; the rest will come . Pretty simple, really. He only concerns himself with the things that he can control . Like beating Diaz ass tomorrow night.

I would love to see Gray drop Nate and gnp him for the stoppage.

Gray has improved tremendously in his overall game. Gray's improvement in striking and footwork will be the difference in this fight. I see Gray outworking Diaz and taking him out in round 2.

Gracious of the Board for the words of support. Thank you.

I really hope Gray wins too. I think he should probably go the GNP route. Diaz's reach gets to people, hopefully Gray's submission defense is adequate now.

Their meeting in TUF was exciting, BJ commented he thought Gray would have gotten a 10-8 round in the first round.