Paul Daley, Ricco Rodriguez Earn Important Wins at BAMMA 5

There was some slight concern that Paul Daley was taking a risk by fighting outside Strikeforce before an expected title match with champion Nick Dick could be made.

That fear was eradicated quickly as Daley knocked out BAMMA Champion Yuya Shirai in the first round of the BAMMA 5 main event Saturday night at the MEN Arena in Manchester, England.

Daley's striking was picture perfect, throwing hard jabs that set up a crushing uppercut followed by a glancing hook that dropped Shirai. A few hammer fists later and Daley was declared the winner by KO at 1:46.

Because Daley missed weight by less than a pound, it was not a title fight. Considering it took Shirai several minutes to get to his feet, BAMMA has their work cut out for themselves promoting a champion that got decimated in a non-title fight.

In any case, the 28-year-old Englishman upped his record to 27-9-2 and now has a clear path toward a title match with Diaz if Strikeforce wants to make the match. Rumors around Diaz fighting on April 9th started circulating last week and if those are true, the best fight the promotion can make has presented itself.

Rodriguez makes his UFC case

When a fighter wants to get in or back to the UFC, a good way to do that is to beat former UFC fighters still on the upside of their career.

Assuming that holds weight with Joe Silva, former UFC Heavyweight Champion Ricco Rodriguez did himself some favors by beating former TUF competitor James McSweeney by unanimous decision, his 11th straight victory.

While it wasn't a classic heavyweight slugfest, Rodriguez showed he still has considerable skills on the ground, taking McSweeney down repeatedly and grinding him ala Jon Fitch for the win.

At 46-11, the 33-year-old has stayed active in the past 12 months, competing seven times in 2010 alone. Fighting against Rodriguez is the names on the list aren't all former Octagon luminaries and the last three fights have all been decision wins.

But in a division that is still finding its place in the lower end of the heavyweight pool, signing Rodriguez to a fight-by-fight deal certainly isn't unseen—especially considering they kept Mark Hunt after a loss to Sean McCorkle.

Notes

- Former UFC fighter Xavier Foupa-Pokam lost to Alex Makhonin via 2nd round TKO on the undercard.

- The card aired on the UK version of Syfy which is owned by NBC Universal—the same group that owns the U.S. version. It will be interesting to see if they choose to get into the MMA race at some point here in the U.S.

Josh Nason is a New England-based freelance MMA journalist that wrote a Jon Fitch feature in February's FIGHT! Magazine. He frequently does radio/podcast appearances and asks for your "like" for ESPN Boston to cover MMA.  Follow him on Twitter.