Strikeforce Results: Luke Rockhold KO's Keith Jardine, Solidifies 'Champ' Status

If you missed Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine last night, you might have missed the most predictable main card of the year so far, as every fight on the main card went the way most people saw it, and yet at times, it felt very unpredictable.

Many believed that Tarec Saffiedine, Tyron Woodley, Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal, "Ruthless" Robbie Lawler, and Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold would prevail, but the way some of the fights ended were unpredictable in the sense of how they actually ended.

Though many felt Saffiedine and Woodley did enough to win their fights unanimously, they both walked out with split-decision victories. Mo's second-round run-through of Lorenz Larkin was marred by controversial officiating, as many felt Larkin took unnecessary punishment before the fight actually got stopped. Robbie Lawler's first-round finish of Adlan Amagov saw Amagov lose a point for an illegal knee that Lawler thought was going to hit the chest (and one would think that was Amagov's intened target), but the manner through which Lawler found his moment to ground-and-pound his way to victory was not easily predictable.

That brings us to the one man whose finish came exactly when and how some called it, and that's Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold.

Rockhold brought his entire striking arsenal with him, and he looked as great as he's ever looked inside the "Six Sides of Strikeforce," effectively hurting Jardine inside the clinch, countering Jardine at will, and effectively pushing the action to the point of breaking Jardine's will, and he did it all inside of one round against one of the only four men to have beaten Forrest Griffin and Chuck Liddell.

Only time will tell what the future has in store for Jardine on the heels of this loss, but if the first defense of a title solidifies a champion's status as "the champ," then Rockhold certainly did that—and them some—last night.

Up next for Rockhold?

That's a question for Scott Coker.