MMA veteran becomes the first person to finish Diaz inside the octagon.
Josh Thomson has created history to become the first person to stop Nate Diaz in his 25 fight career after a brutal head kick sealed the victory.
Given Diaz had the superior boxing skills, Thomson stayed on the outside and utilised his kicks as part of their main card bout as a part of UFC on FOX 7.
As a result of the tactics, Diaz started taunting his opponent after just seconds, with the goading to continue throughout much of the fight.
Leg kicks continued to land for Thomson, with Diaz’s right kee looking very swollen at the end of the first round.
But it did not stop Stockton-born fighter from coming forward as he looked to land anything and everything on the chin of his opponent.
Thomson found his range when a heavy head-kick landed flush on Diaz’s forehead, but in a nod to his toughness, its impact barley registered and Diaz continued to come forward.
An accidental low-blow by Diaz saw the fight halted early in the second round, and when hostilities resumed, Thomson’s striking continued to look crisp.
Diaz took the fight to the ground and looked for a gullotine choke before he became bloodied with a cut near his right eye starting to get worse as the pair at times traded shots in wild flurries of activity.
The beginning of the end happened when Thomson landed another brutal head kick after Diaz looked to wipe blood from his face, with ‘The Punk’ swarming all over his downed opponent forcing the referee to stop the fight at the same time the towel came in from the Diaz camp.
In the other main even fight on the card, tough Canadian fighter Jordan Mein lost to Matt Brown after he inflicted several vicious ground-and-pound shots in the second round.
In what was a wild and back-and-forth welterweight brawl both men landed good counter-strikes early in the first.
The loose fight suited Brown perfectly as he smothered Mein, who managed to deliver a left hook to the body of Brown, dropping him and allowing him to do some work in full-guard.
But Mein became lax and had to survive a very close triangle choke with 30 seconds left in the round.
In the second round, Mein had his nose broken thanks to several hard knees by Brown, who then finished the fight with hard elbow strikes and shots to the side of the head.
Hear what Thompson and Brown had to saw after their wins in this video below:
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