THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SUNRISE, Fla. - Former NFL star Herschel Walker stopped Hungarian fighter Greg Nagy in the third round Saturday night to win his mixed-martial arts debut. Walker drove Nagy into the fence early in the third. After a flurry of punches, referee Troy Waugh called the fight.

"The experience was exciting," Walker said. "This is the hardest thing I've ever done."

Still trim and fit at 47, Walker used his strength advantage to wear down the 26-year-old Nagy (1-2). He appeared to be close to the win near the end of the second five-minute round, but Nagy managed to extend the bout.

Walker was the 1982 Heisman Trophy winner while at Georgia and played professionally for Dallas, Philadelphia, Minnesota, the New York Giants and the USFL's New Jersey Generals.

In his football days, Walker dropped jaws with a workout regimen that included upwards of 3,000 situps and pushups everyday. He also holds a fifth-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

Walker, a 1992 U.S. Olympian in the two-man bobsled, turned his attention to MMA about 2½ months ago when he moved to San Jose, Calif., to train at renowned American Kickboxing Academy.

Despite some raggedness, his first fight went far better than those of former baseball slugger Jose Canseco, who lasted just 78 seconds in his debut last July, or ex-NFL receiver Johnnie Morton, who was carried out on a stretcher.

Among those in Saturday night's crowd was New York Jets coach Rex Ryan, whose TV interview was met with boos from Miami Dolphins fans in the arena.

Also making his Strikeforce debut was former WWE and TNA professional wrestler Bobby Lashley, who made short work of veteran Wes Sims to run his undefeated record to 5-0. He overwhelmed Sims from the opening bell, winning by TKO from strikes at 2:06 of the opening frame.

Sims appeared to object to the referee's decision to stop the fight when he did, even though Sims blocked few of the punches Lashley threw at him.

Diaz captures vacant Strikeforce welterweight belt

In the main event of the show at the BankAtlantic Center, Nick Diaz showed off some fantastic boxing, picking apart Marius Zaromskis, a Dream Grand Prix and welterweight champion in Japan making his debut for the San Jose-based organization, to become Strikeforce's first 170-pound title-holder.

Diaz, who won his sixth straight fight, shook off an earlier knock-down from a combination by Zaromskis and eventually forced his overmatched opponent to the fence. After a flurry of shots, Diaz ultimately forced a stoppage at 4:38 of the first round to secure the TKO victory.

In another title bout, women's lightweight champion Cristiane (Cyborg) Santos proved to be too much for game challenger Marloes Coenen of the Netherlands. Santos showed why she is the most feared striker in the female division, peppering Coenen through two-plus rounds for a win by TKO.

Fellow Dutch fighter Melvin Manhoef was also making his debut in the organization and it appeared to be a very good one in the early going. He had his opponent Robbie Lawler, a former middleweight champion of the now-defunct EliteXC promotion, in a lot of trouble after landing numerous kicks and combinations. But a perfectly-timed and accurate counter straight to the jaw of Manhoef three-and-a-half minutes into the opening frame earned Lawler a stunning knockout victory.