“Strikeforce: Miami” Results: Nick Diaz Claims Title, Cyborg Retains Belt, Herschel Walker and Bobby Lashley Win Debuts
Nick Diaz was crowned the Strikeforce welterweight champion on Saturday in the main event of “Strikeforce: Miami” at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida, overwhelming Marius Zaromskis with a flurry of accurate punches that eventually downed the DREAM title-holder late in the opening-round.
In the evening’s co-headliner, Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos retained the 145-pound women’s championship with a third-round TKO of Marloes Coenen. Coenen was unable to take advantage of her submission skills and was forced to challenge “Cyborg” on the feet, losing the standup exchanges before Santos finished the fight with ground and pound in the third.
In his anticipated MMA debut, 47-year-old former Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker dominated an outmatched Greg Nagy, demonstrating solid striking, ground control, and submission defense before the referee stopped the bout in the third after a string of punches on the ground.
Also on the main card, Melvin Manhoef dominated Robbie Lawler for the majority of the opening round before Lawler connected with an overhand right that immediately ended the fight, while Bobby Lashley remained undefeated in his Strikeforce debut, scoring a swift first-round TKO of Wes Sims to kick off the Showtime broadcast.
On the preliminary card, Jay Hieron remained in line for a potential shot at the welterweight title now held by Nick Diaz with a lackluster unanimous decision over Joe Riggs.
The complete results for “Strikeforce: Miami” were:
MAIN CARD
- Nick Diaz def. Marius Zaromskis via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 4:38
Strikeforce Welterweight Championship (vacant) - Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos (c) def. Marloes Coenen via TKO (strikes) – Round 3, 3:40
Strikeforce 145-pound Women’s Championship - Herschel Walker def. Greg Nagy via TKO (strikes) – Round 3, 2:17
- Robbie Lawler def. Melvin Manhoef via KO (punch) – Round 1, 3:33
- Bobby Lashley def. Wes Sims via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 2:06
PRELIMINARY CARD
- Jay Hieron def. Joe Riggs via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
- Michael Byrnes def. David Zitnik via majority decision (29-29, 30-27, 30-27)
- Joe Ray def. John Clarke via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 3:14
- David Gomez def. Craig Oxley via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Pablo Alfonso def. Marcos da Matta via submission (armbar) – Round 1, 1:47
- Hayder Hassan def. Ryan Keenan via KO (strikes) – Round 2, 2:42
- John Kelly def. Sabah Homasi via submission (rear naked choke) – Round 2, 2:48
For the latest Strikeforce news and Strikeforce rumors stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com.
Pictured: Nick Diaz
Tags: Bobby Lashley, Craig Oxley, Cristiane Cyborg, David Gomez, David Zitnik, Greg Nagy, Hayder Hassan, Herschel Walker, Jay Hieron, Joe Ray, Joe Riggs, john clarke, John Kelly, Marcos da Matta, Marius Zaromskis, Marloes Coenen, Melvin Manhoef, Michael Byrnes, Nick Diaz, Pablo Alfonso, Robbie Lawler, Ryan Keenan, Sabah Homasi, Wes Sims
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Was a decent night of fights . I think the ladies put on the best show although the lawler manhoef fight was a power show . Was really pulling for manhoef but thats the way it goes .He looked like the next champ …….then boom
those chicks have nothing on the ufc girls.. and im not sure what you were watching that was an awesome night of fights.. i paid 25 bucks for the online stream and i would have paid more if they wanted it..
thought you were talkin about the ring girls.. oops
Didnt say it wasnt good …… just hoped for a few more rounds with diaz /zaromskis. But yeah it was a good show …… wouldnt mind seeing lawler vs Le next or maybe manhoef vs le
i kinda figured the diaz fight wouldnt get out of the first.. but yeah lawler will probably fight le or mayhem next.. thats if le isnt filming a movie.. and manhoef will either fight mayhem or maybe shamrock when he comes back
forgot about scott smith.. that will be lawlers next fight i think.. and manhoef fights le
Smith and Lawler already fought twice, with Lawler winning both, I don’t want to see a third.
how could you not want to see a rematch.. im not sure if i saw the second fight but the first was an awesome fight.. and lawler only won one of those.. the first was a no contest because of doctor stoppage in the third round of 5
Fair enough on the NC, I forgot that it ended as an NC, even though Lawler was ahead in that fight. I’d just rather them fight someone else, though that whole lack of depth thing becomes an issue, quickly.
