Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Strikeforce Fights

1 Nick Diaz vs. Paul Daley, Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley

Diaz-Daley is widely considered the greatest one-round fight in MMA history, and it tops our list here, garnering seven of nine first-place votes. Personally, I had it third. It also perfectly bookends our Diaz chronology, with the No. 10 entry being Diaz's fourth fight in Strikeforce, the No. 8 entry his fifth, and the top entry being his sixth and final appearance in the promotion, ending with a perfect 6-0 record and three title defenses. His opponent offered a unique challenge. Diaz's striking was certainly effective, but it was unorthodox and to some extent sloppy. He had proved that it was good enough to overcome a talented, more technical boxer in K.J. Noons in a close five round fight, which we discussed earlier on this list, but what about an actual world-class kickboxer in Daley? Daley had long had a weakness to grappling, but absolutely no one dared to stand up and strike with him. Since being kicked out of the UFC for punching Josh Koscheck after the end of a fight he lost via decision, Daley had won four in a row, including a brutal two-minute knockout of Scott Smith and a decision over Jorge Masvidal. Smith and Masvidal were very good strikers by the standards of 2010 but neither had a chance against Daley. Moreover, given that Nick Diaz's takedowns were weak and barely bothered Noons, how would he be able to grapple against Daley? Surely, he wasn't going to stand with the superlative striker. However, that is exactly what Stockton's finest did. In fact, Diaz began the fight with his hands to the side, taunting the hyper-dangerous Daley to hit him. Shortly thereafter, his wish came true, as Daley sprung forward with a gorgeous left hook, perhaps the best such punch in MMA history, connecting flush. A second left hook caused the titanium-chinned Diaz to crash to the canvas, very nearly finished. Diaz showed amazing recuperative powers to survive, though Daley continued blasting him with punches, knees, and even a brutal soccer kick to the kidneys as Diaz was trying to get his bearings on the ground. Suddenly, Diaz scored a deadly accurate straight left, hurting Daley and allowing Diaz to clinch with him against the fence, landing knees and dirty boxing. Diaz backed up and then smashed Daley with hooks from both sides, and suddenly, it was the Englishman on the ropes! Kickboxer Daley surprisingly panic-wrestled and it bore fruit, as he secured a much-needed takedown. Diaz got up and bashed Daley with another hard straight left. He continued his assault, but Daley countered with hard left hooks, getting a measure of breathing room. Diaz clinched and assaulted Daley with elbows, only to once again eat a hard left hook. Daley landed a beautiful 1-2 to Diaz's chin followed by a knee, and incredibly, the Stockton native simply walked through it. However, he got too overconfident, since he soon walked into Daley's most murderous left hook yet, one that caused Diaz's legs to immediately give out, doing a belly flop on the canvas. Surely, this was the end? And yet, Diaz kept fighting. After absorbing a ridiculous amount of ground-and-pound, he somehow made it back to his feet, and in defiance of all reason, continued his attack against Daley. Once again Daley countered him hard, prompting Diaz to stumble back, but Diaz's punches had done their damage, as the Englishmen fell over when he tried to come forward. Diaz was on him immediately and brutalized him with ground-and-pound as the last few seconds of the round tick away. With just three seconds left, referee Big John McCarthy decided to stop it. The crowd doesn't yell any louder for this, as they had already been in a frenzy for the entire fight. This may have only lasted 4:57, but it had more twists and turns, excitement, and brutal blows than fights several times as long.