(George Galanis is an MMA fan and regular BPL contibutor.)

Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz and challenger Paul Daley began their title fight like two men who had no idea that the bout was scheduled for five rounds. In one of the best one-round fights in the history of mixed martial arts, Nick Diaz and Paul Daley pummelled each other for just under five minutes of back-and-forth action.

The pace Diaz and Daley set early on made it clear that neither had any intention of going the distance, as both men took turns dropping each other to the mat with blistering punches throughout the first round.

While Diaz was able to recover from an early scare, Daley was not. He collapsed to the canvas in the final minute and was quickly finished off by several more right hands from Diaz, bringing a halt to the bout at 4:57 of round one.

"I just come to fight," said Diaz at the post-fight conference. "Whatever happens out there, happens."

Diaz maintained that he was never really hurt by any of Daley's punches - not even when he was dropped face first onto the mat - but was merely "off-balance" and content to wait it out until he got his legs back.

"I'm probably better off down there anyway than standing up when I'm knocked off balance like that, until I get my footing. If I go down, I go down. What are you going to do down there? He couldn't hit me once I was down there."

Diaz began the fight in typical fashion, holding his hands out to his side and taunting Daley from the opening seconds, practically begging Daley to hit him. Daley obliged, knocked Diaz down and appeared to have Diaz in trouble for a moment in the first minute of the first round, although Diaz recovered nicely.

As for his decision to stand and trade punches with the British slugger rather than take the fight to the mat, Diaz insisted that, at least to his way of thinking, that was the smart game plan. When fighting an opponent who puts a lot of stock in his own punching power, Diaz said, "you have to welcome it and not run from it."

The victory was Diaz's 10th in a row, and his third consecutive title defence. Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker suggested that Diaz would get a rest before his next fight, but hinted that up-and-coming welterweight Tyron Woodley could be the next challenger for Diaz's title.