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History · 2006 · UFC 57: Liddell vs Couture 3 · Joe Riggs vs Nick Diaz
From the tape · 4 Feb 2006

Joe Riggs vs Nick Diaz

UFC 57: Liddell vs Couture 3 · Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Result

Joe Riggs beat Nick Diaz

Method
Decision - Unanimous
Round
3 of 3
Clock
5:00
WelterweightMain cardReferee · Mario Yamasaki

We published no prediction for this bout. Everything on this page is the official record and the tape it was fought on — the result, the round-by-round counts, the judges’ cards where they exist and the sportsbook line where one was published. Our graded calls start in 2026 and live on the public record.

JR
Red corner JoeRiggs“Diesel”Soul Fighters · Phoenix, Arizona
VSOn the tape
ND
Blue corner NickDiazCesar Gracie Fight Team · Stockton, California
Welterweight3 rounds4 Feb 2006
The story going in
  • Averages 1.2 more takedowns per 15 minutes than Diaz.
  • Every one of Diaz’s 4 UFC wins came inside the distance.
  • Lands 3.3 more significant strikes a minute than Riggs.
44-17
Record
26-10
23
Age
−1 yr22
6' 0"
Height
+1″6' 1"
70″
Reach
+6″76″
Southpaw
Stance
Southpaw
4
UFC bouts
+26
2/2100% of wins
Finishes
4/4100% of wins
Soul Fighters
Gym
Cesar Gracie Fight Team
Phoenix, Arizona
From
Stockton, California
Vitals, record, nickname and camp come from the public UFC fighter register and are current, not a snapshot of fight night. UFC bouts, finish rate and every storyline line are counted off the official UFC fight record. A tick marks the side holding the raw edge in that row — longer reach, taller, younger, more bouts, a higher finish rate. It is a fact about the tape, not a prediction, and rows with no clean comparison (record, stance, gym, hometown) carry no tick at all. Any row we cannot fill on both sides is left out rather than half-drawn. Streaks, bout counts and finish rates are as they stood going into this fight — this bout and everything after it is excluded from the count.

Round by round

Every round the fight went, shaded by where the significant strikes actually landed — and the takedowns, control time and knockdowns beside them.

UFCStats · per round

3 rounds of tape

Round 15:00 of action⚡ 1 KD Diaz
Joe Riggs19 sig landed
HEAD79%15 of 35BODY21%4 of 4LEGS0%0 landed
Nick Diaz19 sig landed
HEAD53%10 of 23BODY32%6 of 7LEGS16%3 of 4
19 of 39
Sig.
strikes
19 of 34
1 of 4
Take-
downs
0 of 2
0:17
Control
1:28
0
Knock-
downs
1
0
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 7Clinch 12Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 5Clinch 12Ground 2
JudgesNo per-round card for this bout in our decisions source — the judges’ totals are in the scorecards section below.
Round 25:00 of action1 sub attempt
Joe Riggs16 sig landed
HEAD88%14 of 35BODY12%2 of 3LEGS0%0 landed
Nick Diaz7 sig landed
HEAD100%7 of 38BODY0%0 of 4LEGS0%0 of 1
16 of 38
Sig.
strikes
7 of 43
1 of 1
Take-
downs
0 of 2
1:37
Control
0:34
0
Knock-
downs
0
0
Sub
attempts
1
Distance 11Clinch 3Ground 2
Where it
happened
Distance 5Clinch 2Ground 0
JudgesNo per-round card for this bout in our decisions source — the judges’ totals are in the scorecards section below.
Round 35:00 of actionEnded 5:00
Joe Riggs16 sig landed
HEAD81%13 of 35BODY19%3 of 4LEGS0%0 landed
Nick Diaz12 sig landed
HEAD50%6 of 21BODY33%4 of 6LEGS17%2 of 2
16 of 39
Sig.
strikes
12 of 29
1 of 3
Take-
downs
0 of 3
0:10
Control
1:21
0
Knock-
downs
0
0
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 10Clinch 6Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 5Clinch 7Ground 0
JudgesNo per-round card for this bout in our decisions source — the judges’ totals are in the scorecards section below.

Significant strikes, takedowns, control time, knockdowns and submission attempts exactly as UFCStats recorded them for this bout, round by round. Zone percentages are that round’s landed head, body and leg counts over their own total — raw arithmetic, nothing modelled or smoothed. A round in which a fighter landed nothing shades empty and reads zero; it is never filled in from the round before.

Judges’ scorecards

The judges’ totals, the media’s cards beside them, and how these judges usually score.

Official card

Unanimous Decision

Referee · Mario Yamasaki
Official totals — Joe Riggs first
JudgeTotal
Abe Belardo2.5 avg spread · 65% wide29–28
Tony Weeks2.1 avg spread · 49% wide30–27
Glenn Trowbridge2.1 avg spread · 47% wide29–28

There is no per-round card for this bout in our decisions source, so the judges’ totals are all we can show. This one is inside the window our source covers — it is a gap in the record, not a scrape we are waiting on, and nothing here is estimated to fill it.

Media cards — 1 scored, Joe Riggs first · unofficial

Sherdog.com28–29

Fan vote · unofficial

29-28 Diaz · 54%29-28 Riggs · 21%30-27 Riggs · 12%30-27 Diaz · 5%30-28 Diaz · 5%

43 fan cards submitted to MMA Decisions.

Official cards come from the UFCStats fight record and MMA Decisions. Media cards and the fan vote are MMA Decisions’ own collection and are not official. Judge tendency figures are that judge’s whole recorded history, not this bout — they are context for how a card was scored, never a claim that it was scored wrongly.

Takedowns

Takedowns

The level change — head to head

Career UFC takedown rates. Red corner left, blue corner right.

Joe Riggs

2.45takedowns / 15 min
2.45 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
1.28 / 15m
4.45 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
4.00 / 15m
55%
ACCURACY
32%
0.60 / 15m
SUB ATT
1.00 / 15m

Nick Diaz

1.28takedowns / 15 min

Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average. Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (6.86 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Ranked in Middleweight

The market story

What the market did on the way to the cage — the price, not our model. This bout is settled; the window below is closed.

We hold no market price for this bout — no captured price series, and no opening or closing line in the sportsbook record we fall back on. So there is nothing to show, and we would rather show nothing than draw a line that was never there.

Joe Riggs vs Nick Diaz.

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