GSP is a pretty proud martial artist. he respects his opponents and he expects them to respect him back. if they do, he wins his fights with them, but he doesn't hurt them too badly. BUT, if they yap him off in the pre-fight - if they yap him off with disrespect, then he will HURT them - and i mean hurt them BAD!!
probably the two most dis-respectful (in the pre-fight) fighters he faced were serra and koschek (personally i think dana white tricked them into their disrespectful attitudes). and look at what gsp did to them... serra: smashed ribs and severely busted face. koschek: severely busted face. serra has never fought again. koschek may never fight again either, although he is made of somewhat sterner stuff than serra so he might. but both fighters were severely demolished and severely HURT.
i predict that if diaz disrespects gsp in his pre-fight comments, he will end up like serra and koscheck or maybe worse. gsp comes from a karate background - kyokushinkai - which is a VERY hard-hitting, head-hunting japanese style. the only reason he doesn't knock people out is because he doesn't want to - but he knows where all the weak bone structures are - especially in the head - at he knows exactly how to bust them
yeah maybe his kata isn't as fancy as miss fancy-pants kata master from france, but that's because he is a fighter. he would definitely lose the kata competition to miss fancy pants - but he would clean her clock in the octogon. its all about what you specialize in
different martial arts styles all look very different at the coloured belt stage. but as the practitioners start to work their way up through the black belt stages, they diversify in their training until they all start to resemble a sort of jiu-jitsu comprising stand-up, take-downs, wrestling, limb and joint destruction, submissions, etc. - so don't talk about different styles being better than any other styles - it doesn't work that way. it all depends on the individual
back in the day one of the gracie's came to vancouver riding on a standing bet that nobody could win a fight against him, and he really did have the credentials to prove it. a dude from a tae kwon do school in vancouver accepted the challenge, walked up to him, and in a move that you had to see to believe the speed, cold-cocked him with a single fist blow to the chin, bowed and walked calmly out of the ring - and he wasn't even the best in his club!
