'Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg' is in the books and Strikeforce produced a second straight solid effort for the show that saw Nick Diaz retain his Strikeforce welterweight title against Evangelista Santos and Ronaldo Souza retain his Strikeforce middleweight championship against Robbie Lawler.

Here are some post-fight thoughts:

Diaz certainly had some issues with "Cyborg" before finishing him with an armbar late in the second round. This was interesting because this wasn't your typical Diaz "pitter-patter" performance because Cyborg kept him at bay with a ton of leg kicks. When Cyborg wasn't getting punched in the face against the cage by Diaz, he was making a very good account for himself. Those leg kicks never seemed to visibly hurt Diaz, but they certainly did damage. This, to my recollection, is the first time we've seen Diaz get kicked like that, so we'll see if anybody else decided to employ that strategy against him.

When Cyborg got that takedown late in the round, I was thinking, "well, that's two rounds for Cyborg." That was until Cyborg made a big mistake and was caught in an armbar. There's a reason Cyborg has 14 career losses and you saw it here. It's too bad because I thought Cyborg's gas tank was empty after the first round, but he impressed me. He was never going to win a conditioning battle against Nick Diaz, but he made a good account of himself here. 

Another fighter who put up a good account for himself in a losing effort was Lawler, as he fell to "Jacare" in the middleweight title fight. I really enjoyed this fight. This was one of the better examples of "striker vs. grappler" that we've seen in recent memory. Lawler throwing a flying knee and getting taken down in the first round was a real fun moment for me. I literally screamed, "What are you doing?!" as I watched.

To Lawler's credit, though, he was able to get back to his feet. Although that came only after he completely offered his neck to Jacare. I can't even remember I saw someone give their neck up like this. I know Lawler pretty much had to do it to be able to get back to his feet. I'm not sure which one I'm more stunned by: Lawler giving his neck up so readily or Jacare, noted BJJ specialist (hello, understatement) completely failing to take advantage. Then Lawler gets the better of Jacare standing and Jacare falls to his back. What does ol' Robert Glen Lawler do? He jumps right into his guard. Just baffling. Maybe I'm completely missing something or I'm just not as smart as I thought I was (save your jokes), but that doesn't seem like the best idea in the world.

Lawler just couldn't stop Jacare's takedown and that proved to be the difference. Where Lawler impressed me was his defense of Jacare's two second round armbar attempts. Perfectly defensed. Consider me impressed (yeah, I'm a poet and I didn't even know it). By the time the third round came, Lawler was in rough shape. Jacare really laid in some shots on Lawler on the ground in the second, some real vastly improved ground-and-pound. When Jacare got that takedown early in the third, I figured it was just a matter of time. There was no way Lawler was getting back up. He didn't. Jacare finished him with a rear-naked choke. Very impressive performance.

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Love him or hate him, Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz is one of the most enthralling personalities in mixed martial arts today.  From his swear-heavy, nonsensical rants to his tough guy bravado he is one of Strikeforce's central figures and Saturday night he gets the opportunity to once again shine on their stage.  However, the question at hand is this.  Truthfully how good is Nick Diaz?  Following a 6-4 career in the UFC and a spectacular victory over then top lightweight Takanori Gomi at PRIDE 33, Diaz has racked up an impressive 9-1 record and those 10 fights have been contested in the made-up EliteXC lightweight division (160lbs.), welterweight division, and middleweight division.  This is where things get a little cloudy however.  Take a look at some of the names in his resume during this run, Mike Aina, Muhsin Corbbrey, Katsuya Inoue and Thomas Denny.  Not exactly the most impressive lineup, not to mention during that time he was beaten handily by KJ Noons.  The other names that fill up his post-UFC/PRIDE win column are Frank Shamrock, Scott Smith, Marius Zaromskis, Hayato Sakurai, and a second meeting with the aforementioned Noons. 