I was wrong about the lawler/manhoef fight…. barely! Manhoef left his d*mn hands down coming in for the kill and robbie did that d*mn thang! War Diaz.
Roll Tide.
Yeah I thought that Lawler was going to get KO’d but Melvin let me down…
What does “War Diaz” mean?
It’s one way of expressing his support for Diaz. It was really popular on teh interwebbies a while back, but the popularity has shrunk.
Whatever.
Decent showing by Herschel Walker to launch his post-retirement career, indecent showing by Wes Sims keeps the Bobby Lashley ball rolling, Manhoef managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in a single round, Guyborg wins her fight by what I guess mk4 would call “womanbearpig”, and Whitemare lets most of us down by walking into some stiff shots from Diaz’s bong holders.
Worse than that, the loss allows the little ’stain to claim some gold.
If THAT isn’t like someone sh!tting in your bowl of breakfast cereal, I don’t know what is.
Oh yeah, gratz to the new champ Diaz.
Now him and Julio can head on down to the schoolyard and do what he does best.
Times like this I really wonder if its worth it for me to carry Showtime on my cable system, but I just have to remember that I’m doing it to support the sport, and Strikeforce to a lesser degree, even though I rarely see the fighters I support win in their promotion.
Hopefully, Hendo changes all of that by snaggging some gold and knocking Jake Shields back to welterweight where he belongs…
womanbearpig?? more like manbearpig.. ohh and i believe you wondered why i said the diaz fight was one sided.. i rest my case
Hey, I’m fine admitting I called the Diaz fight wrong when so many others called it correctly, but I’ll need to see a bit more of Whitemare in order to determine if he just had a bad night, or if we should change his nickname to Hypemare…
I’m watching the Cyborg fight right now and so far this night was good. All my picks were wrong and I’m surprised by that. I expected manhoef to kill Lawler. I guess he was untill that moment his brain was scrambled. Also, what happened Whitemare? I’m really surprised. I still haven’t seen the fight yet but by what I read whitemare got handled. What is it with Shields and Diaz? Whenever I think they’re gonna lose, they pull out some holy crap win. (Shields/Lawler or Diaz/Zaromskis)
I also thought it was cool to see GSP there wearing some Strikeforce swag. Also, does Strikeforce fighters have to go through mandatory suspensions like the UFC? And does Strikeforce ever post their salaries?
Cyborg should be fighting dudes.
hypemare… ouch jcohl. needless to say this is a dark day for me… akuma doesnt lose to vega. wateva tho whitemare is still the man. anyone kno if he came out dressed as akuma?
No, just a Throwdown hoodie and I hope it really isn’t just hype.
I too am eating crow in the Diaz/Zaromskis fight. Not ashamed of it either. Only a Diaz could dominate in the ring and lose against a shrub.
P.S. Nick. Your brother didn’t win sh!t in his last fight. Stop encouraging him to act like a woman.
Lex,
Strikeforce is governed by Athletic Commissions the same the UFC is. Therefore, suspension and the salaries getting released are all up to the commission, just like with the UFC.
Just curious.
Is anyone else getting this baseline buzzing on the audio feed for the event, or was it my computer/flatscreen connectivity, which my friend’s fiancee hooked up?
i didnt experience that at all.. sounded like regular sh!tty internet audio.. no bass fuzz just terrible quality
Dang, I felt bad for Zaromskis, Diaz’s reach was too much. Diaz tired him out and brought some good strikes. I just can’t help but ask, where was the defense at? Is it me or did whitemare look really small? Also, I was still happy to see Nick get dropped though.
What a night of fights!!!!
First, easports.com royally messed up so we weren’t able to see Heiron/Riggs, but from the live, heavily-moderated chat at the ea site, it didn’t seem all that exciting. Oh well.
The first fight, though an almost complete sqash, made me laugh more than any other fight ever. When Sims did the “test of strength” thing at the begining I was like “Did you see that!!!!” to everyone. Then that stupid leg cradle Sims did was hilarious too.
Melvin vs Lawler was insane. The whole fight I was explaining to the guys who Manhoef was and how his striking is vicious yet crisp and that he’ll be dangerous in North America, then he drops his hands in confidence and gets knocked out in what will be on many knockout-of-the-year lists. And his face was priceless, posterized the poor guy.
