The best fight card of 2011; Diaz wins
In the Strikeforce main event Saturday night, welterweight champion Nick Diaz scored a victory by submission (arm bar) over Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos to maintain the title at 4:50 of the second round at the HP Pavillion in San Jose, California.
In the first round both fighters displayed some of the best fighting skills in all of MMA this year. Cyborg landed leg kick after leg kick and Diaz repeatedly landed punches to Cyborg’s face. Both fighters survived the round, but only to repeat it at the start of the second round. Also, in the second round Diaz continued to land his jab before taking the fight to the mat where he rolled Cyborg into an arm bar to retain his title.
Many fans thought Diaz wouldn’t last the fight after taking so many leg kicks.
“I should have checked those kicks a little better,” said Diaz.
Diaz clearly should be mention as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. This fight is clearly the fight of the year so far.
In the co-main event, Strikeforce middleweight champion Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza stopped Robbie Lawler at 2:00 of the third round.
In the first round, Lawler had Souza in trouble when he landed a hard right to Souza’s face that knocked the champion down. Souza was about to survive the round on his back.
In round two, Souza tried two arm bars, but Lawler was able to escape both submission moves. But in the third round the Brazilian Souza was able to submit Lawler with a rear-naked choke.
Heavyweight Herschel Walker came out the aggressor from the opening bell, scoring the bout's first knock down in the opening minutes against Scott Carson. An American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) fighter, Walker scored a TKO in the first round, dominating the challenger both standing up and on the ground. Walker landed 40 strikes compared to two for Carson.
The 48-year-old former pro football star took a kick to the head in the opening seconds of the first round. “When you're in MMA, you shouldn't take a kick like that,” Walker said.
UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velázquez was at round side to support Walker.
In the light heavyweight bout, Roger Gracie submitted Trevor Prangley with a rear-naked choke in the first round. This was supposed to be a big challenge for the young Gracie fighter, who is considered the top grappler in the world.
Both guys were feeling out each other before Gracie took Pranley to the ground at the 2:41 mark of the first round. Gracie moved into a full mount on Pranley and then transfered to a rear-naked choke with a body triangle with 41 second left in the first round.
Below are results from the undercard:
Welterweight Bout: Nate Moore defeated Nathan Coy by KO at 0:25 in the second round.
Lightweight Bout: Isaiah Hill beat Bobby Stack via submission (triangle choke) in 62 seconds.
Middleweight Bout: Ron Keslar defeated Eric Lawson by submission when Lawson tapped out at 1:57 in the first round.
Bantamweight Bout: Germaine de Randamie beat Stephanie Webber by KO (knee) in the first round.
Welterweight Bout: James Terry defeated Lucas Gamaza by TKO (punches) at 3:26 in the first round.
Jenna Castillo beat Charlene Gellner via TKO at 3:57 in the second round.
Kevin Richardson has been a fan of mixed martial arts competition ever since UFC 3, when 600-pound sumo wrestler Emmanuel Yarborough was beaten by Keith Hackney. Kevin will cover the world of MMA — in Baltimore, nationally and internationally. He plans to take readers into the locker rooms and MMA schools, where they'll hear from local fighters and trainers. If you have a news tip or suggestions for the blog, please 
Comments
"Diaz clearly should be mention as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. This fight is clearly the fight of the year so far."
This is the firsr time reading your collumn for me, but grammer aside you clearly forget things that happened a month ago or are very biased against the UFC. The Maynard Edgar 25 minute war where Frankie was almost KOed in the first 2 minutes and fought back to make the fight a draw was undeniably the best fight in terms of action, the quality of both fighters, and the importance of the fight. While it is hard to deny Diaz is a great fighter, the level of competition he is facing in Strikefore makes it very difficult for you to call him one of the best pound for pound considering it has been a very long time since he has fought a top 10 170lbers.
Additionally to call this the best night of fights so far this year is laughable. It contained only 4 fights, one of which was contested by 2 heavyweights who might not be in the top 100 in the world. I love Herschel Walker, think he is a great ambassador for the sport, but if one of your 4 fights is that one, its going to be tough to call this the fight card of the year. Finally, the champions in Strikeforce are all very competitive good fighters, but it is very unfortunate the company lacks depth, and ultimately we are watching them fight such weaker competition that they look more dominant than they are, the same thing can be said for the fighters they are hoping to hype for future fights ie Gracie, Bobby Lashley, etc. So give me the UFC New Years card, or for that matter the Super Bowl card and I will be much happier over this
This sound like an employee of the UFC. But I respect your opinion. Kevin
Posted by: Anonymous | January 30, 2011 1:40 PM