The win helped extend a 10-fight win streak for Diaz which dates back to a controversial loss due to cuts when he fought KJ Noons back in the EliteXC days in 2007, though Nick has since avenged the loss by dominating Noons en route to a decision victory last October.

Now on the heels of his third title defense, Diaz has already fought three-times in the last six-months, and though he has looked ultra-impressive, head trainer Cesar Gracie believes that the best is yet to come. Time to give the champ a break.

“As far as Nick is concerned, I’m thinking about taking him off the schedule for a while, giving him some time off”, said Cesar during an interview with MiddleEasy.com, who were on scene for the action last weekend in San Diego.

The numbers show that Diaz is one of the most popular fighters on the strikeforce roster. Among the top-5 highest rated shows in the company’s history (broadcasted on Showtime), Nick has graced three of the five. His last outing with Daley peaked at over 806,000 viewers, which according to MMAJunkie.com, coincided with the main-event of the evening (Diaz and Daley).

So of course, why wouldn’t Strikeforce and Showtime want to keep Diaz busy? He’s arguably their biggest star on the roster. However, if Cesar, his trainer who doubles as his manager, has it his way—Diaz won’t be gracing the cage anytime soon, and will be taking a much deserved break from action.

“Even though he looked great out there, we’re not seeing the best Nick Diaz”, asserted Gracie.

“He never has anytime between fights. He’s just got a fight, another fight, and it’s training…it’s kind of tough. He needs to back up a little bit.”

So, MMA peeps, what do you think of the news? Should Diaz take a step back and watch the dust settle for the welterweight class? How did you think he performed last Saturday? Sound off in the comment section below.

Here’s the latest courtesy of an interview Mayhem did with the one and only Sherdog: “They’ve started spitting out, ‘Oh, 178.’ Meanwhile back at the ranch, Nick Diaz is saying, ‘I’ll fight middleweight. I’ll fight middleweight.’ OK, well, just not against me, right? … These guys don’t want to fight me… Let’s do it now. Stockton is a bunch of sissies… I’m at the table. I’m at the table with a plate of yams, sitting there ready to spank his ass, but he doesn’t want to come to the table. He wants to sit in his bedroom with Cesar Gracie and cuddle.”

I think the one thing you’ll never be able to say about Jason Miller is that he’s not entertaining. Wildly controversial? Sure. Probably insane? Probably. But he knows exactly what to say, when to say it, and how to use his words to keep his name in the public eye. Fighters like Chael Sonnen and Sean McCorkle pale in comparison to the golden nuggets of verbal awesomeness that flows freely from the mouth of Jason Miller.

But unfortunately, yet again I’m forced to state what has become increasingly obvious to everyone except Miller himself: Diaz gains nothing by fighting Jason Miller. It’s been over eight months since Jason Miller competed in Strikeforce, and who exactly did he beat? He beat Tim Stout, that’s how. Who is Tim Stout? I have utterly no clue. In his last Strikeforce fight, Miller didn’t even make the main card, he had to settle with highlights of his fight being shown on the televised portion of Strikeforce: “Nashville”.

Now, I understand that Miller just got done beating his idol Kazushi Sakuraba over in Japan, at the Japanese-based DREAM’s “DREAM.16” event. I did watch that fight, and I can freely admit that it was one of Miller’s best performances in years. The potential certainly is there for Miller’s career to take a dramatic upswing in 2011 and fully justify getting this much-talked about fight with Nick Diaz. But let’s be honest, fans and friends: fight fans have a short memory, and many don’t follow international promotions.

If Miller wants his shot at Diaz, he needs to swallow his pride and take an opponent in Strikeforce. At this point, anyone would suffice. Miller is welcome to keep the trash-talking at a fevered pitch, but ultimately, Miller is hurting himself and his career if he continues to sit on the sidelines rather than proving himself in the cage. Patience is a virtue, this is true, but in the fast-paced world of MMA, you’re here today and forgotten tomorrow. And I’d hate for that to happen to what I consider one of the most entertaining fighters currently fighting.

And what about you, fans and friends? What do you think Miller should do in order to finally secure a fight with Nick Diaz?

The 2009 event opened up to a large audience, and has become a propellant in the mixed martial arts world, opening up the eyes to a mainstream audience, by the community taking leaps and bounds in order to legitimize itself as not only a legitimate sport, but one that deserves that same sort of recognition that most others receive, here in these United States.

While some categories have changed, in order to be politically correct, must stay the same. Voting continues until November 26, where till then you can cast your votes online at All winners are determined by a fan vote, and ballots can be cast through Nov. 26 at www.worldmmaawards.com.

