SUNRISE, Fla. – Nick Diaz (21-7) looked absolutely phenomenal in his performance Saturday night against Marius Zaromskis (13-4) at “Strikeforce: Miami”, the promotion’s first card of 2010. Many people felt Diaz should not stand with Zaromskis, who had finished his last three fights via head kick knockout – but as Diaz so aptly said, he does not back down from anyone.
Diaz’s five inch reach advantage, jabs, kicks, and technical boxing, paid dividends against Zaromskis’ powerful, yet more looping punches. Diaz did not give the dangerous kickboxer enough room to breathe, much less use that head kick he is known for. At one point, Zaromskis did stun Diaz with a punch, however, Diaz was able to recover as the fight went to the ground.
When Diaz got back to his feet, he let his fists fly at a frantic pace, one after the other, to the head, to the body, over and over. He simply overwhelmed Zaromskis with technical, accurate boxing, that finally dropped the Dream welterweight champion to the canvas, causing the referee to step in and stop the fight at 4:38 of round number one, and thereby winning the vacant Strikeforce welterweight title.
Robbie Lawler had the knockout of the night with a beautiful come from behind performance over Melvin Manhoef, Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos defeated Marloes Coenen, Bobby Lashley pounded out Wes Sims, and football legend Herschel Walker defeated Greg Nagy via TKO in round number three. For complete “Strikeforce: Miami” results check out Pro MMA Now’s play-by-play.