(Props: ZPsBackUp)

Despite their now-routine struggles with making weight, Paul Daley and Ricco Rodriguez turned in impressive performances at BAMMA 5, Saturday night in Manchester, England. In the main event, Japanese welterweight Yuya Shirai was absolutely no match for Daley, as Semtex rocked him twice with jabs in the first frame before a flurry of power punches put Shirai down for good at the 1:46 mark.

Daley is now expected to face Nick Diaz at Strikeforce’s tentative April 9th event in California, although one rumor suggests that Daley’s participation is far from official and the British striker may be holding out for more money. Which makes sense, since he’ll probably have to forfeit about 20% of his purse to Diaz before the fight.

In BAMMA 5′s co-main event, Ricco Rodriguez survived an early knockdown from a James McSweeney right hand, then controlled the rest of the fight with takedowns and top control, earning a unanimous decision from the judges (30-27 x 2, 29-28). The win marked Rodriguez’s 11th straight victory, and McSweeney’s third-straight loss. Full results from the event are below…

- Paul Daley def. Yuya Shirai via KO, 1:46 of round 1
- Ricco Rodriguez def. James McSweeney via unanimous decision
- Alex Makhonin def. Xavier Foupa-Pokam via TKO, 4:48 of round 2
- Claudio Henrique Da Silva def. Jean-Francois Lenogue via submission (rear-naked choke), 2:51 of round 1
- Mohsen Bahari def. Lee Barnes via TKO, 0:40 of round 1
- Lee Cohoon def. Rob Mills via TKO, 4:16 of round 2
- Jason Ball def. Peter Duncan via KO, 2:00 of round 2
- Michael Johnson def. Paul Cook via unanimous decision
- Tim Newman def. Diego Vital via split decision
- Costas Doru def. Liam James via submission (rear-naked choke), 2:47 of round 1
- Jeremy Petley def. Frankie Slater via submission (armbar), 0:36 of round 1