Nick Diaz (21-7) of Stockton, Calif., won his sixth straight and the first-ever Strikeforce welterweight championship with a 4:38, first-round TKO over Marius Zaromskis (13-4) of London, England, and the first and only Strikeforce Female lightweight champion, Cris Cyborg (9-1) of Curitiba, Brazil, successfully defended her 145-title for the initial time with a third-round TKO over Marloes Coenen (17-4) of Deventer, Holland, in the co-featured matches of an action-packed mixed martial arts card before 8,156 in attendance.

In other results, the first event in 2010, former pro and college football superstar Herschel Walker of San Jose, Calif., made his pro MMA debut at age 47 a winning one, registering a third-round TKO (2:17) over Hungarian-born Greg Nagy (1-2) of Phoenix, Arizona. Former two-time world champion "Ruthless'' Robbie Lawler (17-5, 1 NC) of Granite City, Ill., rallied from the brink of defeat to score a spectacular 3:33, first-round knockout (punches) over Melvin Manhoef (24-7-1) of Amsterdam and unbeaten Bobby Lashley of Coconut Creek, Fla., won his Strikeforce debut and improved to 5-0 with a 2:06, first-round TKO over Wes Sims (22-13-1, 2 NC) of Lancaster, Ohio.

Jay Heiron (19-4) of Las Vegas took a unanimous three-round decision over Joe Riggs (32-11) of Phoenix to put him in position to possibly fight for the Strikeforce welterweight title.

Southpaw Diaz, a talented, Cesar Gracie Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, mostly outclassed Zaromskis in the match for the vacant world title. Diaz decisively defeated the Dutchman at his own game: striking.

"I'll fight anybody,'' said Diaz, who has been victorious in seven of his last eight and hasn't lost in more than two years. I felt real good fighting again at 170. But the guy I really want is Gegard Mousasi.''

Cyborg had to work hard to defeat the courageous Coenen, who at no point seemed intimidated by the powerful Brazilian bomber and fought like it. She certainly wasn't totally overwhelmed and presented Cyborg with more problems than the vast majority of Cyborg's opponents.

In the end, Cyborg was too tough and rough. "I'm very happy to win this fight,'' said Cyborg shortly the heated scrap was stopped at 3:40 of the third. "It was a good fight. I think I could have done more but she was the toughest fighter I've faced and has a great heart. I admire her a lot.''

Coenen, a strikingly attractive submission whiz who couldn't take down Cyborg, wanted the fight to continue. "This is extremely disappointing to say the least,'' she said. "This was for a world title. It should have been allowed to go a little longer. I wanted to fight.''

A native of Wrightsville, Ga., Walker was satisfied with his performance in his highly-anticipated, much-publicized debut. Endurance-wise, he didn't fight like a man his age. He was still breathing easily during the post-fight interview.

"I feel good but I didn't do many things right and I still have a lot to learn,'' said Walker, the 1982 Heisman Trophy winner and a two-time Pro Bowl competitor. "The experience itself was exciting and I thank my opponent for fighting me. It's tough to fight an old man. This is the hardest thing I've ever done.

"I thought I'd be more nervous. I'm an MMA fighter now. I earned a little bit of a stripe tonight. This is one of my biggest athletic achievements ever.''

Nothing was going right for the left-handed Lawler for more than three minutes as the highly regarded Manhoef had his way. But a...