Strikeforce: Challengers VI, Kaufman Wins Title in Lackluster Main Event

While it is still February, the old weather proverb which applies to March: "In like a lion, out like a lamb" could have applied to the Strikeforce: Challengers VI event which took place at the San Jose Civic Auditorium last night.

It's never a good sign when there are more people in attendance for the prelims than during the last half of the main event.  Such was the case as Sarah Kaufman took on Takayo Hashi for the right to be crowned the first Strikeforce Female Welterweight Champion.

As Kaufman knocked Hashi down for the second time in the opening minutes of the bout it seemed as if observers would be in for an entertaining affair. 

Yet as the bout unfolded, it was apparent that Kaufman's limited output, along with Hashi's inability to get any sort of offense going, was going to make for an ugly affair.

The tone of the bout remained constant throughout as Kauffman pressed the action with her sporadic offense while Hashi's unwillingness to engage her opponent had the crowd feeling restless.

After five rounds all three judges scored the bout in favor of Kaufman who not only improved her record to 11-0 but also picked up the vacant Strikeforce Welterweight Title.

Hashi's record now stands at 12-2.

The folks over at Strikeforce and Showtime were dealt another blow when the intriguing match up between veteran Trevor Prangley (22-5-1) and promising young prospect Karl Amoussou (11-2-2) came to an early end due to Amoussou catching a thumb in the eye.

As soon as the opening bell rang, Amoussou's superior hand speed was apparent as he was able to consistently beat Prangley to the punch.  Despite a solid take-down by Prangley, Amoussou seemed to have an edge in the bout.

That is until Prangley poked Amoussou in his right eye causing the ref to halt the bout in order for the cageside doctor to have a look. 

With Amoussou not being able to immediately open his eye, the ref waved it off at the 4:14 mark of the first round, resulting in a technical draw.

It was the middleweight prospect and local product in Luke Rockhold who stole the show last night as he rolled over Paul Bradley in a striking display that proved he has much more to offer than just a stellar ground game.

With Bradley's extensive wrestling pedigree, it might have been a bit of a shock that he elected to keep the fight on their feet and not go in for the take-down.  It made it all the better for Rockhold.

Rockhold, who fights out of American Kickboxing Academy, possessed a significant height and reach advantage over Bradley and utilized every bit of it as he picked apart Bradley with clean kicks and crisp counter hooks which would floor Bradley (12-2) on a couple of occasions.

A couple of hard knees by Rockhold to the mid-section of Bradley gave the ref all that he needed to see as he waved the fight off sending the raucous crowd into an even greater frenzy.  The time was 2:24 of the first round.

Rockhold (7-1) seems poised to mix it up with some of the bigger names in the middleweight division in the very near future, as this fight with Bradley could very well have been the fight that propels him from the Challengers series into the ranks of the organization's elite.

Even before the bout between James Terry and Tarec Saffiedine began the cheering squad for Terry was very apparent. 

Each time Terry's face was shown on the big screen the crowd roared in approval for the local fighter.  Unfortunately for Terry, that all stopped once the fight started.

Saffiedine, a Belgian welterweight now fighting out of Temecula, Calif., used his superior striking to keep Terry off of his game throughout the bout.

Despite Terry finding mild success in taking down Saffiedine, he was never close to being in control of the fight.  Saffiedine managed to win the crowd over with each and every kick or punch he would land.

A cut would open up underneath the left eye of Terry caused by the onslaught of right hands from Saffiedine.  Saffiedine would add insult to injury as Terry would attempt one final take-down in the closing seconds of the bout only to have it reversed.

All three judges scored the bout 30-27 in favor of Saffiedine upping his record to 8-2 while San Jose's own James Terry fell to 7-2.

Dan Henderson was there to support Saffiedine while Cung Le was in the corner of Terry.

In the opening bout of the main card Hilo, Hawaii, middleweight Yancy Medeiros pounded Raul Castillo for three rounds en route to a unanimous decision.  All three judges scored the bout 30-27 for Medeiros.

Virtually every take-down attempted by Castillo was stopped while Medeiros repeatedly found a home for his nonstop striking assault.  The loss was Castillo's first bringing his record to 6-1 while Medeiros remained undefeated with an 8-0 start to his MMA career.

Preliminary bout results:

Wayne Phillips def. Eric Lawson (Submission - Armbar) at 4:47 of round 1

Samuel Bracamnonte def. Chris Stewart (TKO - Punches) at 0:59 of round 3*

Tristan Arenal def. George Miller (TKO - Punches) at 0:30 of round 2*

Jesse Tobar def. Johnson Nguyen (Submission - Rear-Naked Choke) at 1:24 of round 2*

Renee Robinson def. Lilia Salas (TKO - Punches) at 1:06 of round 1*

Steve Dickie def. Alan Lummel (TKO - Punches) at 0:33 of round 1*

Ronald Carillo def. Anthony De Los Santos (Submission - Armbar) at 1:20 of round 2*

* Amateur bout

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