Saturday night's Strikeforce event in Portland was capped off by Bay Area fighter Luke Rockhold continuing his impressive and dominating streak by retaining his middleweight title in a fight against Tim Kennedy.
Kennedy had his best chance in the first inning, as he scored a big slam and takedown with less than two minutes left. Throughout the fight, Kennedy was unable to match Rockhold's grappling game and was unable to sink in anything definitive when he had the advantage. Rockhold scored a big knockdown in the fourth round and while the standup was evenly matched and largely unimpressive, Rockhold was visibly pressing the attack throughout the fight. The bout went to the judges, who ruled unanimously in favor of the champ, 49-46, 49-46, 49-46.
In the first match on the main card, Lorenz Larkin defeated San Diego fighter Robbie Lawler by unanimous decision, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27. Larkin dominated and this was a big win for him.
Roger Gracie also picked up a win by unanimous decision against Keith Jardine, who is close to being washed up at this point. Gracie totally dominated the first two rounds before getting rocked by a desperate Jardine in the final round. To Gracie's credit, he weathered the storm and looked hard to put away.
In the possible fight of the night, Nate Marquardt and Tyron Woodley swung for the fences against one another for four round in a fight for the welterweight championship before Marquardt was able to knock Woodley out cold against the cage. Marquardt looked like the confident and experienced veteran here, patiently stalking Woodley until being able to land his shot.
Stick with this StoryStream for results from Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Kennedy, and for all things MMA check out Bloody Elbow.
