Brett “The Grim” Rogers lands a vicious knee before finishing Humphrey with a right hand to the head. Rogers is 3-0 on SHOWTIME following Saturday’s 2nd round (1:38) KO.

Cris “Cyborg” overpowered Hitomi Akano en route to a 3rd round (:35) TKO

In what may be Fight of the Year, Scott “Hands of Steel” Smith scores a crushing right hand on Benji “The Razor” Radach to finish what was an all-out slugfest in the 3rd round of middleweight action.

Smith withstood devastating strikes through two rounds to score an impressive comeback. He was overcome with exhaustion following the stoppage.

Gilbert “El Nino” Melendez put Rodrigo Damm to sleep with a right hand in the 2nd round (2:02). Melendez’s victory earned him the Interim Strikeforce World Lightweight Championship and a future meeting with Strikeforce World Lightweight Champion Josh “The Punk” Thomson.

Nick Diaz dominates MMA legend Frank Shamrock with his boxing skills and outstanding endurance. Diaz stopped Shamrock in the 2nd round of the evening’s main event.

MMA superstar Gina Carano, on hand to watch potential future opponent Cris Cyborg, refused a SHOWTIME interview to show respect for the ladies in the cage.

A crowd of 15,211 rocked the HP Pavilion for a night of scintillating MMA action.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (April 12, 2009) – Mixed martial arts made a smashing return to premium network television Saturday with a scintillating fight card that featured heaps of strikes, kicks, drama, unbelievable comebacks and a brilliant, poised, victorious performance by Nick Diaz.

In a dominant outing in which he was in control throughout, Diaz (19-7, 1 NC) of Stockton, Calif., made good on his vow, and impressively knocked out legendary MMA pioneer and local favorite Frank Shamrock before an enthusiastic crowd of 15,211 at HP Pavilion.

A Cesar Gracie Jiu-Jitsu black belt, Diaz took apart Shamrock with seeming ease. He whipped Shamrock on the ground and at the veteran’s game – on the feet. The fight was stopped at 3:57 of the second round with Diaz reigning punches with both hands on a fallen, helpless Shamrock.

At times, Diaz seemed to be toying, even mocking Shamrock. Twice, Diaz, who was moving up to compete at a catch-weight 179 pounds, took side-control, a dominant position, but Shamrock fought his way out on both occasions.

Shamrock (24-9-2), however, could not get inside Diaz’ long reach and wound up getting pummeled. How bad a night was it for the hometown favorite? Shamrock may not have even won the battle of introductions in a fight in his hometown.

Shamrock will be back, though, he says, and so, of course, will Diaz.

In other televised fights, former Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez captured the interim Strikeforce lightweight championship with a second-round knockout over Rodrigo Damm, Scott Smith rallied from the brink of defeat to register a stunning third-round knockout over Benji Radach in a brutal battle of determined, heavy-handed middleweights, Cris "Cyborg" Santos knocked out Hitomi Akano in the third round of a women’s match and Brett Rogers scored a crowd-pleasing second-round TKO over "Abongo" Humphrey in a hard-fought matchup of unbeaten heavyweights

The event, the initial collaboration between Showtime Networks Inc. and Strikeforce, aired live simultaneously on SHOWTIME and on the World Wide Web (Strikeforce: All Access) at http://strikeforce.sho.com. The SHOWTIME telecast aired at 10 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the west coast); the Strikeforce: All Access webcast went at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT.

“I used to train with Frank so it’s not like I could hate the guy,’’ the triumphant Diaz said. “He's been doing what I want to do and saying what I want to say for a long time. It always feels good to win."

Said Shamrock, “I’m not done. I trained hard. All credit goes to Nick. He kicked my butt. But I am not done entertaining in this sport.’’

Melendez dominated Damm, finishing a late substitute for Strikeforce 155-pound world champion Josh Thomson, at 2:02 of the second round.

“Josh is the true champion but I definitely want to fight him again,’’ Melendez said. “I lost fair and square the first fight. I know I can do better.’’

The spectacular slugfest between Smith (17-5, 1 NC) of Elk Grove, Calif., and Radach (19-5) of Irvine, Calif., may have been the fight of the night – if not the year.

After a wildly exciting, close first round in which both were battered, bruised and knocked down, Radach almost finished Smith in the second. But Smith connected with a perfect right hook and that, for all intents and purposes was that.

“I had counted myself out,’’ said Smith, who had lost the first two rounds on all the scorecards, including a 10-8 second round on one of them. “There was no way I wanted to come out for the third round. But I felt I owed it to Benji and the fans so I did.’’

Said a disappointed Radach: “Damn, I really wanted this one and thought I had him. It was going so good. I hope they give something (money) for fight of the night because it would be tough to top that fight. Scott came out strongly in the third. Obviously, I should have played it better than I did.’’

Brazil’s Cyborg (7-1) had an easy time with out-sized Akano (14-6) of Japan, winning by third-round knockout. The ref halted the one-sided action at 0:35 of the round.

“I feel very bad I did not make the weight,’’ said the naturally bigger and stronger Cyborg, who towered over the shorter, smaller Akano.

Cyborg weighed in six pounds over the contracted limit but lost two pounds so the fight was allowed to go on. “This will never happen again,’’ she said. “I want to be the best women’s fighter in the world. Yes, of course, I want to fight Gina (Carano) next.’’

In the telecast’s first bout, Rogers, of St. Paul, Minn., improved to 9-0 and 3-0 on SHOWTIME with a hard-fought 1:38, second-round TKO (knees and punches) over Atlanta’s Humphrey (12-1).

“The only thing surprising about this fight is that I was not surprised how tough he was,’’ Rogers said. “I knew he wasn’t going to be a one hit and done type of guy. He was undefeated. I expected this kind of fight. There were lots of starts and stops in my training which may have affected me a little but I am not making excuses. I am very happy with this victory and ready to fight anybody,’’

Rogers had a point deducted during a give-and-take first round that featured numerous exchanges of punches and knees for holding Humphrey’s hair and hitting. “Believe me, it wasn’t intentional,’’ Roger said. “He needs to cut his hair.’’