Nick had little to no problems dealing with the legendary Frank Shamrock, however, is it safe to say Frank was well past his prime and was coming off a broken arm at the hands of Cung Le.  Shamrock would retire not long after this fight.  Scott Smith, while always good for a spirited effort, is exactly the type of opponent that Diaz feeds off of.  Meanwhile, Zaromskis has not quite looked like the beast he did tearing through the competition in the Dream welterweight tournament and Hayato Sakurai has seen much better days.  That brings me to his second KJ Noons fight this past October.  In it, Diaz looked the best he has maybe ever.  His voluminous boxing, that looks like he's playing patty cake with your face, was in full display and was even disruptive for an excellent boxer like Noons.  However, the question still remains.  Is Nick Diaz as good as his charisma or lack thereof leads us to think? 

In my opinion, thinking about the best of the best at 170 in the UFC, it is hard for me to think that Nick Diaz wouldn't be eaten alive in the Octagon.  Fighters like Jake Shields (though that fight would never happen), Jon Fitch, Diego Sanchez (whom Diaz already met once), and Josh Koscheck are just a few fighters with the perfect style to frustrate and control Diaz.  Of course, I did not even mention the current welterweight kingpin Georges St. Pierre, who would be an absolute  nightmare for Diaz in almost all areas of the fight.  While some will bring up Diaz's jiu jitsu game which is world renown, Diaz relies much more on his hands than his grappling these days.  It is almost as if Diaz only uses his deadly BJJ when there is no other way out. Him and his brother, Nate Diaz, are almost mirror images in a cage though Nick is probably the better striker of the two and we have seen Diaz have a lot of trouble with good grapplers and wrestlers.  Is it that Strikeforce is feeding Diaz strikers, which he can use his durability to eventually overwhelm, to up his stock in the fast rising popularity of MMA or is 170 outside of the UFC devoid of good/great grapplers?

Diaz is set to meet number one contender Evangelista 'Cyborg' Santos on Saturday night at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.  He is also currently the seventh ranked welterweight in the world according to the USA TODAY/SB Nation Consensus MMA Rankings while Santos is not ranked within the top 25.  Has Diaz gotten by on his image more so than his abilities thus far in Strikeforce or is F-Bomb Dropper from Stockton, CA really a world class fighter?   Chime in MMA4Realers

SBN coverage of Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg

I'll admit, Herschel Walker fighting intrigues me on a certain level. A freak of nature and tremendous athlete, Walker dazzled crowds in football stadiums for many years and now has decided to plant his eyes on the world of mixed martial arts. But am I the only one left?

Walker signed with Strikeforce in 2009 and made his debut a little less than a year ago to some acclaim, as Strikeforce made a smart decision by having him debut the week prior to the NFL's Super Bowl in the same market the event was being held in. At the time, Walker's debut was a hit for Strikeforce and he defeated Greg Nagy by TKO in the third round.

Now, it seems as returns on Walker are quickly diminishing as Walker's sophomore effort with Strikeforce, when he faces Scott Carson at "Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg" on Saturday at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif., has drawn little interest from the media and without that, what purpose does having Walker fight really serve?

With Strikeforce struggling for card space for its regular fighters as it is, will having Walker continue to fight justify diminishing media returns?

Walker clearly is taking fighting seriously, but how long can the soon-to-be 49-year old continue to fight? Who knows, the media interest in this fight could blow up in the next two days. We've seen it happen before, albeit not for Strikeforce shows. This entire Strikeforce card has flown so far under the radar I think a lot of people are unaware it's happening. That's a shame considering the talent on this card. Not to mention nobody is talking about the Heavyweight Grand Prix anymore despite the fact that Fedor Emelianenko is fighting in two weeks. Yes, Fedor is fighting in two weeks and nobody is talking about it. That should tell you all you need to know.

Walker is great and drew some solid curiosity as he made the media rounds for his first fight. We'll know how much curiosity he generated for this fight when the ratings come in, but as of right now, it's not looking good.

SBN coverage of Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg

UFC Fight for the Troops 2 is in the books and it's time to take a look at what's next for the main card winners from Saturday's show in Fort Hood, Texas.

Obviously, Mark Hominick earned a one-way ticket to Toronto to face UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo following his destruction of George Roop, so we'll take a look at the other four main card winners.

