THE CANADIAN PRESS
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz defeated Brazilian Evangelista (Cyborg) Santos by second-round submission in a frantic mixed martial arts fight Saturday night.
It was the ninth straight win for Diaz (24-7 with one no contest).
"I’ll fight anybody," he said after retaining his 170-pound title.
Santos (18-14) is married to Strikeforce women’s middleweight champion Cris (Cyborg) Santos. Prior to the fight, she held up her championship belt in her ringside seat and flashed two fingers at the cameras.
But a second title in the Santos household will have to wait. And Cris Santos was wiping away tears after the fight.
In the co-main event at the HP Pavilion, middleweight title-holder Ronaldo (Jacare) Souza used his ground skills to grind down (Ruthless) Robbie Lawler en route to a third-round submission win.
Lawler will rue the first round when he wobbled the Brazilian champion. But when the fight was on the ground, Lawler was always in deep water.
Earlier, former NFL star running back Herschel Walker made short work of Scott Carson, scoring a first-round TKO over an opponent who offered little resistance. At age 48, Walker is now 2-0 in MMA.
The heavily tattooed Santos looked all business prior to the main event. Diaz, 27, wore his normal scowl.
Santos began to find the range with hard leg kicks, forcing Diaz to close the gap. Diaz looked to score with a stinging jab, but Santos continued to punish the champion’s lead leg. Still Diaz came forward.
Diaz hurt Cyborg at the fence with 90 second left in a torrid first round.
The story repeated itself in the second with a busy Diaz connecting with his jab and Santos scoring with kicks and strikes. Santos took Diaz down late in the round and instantly paid for it as the Cesar Gracie black belt locked in an armbar at four minutes 50 seconds.
Earlier, Souza (14-2 with one no contest) got Lawler down early in the first round but couldn’t use his considerable jiu-jitsu skills to advantage. Lawler (18-7 with one no contest) managed to get up and got the best of the ensuing standup exchange, stunning Souza and then putting him down.
Souza took Lawler down again early in the second and controlled him from above. Lawler escaped two armbar attempts and ended the round in Souza’s guard.
It was more of the same in the third, but this time Souza got Lawler’s back, locked on a body triangle and choked him out at 2:00 of the third round.
Walker won his MMA debut last January, defeating Scott Nagy by third-round TKO. A cut suffered in training delayed his return to the cage.
The 40-year-old Carson (4-2) had fought only once — a loss last June — since June 2001.
Carson connected with an early head kick, prompting Walker to yell at his opponent and start stalking him. Walker knocked Carson down with a punch and then dumped him again when he got up.
"I think I was getting a little bit too exited," Walker said of the head kick. "When you’re in an MMA fight, you shouldn’t take a kick like that."
Carson offered little other than defence, turtling on his knees. A Walker punch sent his mouthpiece flying.
Carson eventually rolled into guard, only to see another Walker punch knock his mouthpiece through the cage.
As Carson tried to get up at the fence, Walker dropped him with a punch and the referee stepped in at 3:13.
"MMA is my love," said Walker, who trains at the renowned American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose.
Light-heavyweight Roger Gracie looked impressive in a first-round submission win over Trevor Prangley.
The six-foot-four Gracie held his own during the opening standup exchange and tripped Prangley midway through the round, fighting off his attempt to get back off. Gracie (4-0) took Prangley’s back, applied a body triangle and locked on the rear naked choke that forced Prangley to tap at 4:19 of the round.
"I think everything happened as planned," said the 29-year-old Gracie.
The 38-year-old Prangley (23-7-1) was coming off a September win over former UFC fighter Keith (The Dean of Mean) Jardine.
