NICK DIAZ  DOMINATES FRANK SHAMROCK

SAN JOSE, Calif. (April 12, 2009) –  Mixed martial arts made a smashing return to premium network television Saturday  with a scintillating fight card that featured heaps of strikes, kicks, drama,  unbelievable comebacks and a brilliant, poised, victorious performance by Nick Diaz. In a dominant outing  in which he was in control throughout, Diaz (19-7, 1 NC) of Stockton, Calif.,  made good on his vow, and impressively knocked out legendary MMA pioneer and  local favorite Frank Shamrock before  an enthusiastic crowd of 15,211 at HP Pavilion. A Cesar Gracie  Jiu-Jitsu black belt, Diaz took apart Shamrock with seeming ease. He whipped  Shamrock on the ground and at the veteran’s game – on the feet. The fight was  stopped at 3:57 of the second round with Diaz reigning punches with both hands  on a fallen, helpless Shamrock. At times, Diaz seemed  to be toying, even mocking Shamrock. Twice, Diaz, who was moving up to compete  at a catch-weight 179 pounds, took side-control, a dominant position, but  Shamrock fought his way out on both occasions. Shamrock (24-9-2), however, could not get  inside Diaz’ long reach and wound up getting pummeled. How bad a night was it  for the hometown favorite? Shamrock may not have even won the battle of  introductions in a fight in his hometown. Shamrock will be  back, though, he says, and so, of course, will Diaz. In  other televised fights, former Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez captured the interim  Strikeforce lightweight championship with a second-round knockout over Rodrigo Damm, Scott Smith  rallied from the brink of defeat to register a stunning third-round knockout  over Benji Radach in a brutal battle of determined, heavy-handed  middleweights, Cris "Cyborg" Santos knocked out Hitomi Akano in the  third round of a women’s match and Brett Rogers scored a crowd-pleasing  second-round TKO over  "Abongo"  Humphrey in a hard-fought matchup of unbeaten  heavyweights The event, the  initial collaboration between Showtime  Networks Inc. and Strikeforce, aired  live simultaneously on SHOWTIME and on the World Wide Web (Strikeforce:  All Access) at _http://strikeforce.sho.com_ (http://strikeforce.sho.com/) . The SHOWTIME  telecast aired at 10 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the west coast); the Strikeforce: All  Access  webcast went at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT. “I used to train with  Frank so it’s not like I could hate the guy,’’ the triumphant Diaz said. “He's  been doing what I want to do and saying what I want to say for a long time. It  always feels good to win." Said Shamrock, “I’m  not done. I trained hard. All credit goes to Nick. He kicked my butt. But I am  not done entertaining in this sport.’’ Melendez dominated  Damm, finishing a late substitute for Strikeforce 155-pound world champion Josh  Thomson, at 2:02 of the second  round. “Josh  is the true champion but I definitely want to fight him again,’’ Melendez said.  “I lost fair and square the first fight. I know I can do better. ’’ The spectacular  slugfest between Smith (17-5, 1 NC)  of Elk Grove, Calif., and Radach (19-5) of Irvine, Calif., may have been the  fight of the night – if not the year. After a wildly  exciting, close first round in which both were battered, bruised and knocked  down, Radach almost finished Smith in the second. But Smith connected with a  perfect right hook and that, for all intents and purposes was that. “I had counted myself  out,’’ said Smith, who had lost the first two rounds on all the scorecards,  including a 10-8 second round on one of them. “There was no way I wanted to come  out for the third round. But I felt I owed it to Benji and the fans so I  did.’’ Said a disappointed  Radach: “Damn, I really wanted this one and thought I had him. It was going so  good. I hope they give something (money) for fight of the night because it would  be tough to top that fight. Scott came out strongly in the third. Obviously, I  should have played it better than I did.’’ Brazil’s Cyborg (7-1)  had an easy time with out-sized Akano (14-6) of Japan, winning by third-round  knockout. The ref halted the one-sided action at 0:35 of the  round. “I feel very bad I  did not make the weight,’’ said the naturally bigger and stronger Cyborg, who  towered over the shorter, smaller Akano. Cyborg weighed in six  pounds over the contracted limit but lost two pounds so the fight was allowed to  go on. “This will never happen again,’’ she said. “I want to be the best women’s  fighter in the world. Yes, of course, I want to fight Gina (Carano)  next.’’ In the telecast’s  first bout, Rogers, of St. Paul, Minn., improved to 9-0 and 3-0 on SHOWTIME with a hard-fought 1:38,  second-round TKO (knees and punches) over Atlanta’s Humphrey  (12-1). “The only thing  surprising about this fight is that I was not surprised how tough he was,’’  Rogers said. “I knew he wasn’t going to be a one hit and done type of guy. He  was undefeated. I expected this kind of fight. There were lots of starts and  stops in my training which may have affected me a little but I am not making  excuses. I am very happy with this victory and ready to fight  anybody,’’ Rogers had a point  deducted during a give-and-take first round that featured numerous exchanges of  punches and knees for holding Humphrey’s hair and hitting. “Believe me, it  wasn’t intentional,’’ Roger said. “He needs to cut his hair.’’