This Saturday night Strikeforce welterweight champ Nick Diaz (23-7, 1NC) will defend his title for a second time when he meets Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos in the main event of Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg at the HP Pavilion in San Jose.
At Thursday’s pre-fight press conference the two fighters, plus the rest of the four fight televised Showtime card, had a chance to sit down in front of the press to talk about their upcoming fights.
Diaz reaped praise on his opponent saying the Brazilian would have had more success long ago if he’d dropped to 170 lbs sooner.
“Cyborg” recently made the move from 185 lbs in his last fight by handily defeating Marius Žaromskis last June at Strikeforce: Los Angeles, by finishing his opponent in the first round by TKO.
“I think he’s a great fighter. He’s better than the other guys they had in line. I think maybe he should have been fighting at 170 pounds a long time ago. He would have beat some name fighters and we would have seen some more of him…He was in there fighting with heavier guys who were throwing him down. They were a little bit too big for him. The way I see it, I’m too big for him, and then these guys were really too big for him and they threw him down. Otherwise, he’d be just as popular as anybody out here. I think he’s a unique fighter. He fights the way he fights. It’s hard to find a lot of guys who will do that, and fight the way he fights. But I’ve trained with some of the best people,”
HT: MMAFighting.com