Melvin Guillard: Guillard impressively knocked out Evan Dunham in under three minutes Saturday, moving his win streak to four in a row. Guillard seems like a different fighter these days. It's no coincidence these changes have come about since he started training with Greg Jackson's camp in New Mexico. Guillard might be the most powerful striker in the UFC lightweight division, but his ground game remains a giant question mark. Of his eight career losses, seven have come by submission, including all four of his UFC losses. He needs to be tested in his next fight with a strong grappler. The lightweight division is quite clogged right now. You'd have to think Anthony Pettis would get a title shot if he beats Clay Guida. Then there's Jim Miller and George Sotiropoulos, not to mention Guida should he beat Pettis. All these fighters are solidly "in the mix." With the timing being what it is, I think Guillard should fight either Sotiropoulos or Miller next. Joe Silva has his work cut out for him with this division during the next 18 months.

Matt Mitrione: There is no doubt Mitrione is constantly improving. His age, though, is going to be the only thing holding him back as time wears on. He is not a spring chicken and is getting a baptism by fire in the UFC heavyweight division. His list of opponents thus far have not exactly been the "who's who" of the heavyweight division. The UFC has an interesting dilemma on its hands in regards to Mitrione. He's got a sort of wacky charisma that endears him to people and has some decent, but rudimentary, skills. Having won four in a row, does the UFC continue to treat Mitrione with kid gloves or do they feed him to a heavyweight? If the UFC wants to do something interesting, they'll pair him up with the returning Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in Brazil in August. If not, if Christian Morecraft beats Sean McCorkle at UFC Fight Night 24 in March, that'd be good.

Pat Barry: Watching Barry against Joey Beltran was slightly infuriating. Outside of the devastating leg kicks, Barry really didn't do a whole lot. He's shown a complete lack of killer instinct in his last two fights despite having both his opponents on the ropes. It's tough to peg an opponent for Barry at this point. He'd have a real tough time with any wrestler, so fighters like Jon Madsen or Mike Russow are probably out of the question. I'd be real interested in hearing who everyone here thinks Barry should fight. The only thing I can see is Mark Hunt if he beats Chris Tuchscherer at UFC 127 next month.

Matt Wiman: Wiman completely humbled and dominated Cole Miller on Saturday, earning his third straight win following a two-fight losing streak. There's one fight out there that makes total sense for Wiman: a bout with Mac Danzig to rematch their controversial UFC 115 fight which was stopped prematurely when Wiman had Danzig in a guillotine choke in the first round. Referee Yves Lavigne stepped in, thinking Danzig was out but he was anything but. Danzig is coming off a big knockout win at UFC 124 against Joe Stevenson, so this is an extremely prudent fight right now.

SBN coverage of UFC Fight for the Troops 2 

Melvin Guillard was impressive Saturday night at UFC Fight for the Troops 2.

Guillard stopped Evan Dunham's hype train by knocking him out less than three minutes into the first round, picking up his fourth straight win and upping his record to 6-1 in his latest UFC stint.

Following his decimation of Dunham, Guillard said he wants a crack at the UFC lightweight championship in 2011 or 2012. Well, to keep doing that, Guillard is going to have to keep winning fights, something that is easier said than done in the UFC lightweight division.

No doubt, Guillard was impressive, but does he have what it takes to compete at the upper level of the division? Despite competing in nearly 40 fights so far in his career, Saturday's win over Dunham probably was the best of his career. Each time Guillard has faced a name fighter in the UFC, he's lost. He's going to have to string together at least three more wins against top-flight talent before the UFC considers him for a title shot.

If the UFC is considering him for a title shot in the future following this fight, they need to put Guillard in there with fighters who have some serious grappling chops. It's no secret Guillard has had trouble when solid grapplers have taken him to the ground. All four of his UFC losses have come by way of submission, three of them in the first round. That's a serious hole in his game that hopefully is being addressed. If he can overcome that, he stands a chance.

