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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Three years after doctor's stopped their first fight due to cuts after the first round, Nick Diaz earned his victory over K.J. Noons on Saturday night in San Jose on Showtime. After five rounds spent entirely in the striking game, Diaz took a unanimous decision with scores of 48-47, 49-47 and 49-46.
The fight started out well for Diaz, as he worked his jab and reach effectively and got the better of exchanges in the first round to give him a lead to start off. Noons came back and pressed the action in the second to take the clearest round of the fight for him.
The action stayed extremely even through the third, fourth and fifth rounds, but it was Diaz that seemed to be lighting Noons up throughout those rounds and landing more often and in better spots than Noons. Noons did do some damage to Diaz in the fight, bloodying him up in similar fashion to their first fight, but he didn't fight with any sense of urgency as the fight wound down, allowing Diaz to take over and ride out a decision.
Both fighters showed off great chins in the fight, each taking combinations and hard punches on the button and fighting through it all. In the end, despite being outstruck overall in the fight, Diaz did enough to take at least three rounds on all of the judges scorecards, and he held onto his Championship with the unanimous decision.
Announcer Mauro Ranallo sold the fight after as one of the "greatest five round title fights in history" and tried to push for a rubber match between the two. Whether that is next on the plate for both remains to be seen, but Diaz for now still remains on top of the 170 lb. division in Strikeforce.
Penick's Analysis: This fight was highly entertaining, but nowhere near the "instant classic" Ranallo was trying to sell it as. The numbers for the fight are insane, as the two combined for nearly 1,000 punches thrown and over 500 strikes landed. Noons outstruck Diaz 310-194, but the numbers themselves didn't tell the whole story in this one. It was definitely an entertaining all-striking fight, and better than a similar fight between Chris Lytle and Matt Serra last month because the technical proficiency of the strikers in this one was much higher. Paul Daley may get the next shot depending on what he does against Scott Smith in December, but right now it's too early to speculate.
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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