Strikeforce 'Diaz vs Daley' results: Paul Daley thinks Nick Diaz fight was stopped too early ...

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... especially since there were only a few seconds left in the round.
Last night (April 9, 2011) in San Diego in the main event of Strikeforce's first Zuffa promoted event, Nick Diaz and Paul Daley battled back and forth for nearly five full minutes.
After an exchange against the cage in the closing moments of the opening round, "Semtex" pushed Diaz away and immediately flopped to the floor like a fish washed up ashore.
The champion showed the killer instinct he's so famous for and swarmed his fallen foe, closing out the fight with a barrage of punches until veteran mixed martial arts referee "Big" John McCarthy stepped in to call an end to the action.
With just three seconds until the horn.
Debate immediately commenced regarding the nature of McCarthy's decision. Should he have waited those few more seconds to let the fight go to round two? Was it a bad stoppage? Daley thinks so (via Facebook):

"Is in good health. Some u win, some u lose. A little frustrating, I made mistakes I told myself I wouldn't do. A little to rushed. Think the stoppage was early, especially with so little time left in the round. Now some timw off, a few holidays and some downtime. See what's next. Team Semtex all day. Love u all....still, including the HATERS. Mwah."

There have been many instances of a referee's decision to stop a fight getting called into question. But is "Big" John at fault for ending the bout when there were only three seconds left in the round?
Should he really have let the beating continue, if only to give fight fans another five minutes of action?
After all, who wouldn't want five more minutes of the action Daley and Diaz provided. Although it was thought to be the the exact opposite of what he should do, Diaz went out and stood toe-to-toe with the British banger and more than held his own.
Those pitter-patter punches? No so pitter-patter anymore.
The kid from Stockton showed he's got the power to go along with the volume, as evidenced by a clearly rocked Daley crashing to the canvas in a heap. Did he defend himself intelligently after he fell? Questionable.