Guillard's speed, power and athleticism make him a threat to anybody in the division on the feet, but the lightweight division is one built mostly around wrestlers and submission fighters. That does not bode well for Guillard moving forward if he hasn't addressed his deficiencies. However, I suspect he is improving in those areas just based on the fact he now is training with Greg Jackson and crew in New Mexico.

It will be interesting to see where the UFC heads with Guillard in the future. A fight with a strong grappler would be prudent for Guillard's next bout.

Is anybody else excited for the UFC's first featherweight championship fight?

I, for one, am extremely excited to see Jose Aldo make the inaugural defense of his UFC featherweight title when he meets newly-minted No. 1 contender Mark Hominick, likely at "UFC 129: St. Pierre vs. Shields" on April 30 in Toronto.

Hominick earned his title shot with an impressive first-round TKO victory over George Roop on Saturday at UFC Fight for the Troops 2, hurting the 6-foot-1 Roop several times before finishing him against the cage.

The win is Hominick's fifth in a row.

Now, Hominick gets the toughest test of his career when he meets the undisputed No. 1 featherweight in the world in Aldo, a man riding an 11-fight winning streak, not to mention two dominating defenses of his WEC featherweight title against former champion Urijah Faber and Manny Gamburyan.

Even though Aldo has run through all his competition in the WEC, Hominick will present Aldo with his toughest test to date. In front of what should undoubtedly be a UFC record crowd at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Hominick will stand in front of Aldo and present something to him that he hasn't seen in a while: A proficient, technical striker.

We know Aldo is a tremendous fighter and extremely technical himself, but he has yet to face someone as good standing as Hominick and that should be interesting to watch. While this should be a very interesting technical battle on the feet, it will be interesting to see if either fighter will look to take it to the ground. Aldo has a good ground game, albeit mainly untested, but Hominick is a decent offensive grappler. However, Aldo could potentially exploit Hominick's porous defensive grappling and submit him. Or he could keep it standing and leg kick him into oblivion like he did to Faber.

Aldo likely will enter the fight a heavy favorite, but Hominick should not be counted out. He's never been stopped with punches in his career(although he was knocked out by a slam) and is a very tough fighter who has a lot of skills. Will they be enough to hang with Aldo? Time will tell. Right now, though, I'm looking forward to that one more than the main event of Georges St. Pierre and Jake Shields.

This will be the most important training camp of Hominick's career. He and his camp need to do some elite film work on Aldo and look to exploit every possible hole they can find. Hominick's going to need every advantage he can find once that cage door locks. If Hominick comes in poorly prepared, he might as well not even enter the Octagon that night. For Hominick, he can increase his chances of a win in this fight in preparation.

Whatever happens that night, we're going to see two elite featherweight strikers go in and do battle. It should be fun. A fight most fitting of the first-ever UFC featherweight title bout.

I've certainly been critical of Strikeforce and Showtime for their handling of the women's division in the past (see here, here and here), but with it now being January and neither of Strikeforce's women's champions having fights, the question has to be asked: What has happened to Strikeforce's women's divisions?

The company's middleweight champion, Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos hasn't been seen or heard from since beating the overmatched Jan Finney in June. The same goes for welterweight champion Marloes Coenen, who has been MIA since knocking off the previously undefeated Sarah Kaufman to capture the title in October.

No. 1 welterweight contender Miesha Tate has been sitting on the sidelines since August after winning a one night, four-woman tournament. What's even worse is that there isn't really even a No. 1 middleweight contender since Strikeforce has run exactly two, yes two, women's middleweight bouts since Cyborg last defended her title. The top contender, by default, appears to be Amanda Nunes after she knocked out Julia Budd earlier this month.

The pattern of disrespect has been clear and is only going to get worse with Strikeforce focusing on its Heavyweight Grand Prix for the foreseeable future.

You can say this about a lot of Strikeforce fighters, but it holds true even more so for the women: What's the point of having them under contract if you can't get them fights?

