FRANK SHAMROCK vs. NICK DIAZ
HEADLINES LANDMARK STRIKEFORCE EVENT

Saturday, April 11, From HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.
Live on SHOWTIME® at 10 p.m. ET/PT

NEW YORK (Feb. 11, 2009)—Three-time world champion and mixed martial arts legend, Frank Shamrock (24-9-1), will make his dramatic return to the cage
when he squares off with fellow knockout artist Nick Diaz (18-7, 1 NC)
in the main event of Strikeforce’s first MMA event of the year at San Jose,
California ’s HP Pavilion on Saturday, April 11.

The event represents the dawn of a new age for Strikeforce as it will be the
first event under its new television agreement with premium television
network SHOWTIME. The live telecast will feature up to five fights
including the Shamrock-Diaz main event beginning live at 10 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast).

The matchup, which will be contested at a catch weight of 179 lbs, is an
opportunity for the hard-punching Diaz to avenge a devastating, 21-second
knockout that his trainer, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu master Cesar Gracie,
suffered at the hands of Shamrock in the main event of Strikeforce’s historic MMA debut event at HP Pavilion on March 10, 2006.
Also on the fight card, middleweight (185-pound limit) sluggers Scott
“Hands of Steel” Smith (16-5, 1 NC) and Benji “Razor” Radach (19-4) will
battle each other in a featured contest.

Tickets for “Shamrock vs. Diaz,” priced from $30, go on sale to the
general public on Monday, February 23, at 10 a.m. PT at the HP Pavilion box office (408-287-7070) as well as at all Ticketmaster locations (408-998-TIXS),
Ticketmaster online (_www.ticketmaster.com_ (http://www.ticketmaster.com/) ), and Strikeforce’s official website (_www.strikeforce.com_ (http://www.strikeforce.com/).

“I’d be pretty pissed off if someone smashed my coach,” said the
36-year-old Shamrock, who is regarded by many as the father of modern day
MMA. “Diaz is going to be carrying the pride of his school with him, but a fight’s a
fight. Someone’s getting smashed and it’s just not going to be me.”
A San Jose, Calif. resident, Shamrock earned his lofty stature by bringing
to the sport a polished, hybrid fighting style combining western boxing,
kickboxing and submission wrestling in the mid-90’s when most MMA
competitors’ skills were heavily concentrated in a single fight discipline. He was
crowned the first UFC middleweight champion in history after stopping “The
Huntington Beach Badboy” Tito Ortiz with an onslaught of strikes in what
is regarded as one of the greatest MMA battles of all-time.
“I’m done breaking myself for entertainment,” Shamrock continued.
“I’m just going to break everybody else and they’ll be entertained by that.”

Diaz, a stone-faced 25-year-old Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt from
Stockton, Calif., responded, “Frank and I have always lived in a 100
mile radius of each other. When I got into this (sport), the people around here were all about Frank Shamrock, so I turned around and walked the other way.”
“I’ve crossed paths and trained with people who have also trained with
Frank,” continued Diaz. “I know what they do, how they fight, and the
way they act, so it’s great for me to get this fight while I’m still young.
There’s a lot of things I can talk about, but I’m going to represent Gracie
Jiu-Jitsu and I’m down for whatever’s going to happen in this fight.”
Diaz is long known as one of MMA’s most rebellious characters with a short
fuse and crowd-pleasing style. He exploded onto the national MMA scene
when he stunned fellow rising star “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler with a right hook to
the jaw that put Lawler flat on the canvas at UFC 47 on April 2, 2004.
When he steps in the cage with Shamrock, Diaz will look to notch his fourth
consecutive victory after turning in a flawless 2008 in which he stopped all
three of his opponents, including his last adversary, Thomas “The
Wildman” Denny.

”I just got a bigger picture of what’s going on in my life and in the
world, ” said Diaz of his recent success. “I think I just needed to grow up a
bit. I did that and things are coming to me much easier now.”
Shamrock’s start will be his first since March 29, 2008, when he
sustained a broken right arm while attempting to defend the Strikeforce world
middleweight championship against longtime Bay Area rival and undefeated
kickboxing champion Cung Le.
A Le round kick to the body caused the injury and prevented Shamrock from
coming out to fight for the fourth round of a championship bout scheduled
for five rounds.
“It healed up like it never happened,” said Shamrock of his arm that
underwent surgery.

Prior to the title defense, Shamrock was crowned the first Strikeforce middleweight MMA champion in history after choking “The New York
Badass” Phil Baroni unconscious in the second round of their live SHOWTIME PPV® battle at HP Pavilion on June 22, 2007.
Showtime Networks Inc. and Strikeforce jointly announced last week a
multi-year agreement to create an all-new series of MMA events that will
air live on SHOWTIME as part of the SHOWTIME Sports franchise. The two entities will produce and televise up to 16 live events per year, including world
championship fight cards as well as a series dedicated to showcasing
up-and-coming fighters in the sport.

The agreement reunites SHOWTIME and Strikeforce following their
successful “ Shamrock vs. Baroni” event, presented by SHOWTIME PPV in 2007 and the Shamrock vs. Cung Le telecast, which aired live on SHOWTIME.
About Strikeforce Strikeforce is a world-class mixed martial arts cage fight promotion which, on Friday, March 10, 2006, made history with its “Shamrock vs. Gracie” event, the first sanctioned mixed martial arts fight card in California
state history. The star-studded extravaganza, which pitted legendary champion
Frank Shamrock against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Cesar Gracie at San
Jose’s HP Pavilion, played host to a sold-out, record crowd of 18,265. Since 1995, Strikeforce has been the exclusive provider of martial arts programming
for ESPN and, after 12 years of success as a leading, world championship kickboxing promotion, the company unveiled its mixed martial arts series with
“Shamrock vs. Gracie.” Since then, it has co-produced the first SHOWTIME PPV mixed martial arts event in history with its world championship “Shamrock vs.
Baroni” card on June 22nd of this year followed by the first-ever mixed martial arts
event at the world-famous Playboy Mansion on September 29, 2007.
About Showtime Networks Inc