Strikeforce champ Nick Diaz signs multi-year contract extension | MMAjunkie.com
Strikeforce champ Nick Diaz signs multi-year contract extension
by MMAjunkie.com Staff on Dec 28, 2010 at 4:35 pm ET
Strikeforce welterweight champion and potential free agent Nick Diaz (23-7 MMA, 4-0 SF) will not test the open market.
Strikeforce officials today announced that the popular and sometimes controversial Diaz has signed a new multi-year agreement with Strikeforce.
"I'm looking forward to continuing my career with Strikeforce," Diaz stated in today's release.
Diaz debuted for Strikeforce in the main event of the April 2009 event "Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Diaz." Diaz earned a second-round TKO over Shamrock, and the California native hasn't looked back since.
Diaz has ripped through Strikeforce's welterweight division with one-sided wins over K.J. Noons and Scott Smith, and he's also handled a Lithuanian import in Marius Zaromskis, as well as a trip to Japan to face Hayato "Mach" Sakurai.
Diaz has earned eight straight wins overall, and many MMA pundits had wondered aloud if the Strikeforce welterweight champ might take his services elsewhere. Diaz said he's happy with the quality of opposition Strikeforce has been able to schedule for him.
"When I first got here, there weren't a lot of great 170-pound fighters for me to fight, but that's definitely changed," Diaz stated. "There's a lot of really good fighters in the division now, and I'm ready to fight anyone who thinks they can beat me."
Diaz's next fight is in the main event of January's "Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg" event, where he'll face Brazilian striker Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos.
That's too bad, I was really hoping to see him in the UFC.