Saturday's Strikeforce event from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis could easily be considered a success. Of the five main card fights, three of the matchups ended via a finish while one of the two decision bouts was surprisingly entertaining. The lone hiccup on the card was the matchup between Kevin Randleman and Mike Whitehead in which both fighters showed very little or no striking acumen, and Kevin Randleman looked like a tiny shell of his fomer self.

While many of the evening's matchups produced surprising results, Nick Diaz's boxing clinic on Scott Smith's face was one of the more impressive displays of using peppering jabs to set up huge blows. Interestingly enough, some fans complained about Diaz's gameplan going into past fights in which he tried to implement the same type of gameplan. Matchups with KJ Noons and Mike Aina proved to be much tougher than Diaz had anticipated, but the Aina fight was a mixed reaction from fans. We heard a lot of fans talking about Diaz's inability to finish a lower echelon fighter like Aina, and Diaz's odd gameplan of peppering Aina with solid jabs. The problem was that some fans believed Diaz could have simply taken it to the ground repeatedly and won, or tried to wind up some bigger blows to crumple Aina early in the fight.

In retrospect, Aina may have simply had a much better chin, or Diaz needed to continue honing his skills. In any case, we are beginning to see a Nick Diaz that is evolving in his striking game. His defense is improving, but the improvement in his overall IQ on his feet is very underestimated. In his last two fights, his bread and butter has come from the incredibly effective combinations of stiff jabs, hooks, and gut-busting strikes. In the Smith fight, the combinations of left-right combos coupled with heavy gut shots completely frustrated and broke down Scott Smith.

The difference between a Nick Diaz a few years ago and a Nick Diaz of today is that Diaz was able to dodge those huge overhands with ease while he was actually caught by those punches in the past. Chalk that up to better defense, speedy hands, and a continued onslaught of punches that have opponents wondering how they can even risk trying to throw a haymaker.

The other impressive feat of the evening came with the Compustrike stats. Diaz threw 397 punches over the course of the entire matchup, landing 52% (207) of his strikes. Smith only threw 93 total strikes, landing 33% (31) of his strikes. In the second round, it was indicated that Diaz threw potentially over 220+ strikes within the round. This is unbelievable for a mixed martial artist, and it goes to show that Diaz's conditioning to continue the barrage of blows throughout the fight is astounding. Not only was Smith seeing a flurry of punches for most of the fight, but Diaz was essentially hitting him with every other punch accurately.

As our own Michael Rome wrote earlier this weekend, the UFC needs to sign Nick Diaz when the chance comes up. At only 25 years of age, Diaz has a lot of time to continue evolving. He has the abrasive personality to create hype for his matchups, and he has the skills to compete with the top welterweights in the world. Diaz's boxing clinic on Scott Smith was just another reason why fans should want to see more of Nick Diaz.

Photo by Esther Lin via Showtime.