The prime athletic years of these women are being wasted away by a promotion that clearly doesn't have their best interests at heart. What's the point of having one women's division, let alone two, when you do nothing with them? I'm certainly glad these fighters have a place to call home, but if you're going to constantly disrespect them, why not just scrap the divisions and let them go elsewhere? I hate even saying that, but it's almost like, "what's the point?"

Strikeforce doesn't run enough shows to justify having seven weight classes. I mean, the company only ran eight non-Challengers shows in 2010. That's it. Eight. Either Strikeforce needs to run more big shows or it needs to think about cutting weight classes.

Strikeforce has its problems. We know this. But this problems seem to impact the female fighters much more than the male fighters. There's no chance to take a fight in DREAM for the women. Really, Strikeforce's two women's divisions really boil down to four fighters: Cyborg, Coenen, Tate and Kaufman. That's it. Think about that. Strikeforce is running two weight classes with three fighters in one and a single viable fighter in the other. It doesn't even make sense.

To me, it almost seems like Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker is biding his time with the divisions and putting all his eggs in one basket in hopes that Gina Carano comes back and "saves the division." That will be a miserable failure because I can't see her ever coming back.

This is becoming a broken record. Strikeforce and Showtime need to s--- or get off the pot with their women's divisions. Enough is enough.

My colleague Anthony Pace wrote yesterday that he feels the announced format for the upcoming Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix doesn't affect the intrigue of the tournament.

For the most part, he's right. It's still a fine tournament, no doubt, with many talented fighters, but, like many things Strikeforce does, it simply could be better.

I agree with Pace that you don't want each fight to be a five-round fight. This is a television entity and we've seen what events with multiple five-round snoozefests have done. The UFC went through it with three of them at UFC 33 and Strikeforce went through it with its "Strikeforce: Nashville" event last year.

However, I don't agree with Pace on the following point:

... It would have been patently unfair to have Overeem-or whomever defeated him-train for/participate in fights that could go 25 minutes.

Pace went on to talk about how Mauricio Rua's 2005 PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix title wasn't cheapened by PRIDE's middleweight title not being on the line. That's partly a valid point, but that's taking an American point-of-view on it. Obviously, PRIDE didn't value its championships all that much. PRIDE's champions rarely defended their titles and fought in more nontitle fights than title fights. That's why that wasn't a big deal to anybody at the time.

America, though, is completely different. American MMA is a belt-driven sport. The belt proves you're the best in the world. By not having the championship defended in this tournament, Strikeforce cheapens the value of its heavyweight title and, if Alistair Overeem loses, runs the risk of having its heavyweight champion perceived as second rate because he's not even the best in his own company.

That's what this is all about: Perception. Say both Overeem and Fedor Emelianenko win their first round fights and meet in the semifinals and CBS comes calling, isn't being able to bill their fight as a world heavyweight championship fight much better? That's what draws viewers in America. Titles. That's why the UFC's pay-per-views with title fights draw much, much better than their nontitle counterparts.

To me, this is a tournament in name only. What it really is is a highly-organized series of fights. That's why the belt should be on the line. It makes those fights better and by the time the tournament is over, the fans know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Strikeforce's heavyweight champion is the best heavyweight in the world. It makes the fighter look better and makes the promotion look more major league.

This grand prix is Strikeforce's chance to make a big impact. Strikeforce has the chance to raise its relatively low profile. By not having the championship on the line just doesn't make any sense. If these athletes were being asked to fight twice in one night, I could completely understand not wanting to give a competitive advantage to the fighters in the nontitle semifinal bout. But that's not the case here. There's only one fight per show for each fighter. Being asked to train for a five-round fight shouldn't be too much to ask. You're the champion and moreover, you're a professional athlete. 

Strikeforce needs all the help it can get. Having the heavyweight title on the cards adds a promotional edge (remember, it's all about perception) and then, at the end, Strikeforce can say its heavyweight champion is the top heavyweight in the world.

It's been proven time and time again that MMA is all about perception. Right now, with the heavyweight title not being on the line, Strikeforce is losing the battle with perception.

These fights are still going to be good, no doubt, and this is a very exciting development for Strikeforce, but the execution is disappointing.