Strikeforce Payouts: Diaz V Daley

Some four days after the main event this past Saturday in Strikeforce's latest card, we saw some fighters walk away with impressive performances.

Melendez dismantled Kawajiri in the first round. The referee, Cecil Peoples stepped in as Melendez was in Kawajiri's open guard administering a barrage of elbows.

Diaz also successfully defends his title against the British striker Paul Daley. Another first round TKO for the local Skrap Pack left those who are not fans of the family from the 209 with bitter tastes in their mouths.

Zuffa released the payroll for the fighter's and it sure varies by a whole lot. Check out the main event and then compare it to the opening bout of the card. Fair? That's your call.

Nick Diaz: $175,000 (no win bonus)
def. Paul Daley: $65,000

Gilbert Melendez: $150,000 (no win bonus)
def. Tatsuya Kawajiri: $97,612.50

Gegard Mousasi: $150,000
drew Keith Jardine: $25,000

Shinya Aoki: $73,637.50 (no win bonus)
def. Lyle Beerbohm: $10,000

Robert Peralta: $4,000 (includes $2,000 win bonus)
def. Hiroyuki Takaya: $2,740

Virgil Zwicker: $3,000 ($1,000 win bonus)
def. Brett Albee: $1,000

Joe Duarte: $2,000 ($1,000 win bonus)
def. Saad Awad: $1,500

Herman Terrado: $1,500 ($500 win bonus)
def. A.J. Matthews: $1,000

Rolando Perez: $3,000 ($1,000 win bonus)
def. Tom Peterson: $1,000

Casey Ryan: $2,000 ($1,000 win bonus)
def. Paul Song: $750

Gilbert Melendez Talks

Gilbert Melendez talks about his upcoming fight, thoughts on the Diaz V Daley fight, UFC/Strikefroce merger and his opinion on the UFC lightweight division.

Chael Chillin' in the 209

Pictured is Chael Sonnen and Nick Thompson on either side of Jake Shields (second from left, rear). The AJJ (American Jiu Jitsu) blackbelt has called in help from the two elite wrestlers for help in his upcoming bout April 30th in Ontario, Canada against the current UFC Welterweight Champion, Georges St. Pierre.

It looks like Chael has either put on some weight in the lack of his fights lately, or walks around as an unusually large human being. Nonetheless he will make a great addition to the arsenal of Shields' weapons come fight night.

Pictured also is Gilbert Melendez getting ready for his bout against Tatsuya Kawijiri April 9th in San Diego, putting his Strikeforce Lightweight belt on the line.

Back right with the fist is Nathan Diaz, the younger brother to Nick, the current Strikeforce Welterweight champ. He is getting prepared for his fight against the 21 year old Canadian, Rory MacDonald also in UFC 129 on April 30th.

Paul Daley Signs on Dotted Line

Since the recent acquisition of Strikeforce underneath the Zuffa banner, the Nick Diaz, Paul Daley fight got interesting. Paul Dley was released by the UFC back in 2010 following his post-fight punch directed towards Josh Koscheck. Dana White went on record stating that Paul Daley would never fight in the UFC again. Well, much like Rashad this last weekend in the cage with Jones, "Well, I guess you should never say never."

Paul Daley since hearing of the purchase began to run his mouth on the blogs and internet saying he would back out of the April 9th fight for the Strikeforce Welterweight title because he refused to 'fight for' Dana White and 'make himand Zuffa money'. Rumors began swirling around the underground about who would replace Daley on a few weeks notice. The threat left some wondering if the UFC might put one of their own fighters into the Strikeforce bout if need be.

All was silenced yesterday afternoon when Nick Diaz's trainer and manager, Cesar Gracie confirmed that on Tuesday afternoon, Paul Daley signed the contract to fight. The two will be headlining a stacked card that is still yet to be completed, although four total fights have been signed. The co-main event sees Gilbert Melendez defending his lightweight title against Tatsuya Kawajiri, Gegard Mousasi takes on quickly rising Mike Pyle, and in a battle of the 'fancy pants fighters', Shinya Aoki battle Lyle Beerbohm.

DALEY ON DIAZ...AGAIN

Paul Daly continued his tirade on local boy Nick Diaz. The Stockton, CA native will be putting his title on the line in the main even Saturday April 9th in sunny San Diego. He was recently interviewed by MMA HQ and went on record making predictions about the fight and his personal opinion on the Strikeforce 'heel' persona that Diaz has take on over the years due to his no love loss attitude and inside cage antics, with his lowest point being the Nashville Strikeforce brawl involving Jason Miller, Jake Shields, and Gilbert Melendez.

Here are some quotes from the interview, the full one can be read here


Do you honestly think that Nick Diaz will stand up with you?

There’s no way he’ll stand up with me. He might think he wants to but his coaches won’t allow it; Cesar Gracie’s a great coach and he won’t want him trading punches.

Do you ever want to fight back in the UFC or do you just want to fight?
I just want to fight against decent competition and be able to live the life of a fighter and pay my bills. The thing is there’s a lot of great fighters in different organisations and the UFC doesn’t have such a stranglehold on all the best talent.
It’s great for fighters who want to fight often against good guys and maybe don’t want to fight in the UFC.