Walker vs Nagy (and I laughed everytime they said his name “New-dgdgedg” was kind of amateurish. Walker looked like one of those Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots in the middle. Though his GnP and sub avoidance were quite impressive for a first-timer.
Poor Coenen. I wanted her to win but knew she wouldn’t. Long live the king of woman’s MMA.
Zaromskis really disapointed me and just didn’t seem himself. Diaz looked darn good and well the fight lasted a bit longer than I thought it would have. No one’s had an answer for those pawing jabs. I thought a head kick would have been in order but didn’t account for the reach advantage.
Great night of fights!!!!
Long live the king. Haha.
Props to Diaz. He went in there and implemented a great game plan. He pushed the pace even when he got hit he just kept comin, which I haven’t seen anyone do with Whitemare. Everyone keeps sayin Diaz was workin his reach but I thought he kept the fight really close so Whitemare didn’t have room to set up kicks.
And oh yea Lawler was gettin destroyed then came back Scott Smith
I’m very upset by walkers opponent who couldn’t beat a dude older than my dad, making hi mma debut. WOW!!! How can he live with himself? And i hope this doesn’t give any other ex NFL’ers/boxers over the age of 40 the idea that they can hang in the cage.
Wes Sims, another pathetic performance. I know he took the fight on a week’s notice, but you’re supposed to be a “pro” not a dude who looked like he stopped by burger king right before the fight.
Robbie vs Melvin
Awesome fight. I thought for sure Melvin would finish robbie with those leg kicks. RObbie showed wisdom,experience and his badd ass power and knocked him the f*** out and man was i jumping up and down! He’s my boy!
“whitemare” looked super sloppy and deserved to get ktfo. I think he like EVERYOTHER dude making some sort of “US/bigstage” debut ALWAYS let’s the hype and nerves get to him.
GUYBORG, what can i say, no “woman” is getting passed her.
Well, I personally believe that Nagy could make 185, if he wanted, and he ran into a phenomenal athlete in Walker. Walker is one of the people that with minimal skills could beat most fighters of similar experience based mostly on his athleticism.
no i completely agree. He looked amazing and was obviously ready to go. I think i’m most upset about athletes who “dont pay their dues”, and think they can just jump into mma. So it’s guys like nagy who are supposed to make a statement. All due respect to walker, but his win probably tells people “hey, if you’re in shape and have a known name, you can automatically be considered an mma fighter”. And that just pisses me off.
Technically, fighting in actual sanctioned MMA fights, makes you an MMA fighter, regardless of your skill level, or the amount of training you’ve done.
lol i get it dude. You see my point though, would strikeforce or the ufc give an unknown, icredible athlete the chance to make his mma debut on ppv or showtime? I don’t think so, there are so many talented unknown up and coming mma fighters who train every day who aren’t granted these opportunities but respect the sport.
Walker’s a name so he gets this treatment and on top of that, gets a gimme fight and a “W”. If more football players came out of the woodwork and starting saying “$hit, if he can do it so can i, let me meet with dana or cocker so i can get on the next cbs card” i will lose it dude!
I think Walker truly respects the sport, but I get what you’re saying.
I’d say that TUF 10 illustrated that aging and/or failed pro throwballers shouldn’t be expected to jump into the sport and receive anything other than a beating thrown their way…
I’ll post this apology on other threads as they come up, but I for one was dead wrong about Herschel Walker.
Yes, I agree that he got his shot because of who he is [was?] and not what he’s done in MMA, and yes his opponent looked like a pre-cut 205er with a bad case of cage fright, but still, that was an outstanding MMA debut for a man who can more accurately measure his training in the sport by weeks rather than years, his fine TKD credentials notwithstanding.
I knew the man was a great throwballer in his day, and by all accounts he’s a consummate sportsman, but I didn’t think he could get that sort of performance out of his 47 year old body, and do so well for a first-timer with the small amount of training and coaching he’s had to date.
I hope Walker pushes forward with his MMA career, and see where it takes him. If Walker cares to make 205, and still retain his strength, speed, and athleticism, he could be a handful for some of the non-UFC 205ers out there.
Another poster on another thread commented that Walker “could be Strikeforce’s Randy Couture”, which at the time I waved off as hype. Now while its true that Walker may not win 5 title in 2 different weightclasses and make it to the Hall of Fame, his in-cage performance and outside-the-cage deportment are second to none, and IMO he’ll make another fine ambassador for the sport.
Again, my apologies to Walker, for what its worth…
Content removed, no fighter bashing.
-Jusitn