Strikeforce: Nick Diaz Dominates Paul Daley, Takes His Best Shot, Knocks Him Out

Heading into last night's Strikeforce Championship fight, most believed that Nick Diaz's best strategy would be to take the fight to the ground and neutralize Paul Daley's devastating punching power.  

I am from Stockton, Ca., and I follow the local talent very closely.

I knew Diaz was going to stand and trade shots, even though that would be giving Daley his best shot at winning.

When the fight began, it was clear that Diaz wanted to beat Daley at his own game. When Big John McCarthy told the guys "Lets get it on," Diaz came out looking to trade shots.

When Paul Semtex Daley didn't come in throwing haymakers, Nick Diaz tried to sucker him in by standing in front of Daley with his hands down.  

It was clear who the better striker was when they did start trading shots.

Diaz was picking Daley apart.  Daley was landing a shot here and there—and even landing one of his "bombs" that sent Diaz to the ground—but we all know that Diaz recovers very fast and is tough to KO, especially with that oversized head.  

I got a big head, too.  It must be something in Stockton's water supply or something.

Diaz did go down a couple of times, but I never thought Daley was going to finish him off. Daley even looked a little discouraged after he landed that bomb and couldn't finish Diaz. He looked tired and started fighting desperately, throwing wild punches that Diaz was dodging and answering with precision.  

Fists, elbows and a few knees ultimately finished Daley.  

A few people I know thought the ref should have let those last three seconds run off the clock to see if Daley could have recovered.  In reality, though, one more of those strikes Diaz started to rain down on him could have done some serious damage.  

Even if the horn sounded, I don't think Daley would have made it to his corner and the fight would have been stopped anyway.  A couple minutes had passed, and when Daley's team stood him up he was still on shaky legs.

Nick Diaz is clearly one of the pound-for-pound best in the sport of MMA.  It is time for Dana White and the UFC to stop protecting their prized possession in GSP and put him in a fight with Nick Diaz.  

Like Diaz said last night though, "[he needs] to get paid."  

That means White is going to have to fork over a nice chunk of change for this fight to happen.  Diaz is still bitter from the time that the UFC withheld half of his fight earnings for testing positive for some of that Cali-grown tree.

That's all I got for now.  I just wanted to recap the Diaz vs. Daley fight.  

Did any of you think a one-trick pony like Daley really was going to beat one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world?