Herschel Wins With First Round TKO

Herschel Walker Wins Strikeforce MMA Bout by First-Round TKO

1/29/2011 10:35 PM ET By Michael David SmithLead Blogger



Former football star Herschel Walker improved to 2-0 as a professional mixed martial arts fighter, beating Scott Carson on Saturday night's Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg fight card.

Walker won a one-sided beatdown against an opponent who didn't have much to offer. The question now is whether Walker is interested enough in MMA to stick with it and take a chance against an opponent who might actually hit back, which Carson didn't do.

"I was OK," Walker said when asked to assess his own performance. "I've got to be on offense. Being a young MMA fighter I've got to control what I'm doing in the cage."

The 48-year-old Walker knocked Carson down just 20 seconds into the fight and jumped on top of him, then took Carson's back a minute into the first round and started raining punches down. Carson briefly got to his feet, only to have Walker pick him up and slam him to the ground again. Walker stayed on top of Carson, who was doing nothing to defend himself except cover his head with his arms, eventually knocking Carson's mouthpiece out of his mouth. Carson managed to get back up to his feet briefly, only to have Walker drill him and knock him down again. With that, the referee stopped the fight 3 minutes, 13 seconds into the first round.

Carson, who had only fought once in the last nine and a half years and lost that one fight, was a hand-picked opponent for Walker, and he simply didn't have the skill or athleticism to deal with Walker, who may be old but is still a chiseled 220 pounds.

Walker's victory wasn't a particularly good MMA fight, but it was enough that he'll surely get a third chance to fight for Strikeforce on Showtime if he wants it. And he sounded after the fight like he does want it.

"I love MMA," Walker said.