Strikeforce Showtime Premiere A Big Win

Nick Diaz put an old school beat down on one of the premiere old school fighters in the sport, Frank Shamrock. Frank looked to be in great shape, but simply couldn't touch Diaz and ended up being pounded out lying on his back against the cage.

I'll admit that I was more than a bit concerned about Nick going up in weight to take on Frank, and actually thought the striking advantage would go to Shamrock. Once again Nick rises to the occasion and makes me and many others look stupid for doubting him.

Nick's striking has been called "pitty pat" punching, "slapping", "no power" shots, yet his volume and accuracy always seem to take a larger toll than his opponents.

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While I wasn't that excited about any of the other bouts on the card before hand, the entire broadcast event was action packed and full of excitement. In particular, the Scott Smith v. Benji Radach fight was a huge win for Strikeforce and Showtime. I had picked Smith to KO Radach, but shortly in to the fight remember thinking I was about to be wrong again.

Smith and Radach beat each other senseless for two rounds, and there was more than one time I thought the fight was going to be stopped; fortunately, it wasn't. I had Radach up 2-0 and it was looking like he was going to sweep Smith right up until Smith knocked him in to next week with less than two minutes in the fight. Another astonishing come back KO for Smith, reminiscent of the Corrales v. Castillo war.

After the fight Smith made no bones about the fact that he thought the fight was over a few times himself, and showed much respect for Radach. The other thing that stood out was that Smith had his two boys in the cage with him after the fight, one 6 and the other 12 years old. While kneeling to hug the boys after the fight the 6yr old pulls back from his dad for a minute and can be heard saying "You okay dad?"

The bad blood between Shamrock and Diaz came to an abrupt end after their fight, as Nick helped Frank up and gave him props in the post fight interviews. That respect and the Smith family emotions shown after that fight made this event not only one to remember, it made the next Strikeforce/Showtime card a must see event. Money can't buy that kind of marketing.