Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine

[INDYjon22]

Main Card (Showtime)

• Middleweight Championship Bout: Luke Rockhold vs. Keith Jardine
• Middleweight Bout: Robbie Lawler vs. Adlan Amagov
• Light Heavyweight Bout:Muhammed Lawal vs. Lorenz Larkin
• Welterweight Bout: Tyrone Woodley vs. Jordan Mein
• Welterweight Bout: Tarec Saffiedine vs. Tyler Stinson

Preliminary Card (Showtime Extreme)

• Welterweight Bout: Nah-Shon Burrell vs. James Terry
• Light Heavyweight Bout: Trevor Smith vs. Gian Villante
• Lightweight Bout: Estevan Payan vs. Alonzo Martinez
• Lightweight Bout: Ricky Legere vs. Chris Spang

Keith Jardine finally gets to fight for a championship. It's just a shame that it will be against Luke Rockhold. Jardine certainly has the striking to compete with nearly everyone, and he has some solid wrestling, if I am not mistaken he has never been submitted and that is largely due to his takedown defense. That said, Rockhold is a freak with great wrestling, solid stand up and good submission skills. As good as Jardine's stand up may be, he still has a glass jaw and if Rockhold can make contact it will all be over. I will be supporting Jardine though.

Robbie Lawler vs. Adlan Amagov should be fun. Both guys like to stand and bang. This is certainly Lawler's strength and is his best bet at winning. Lawler does not want this fight to hit the mat, regardless of how good Amagov is or is not on the ground. Hopefully this becomes a slugfest.

King Mo is coming off of a monstrous performance against Gracie. His next task will be to defeat Lorenz Larkin, who is undefeated. With a win here, Mo will likely find him self challenging for the belt against either Feijao or Mousasi, with Feijao vs. Mousasi actually being the most interesting fight to make. Mo is a big guy but Larkin is a great prospect. This could be Larkins coming out party.

If Tyrone Woodley can defeat Tyler Mein he will be challenging for the SF Welterweight championship. Woodley is one of the best SF homegrown products ever and is definitely being groomed to be the next champion in the company, until the UFC moves him over. Tyle Mein is a tough guy, but I don't think he possesses the skills to win this one.

And, Tarec Saffeidine is fighting some guy I do not know anything about. At first glance it looks like he is fighting a can, but who knows. We will find out soon enough if Tyler Stinson is a true threat or not.

The rest of the card is filled with fighters I don't know so I can't comment to much. However, the main event, as well as King Mo and Robbie Lawler's fights make for an interesting card indeed.

 

[jmt225]

The 3 main fights are the only ones I'll comment on because they're most likely the only fights I'll end up seeing since the start of this show will be on during the 2nd half of the Saints/Lions game.

Anyways, the main event is basically a showcase for Luke Rockhold. I didn't give Rockhold a chance in hell against Jacare a couple of months back, but man... he was incredible and showed that he's indeed the real deal. I don't see how Jardine has an advantage anywhere in this fight. The guy had only mediocre punching power at Light Heavyweight, so you know at Middleweight he won't be able to hit very hard, so what else does he have to offer? Rockhold is way more technical on the feet anyway, and has tremendous wrestling/scrambling ability. Rockhold should easily take this one via TKO in the 2nd or 3rd Round.

Robbie Lawler vs. Adlan Amagov will be a fucking WAR. Amagov is a highly exceptional and entertaining fighter who comes to bang each time out, and we all already know about Robbie Lawler. Who wins this fight is truly a toss up. Amagov is an awesome prospect, but this is his first fight against a big name, so there's no telling how well he'll do. I'm definitely looking forward to this one.

And there's no doubt in my mind that Lorenz Larkin pulls out the upset over King Mo. Larkin is a little known, yet very talented and dangerous prospect at 205, and King Mo has been too worried about Jon Jones and Rampage Jackson these past few weeks for us to think he's actually taking Larkin seriously. That'll be his downfall, since Larkin seems to be as well-rounded as they come.

 

[JWGunslinger]

I could bs and say that this is a very intriguing card but honestly I'm only interested in watching Keith Jardine vs Luke Rockhold. I want to see Lawler and Mo pick up KO's and I expect Woodley and Saffiedine to pick up decisions. But man am I pumped for Luke vs Keith, I was very impressed with Rockhold when he rose through the SF ranks and scored the title win which I didn't expect him to be able to do, his fight with Jacare has very impressive and showed why he deserves to be champ. Keith is a guy I've been a big fan of since TUF 2 and have had a hard time watching his downward spiral since the Wanderlei loss.
If Keith can avoid a stand up war he'll have his best chance on the ground, they'd put on an incredible war on the feet buy odds are Rockhold would take that. But considering how well Rockhold did in getting back to the feet in his fight with Jacare I see this being a stand up war that he wins, maybe Keith pulls off another win like his upset over Forrest but being realistic I see Rockhold by late TKO or decision.

 

[INDYjon22]

I don't think there was a single surprise last night. The favorite one in every single main card fight last night, but the three main attractions were still way fun to watch.

Saffeidine vs. Stinson really did nothing for me. Tyler Stinson made that fight interesting. Saffeidine kept backing up the entire time, but finally when Stinson could force Saffeidine into exchanging it was decent to watch. No surprise in the decision victory.

People who hate lay n' prayers must despise Tyrone Woodley because he makes it look worse then Fitch ever has. I really think Woodley could be an exciting fighter, but I also always forget just how boring his fights are as well. Woodley should challenge for the belt, but Strikeforce needs to put him up against someone who will actually challenge him.

King Mo looked beastly. Larkin did not fight a smart fight and Mo took it to him. King Mo is definitely in whatever title fight is being made for the Light Heavyweight division, the question now is will it be a rematch with Feijao or Mousasi. And then the question is, will the winner of that fight be moved over to the UFC.

Lawler vs. Amagov was an interesting fight. While that illegal knee looked like it hurt, I really get the feeling that Lawler was milking it so that he could get the point deduction for sure. I mean it had to have sucked, but judging from his reaction it didn't hurt him that bad, until Mazzagati wasn't flying in to break them up. It didn't matter in the end, Lawler showcased what made him famous by knocking out Amagov.

The main event was a fun fight but it showed that Jardine is past his prime. While he can still hang with most guys, the very elite in any organization are probably a little too much for him at this stage in his career. He was tagging Rockhold but Luke never looked phased by any of it. Rockhold on the other hand looked good, but needs to work on his striking. If an elite striker was making as much contact as Jardine was, Rockhold would have been put to sleep. He needs to fix that if he ever hopes to jump to the UFC and fight for the belt.