The full list, which was formatted by MMAJunkie.com, of finalists includes:

CHARLES “MASK” LEWIS FIGHTER OF THE YEAR

* Anderson Silva
* Brock Lesnar
* Frankie Edgar
* Jose Aldo
* Mauricio “Shogun” Rua

FIGHT OF THE YEAR

* Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen at UFC 117
* Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin at UFC 116
* Leonard Garcia vs. Chan Sung Jung at WEC 48
* Chris Leben vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 116
* Jorge Santiago vs. Kazuo Misaki at Sengoku 14

KO OF THE YEAR

* Anthony Njokuani vs. Chris Horodecki at WEC 45
* Cain Velasquez vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 110
* Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Lyoto Machida at UFC 113
* Mike Russow vs. Todd Duffee at UFC 114
* Rich Franklin vs. Chuck Liddell at UFC 115

SUBMISSION OF THE YEAR

* Matt Hughes vs. Ricardo Almeida at UFC 117
* Chris Leben vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 116
* Cole Miller vs. Dan Lauzon at UFC 108
* Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen at UFC 118
* Fabricio Werdum vs. Fedor Emelianenko at “Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum”

BEST PROMOTION

* Bellator
* DREAM
* Strikeforce
* UFC
* WEC

LEADING MAN OF THE YEAR

* Bjorn Rebney, Bellator founder and CEO
* Dana White, UFC president
* Joe Silva, UFC VP of talent relations
* Michael Schiavello, HDNet broadcaster
* Scott Coker, Strikeforce founder and CEO

INTERNATIONAL FIGHTER OF THE YEAR

* Alistair Overeem
* Dan Hardy
* George Sotiropoulos
* John Hathaway
* Shinya Aoki

BREAKTHROUGH FIGHTER OF THE YEAR

* Charles Oliveira
* Evan Dunham
* George Sotiropoulos
* John Hathaway
* Jon Jones

FEMALE FIGHTER OF THE YEAR

* Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos
* Megumi “Mega Megu” Fujii
* Miesha Tate
* Sarah Kaufman
* Zoila Frausto

COACH OF THE YEAR

* Cesar Gracie
* Firas Zahabi
* Greg Jackson
* Rafael Cordeiro
* Shawn Tompkins

GYM OF THE YEAR

* American Kickboxing Academy
* American Top Team
* Black House MMA
* Greg Jackson’s Submission Fighting
* Wand Fight Team

RING GIRL OF THE YEAR

* Arianny Celeste
* Brittney Palmer
* Chandella Powell
* Natalie Skyy
* Rachelle Leah

BEST LIFESTYLE CLOTHING BRAND

* Affliction
* Fight Chix
* RVCA
* Silverstar
* TapouT

REFEREE OF THE YEAR

* “Big” John McCarthy
* Dan Miragliotta
* Herb Dean
* Josh Rosenthal
* Mario Yamasaki

MOST MEMORABLE RING ENTRANCE

* Anderson Silva
* Clay Guida
* Jason “Mayhem” Miller
* Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal
* Tom Lawlor

BEST TECHNICAL EQUIPMENT BRAND

* Everlast MMA
* Fairtex
* Hayabusa
* TapouT
* Venum

BEST TECHNICAL CLOTHING BRAND

* Bad Boy
* Hayabusa
* Jaco
* TapouT
* Venum

MEDIA SOURCE OF THE YEAR

* “Inside MMA” on HDNet
* MMAjunkie.com
* MMAWeekly.com
* MMAFighting.com
* Sherdog.com

MMA JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR

* Aaron “Tru” Teweles, Freelance
* Ariel Helwani, MMAFighting.com/Versus.com
* Conner Cordova, MMAReligion.com
* Gareth A. Davies, Telegraph.com
* John Morgan, MMAjunkie.com

So, MMA peeps, any surprises here? Anyone you would have liked to seen in some of these categories? Who do you think will take home some of the honors of the night? Sound off in the comments section below.

Canseco has publicly lobbied for a matchup with Strikeforce heavyweight and former former NFL Pro Bowl running back Herschel Walker (1-0).

But, no contract has been signed with Canseco and Coker added that “he’s not trying to create a ‘freak show’.”

Canseco’s MMA career has thus far only featured a hilarious beatdown by “Techno Goliath” Hong Man Choi (2-3) after which Canseco claimed he was led to believe before the fight that the fighting wasn’t going to be real.

“I certainly wouldn’t let him come into my gym,” Shields claimed.  It’s an awkward situation for Shields because Canseco is training with Shields’s trainer, Cesar Gracie.

“I guess that’s Cesar’s decision,” said Shields.  He added, “I don’t really want to help the guy. I haven’t met the guy yet, but seeing his track record, I don’t really want to have anything to do with him. He’s not someone I want in my life. I don’t want to help a guy out who has constantly screwed everyone over who has been close to him.”

Since retiring from professional baseball, Canseco is perhaps most infamous for outting current and former baseball stars for using steroids and admitting his own use of performance enhancing drugs in his books “Juiced” and “Vindicated”.

Canseco’s MMA career has thus far only featured a hilarious beatdown by “Techno Goliath” Hong Man Choi (2-3) after which Canseco claimed he was led to believe before the fight that the fighting wasn’t going to be real.  However, Strikeforce is reportedly considering matching Canseco versus former former NFL Pro Bowl running back Herschel Walker (0-0).

Shields weighed-in, saying, “I like Hershel Walker and I’d like to see Hershel kick his ass, but if he was fighting under my team that would make me feel a little weird, so I don’t know how I feel about that.”

With Canseco’s reputation as a steroids whistle-blower and MMA’s past struggles with fighters testing clean, Canseco might find more cold shoulders than just Shields’s.  (Clearly, that’s in no way an insinuation that Shields is steering clear of Canseco because of performance enhancing drugs.)  However, though Fighters.com agrees with Shields that Canseco is a scumbag, he’s a useful scumbag.  Canseco’s claims about steroid abuse in baseball have helped clean up that sport and, if his presence in MMA accomplishes anything similar, Fighters.com is all for it.

Shields will defends his title from third-ranked “Hollywood” Dan Henderson (25-7) at Strikefore in Nashville April 17.