Rockhold drops Jardine for a second time (Tracy Lee)

During the lead up to his first title defense, Luke Rockhold oozed confidence all week. He had good reason. He was facing what turned out to be an overmatched fighter in Keith Jardine.

Rockhold took care of business easily, waiting out the wild style of Jardine to land a huge right and followed it up with 17 more unanswered shots to force the referee to stop the fight at 4:26 of the first round.

The champ was happy to win, but had little interest in calling out Strikeforce's No. 1 contender Tim Kennedy. Minutes after the victory, Showtime's Mauro Ranallo asked about Rockhold defending his title against the Strikeforce roster.

"I like fighting and I like getting paid," Rockhold said then hesitated. "Right now, all the best guys in the world at middleweight are in the UFC. Those are the guys I want. I want to fight the best in the world. I think they should bring over some top contenders. I believe I am one of top guys and I want to take on the best."

That's probably not what Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker wants to hear. Strikeforce, with the backing of its new owner Zuffa, recently re-signed with Showtime. The last thing it wants is to be viewed as a minor league with all of its champions looking to jump to the UFC.

Robbie Lawler finishes Adlan Amagov (Tracy Lee/Yahoo! Sports)Robbie Lawler's didn't win in 2011, but started 2012 with a thrilling victory over Adlan Amagov. At Strikeforce in Las Vegas on Saturday night, Lawler won with a quick TKO.

Amagov started well with a takedown, controlling Lawler from the start. Unfortunately, he threw a knee to Lawler's head when Lawler was on the ground, and Amagov lost a point for the first round. When the fight re-started, Lawler threw a nasty flying knee. He landed the knee but still flew over Amagov's head. Lawler spun around to follow up with more strikes until the bout was stopped at 1:48 in the first round.

While Lawler only threw eight punches in the fight, it was all he needed to stop his losing streak. In 2011, Lawler lost to Tim Kennedy and Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza. His record is now 19-8, while Amagov falls to 9-2-1.

Lawal nails Larkin shortly before stoppage (Tracy Lee)

LAS VEGAS - Muhammed Lawal's ready to reclaim his crown. Make that another crown.

Nicknamed "King Mo," Lawal is a nasty ground artist and put the hurt on Larkin, stopping him at 1:32 of the second round in fight No. 3 of the main card at Strikeforce inside The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Lawal got off 15 unanswered shots before referee Kim Winslow saved Larkin. Some in attendance thought it was a late stoppage, including Lawal, who yelled something in disgust about the ref.

"She explained to me that she wants to give us a fair chance to keep on continuing," Lawal said once he calmed down a bit. "If it was me, I'd rather be put to sleep, too."

Lawal, a former star on the international wrestling scene, has developed his striking, but there was little sense in banging it out on the feet with Larkin. Larkin is a dynamic striker with very little grappling experience.

Tyron Woodley takes down Jordan Mein (Tracy Lee/Yahoo! Sports)Tyron Woodley remained undefeated with split decision win over Jordan Mein at Strikeforce in Las Vegas on Saturday night. Woodley took the wrestling filled match with a 29-28, 28-29, 30-27 score.

In the first round, Mein opened up showing the jab early, with Woodley responding with kicks and a takedown attempt. Mein had good takedown defense, avoiding Woodley's takedown. They were split apart by the referee, and Woodley was able to get the takedown on the second attempt. He held Mein down, landing elbows and knees to the body.

Woodley started strong in the second round with a jab that wobbled Mein and a takedown. From there, Woodley used his wrestling to control Mein for the rest of the round.

The third round started the same as the second, with Woodley ducking under for a takedown. He held down Mein, who had little answer for Woodley's wrestling. The crowd grew restless, and Woodley and Mein were stood up by the referee. Mein tried to land a knee, but Woodley went in for another

A bloody Saffiedine throws a big right (Las Vegas Sun)LAS VEGAS - Tarec Saffiedine looked beat to hell at the end of 15 minutes, but it was only a few Tyler Stinson shots that busted him open.

Much of the fight was waged on the ground with Saffiedine riding Stinson. The judges chose the fighter who maintained top control giving Saffiedine a split decision victory, 28-29, 30-27 and 29-28, in fight No. 1 on the main of the Showtime broadcast of Strikeforce in The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Saffiedine (12-3) was hoping to get one of the slots in an expected title fight for the vacant welterweight belt. He may not have done enough tonight?

He certainly didn't look like a championship contender at the end of the fight. Saffiedine had a cut under his right eye, another over his left eye and one more gash in his hairline.

The 6-foot-1 Stinson got the first round on our scorecard.  He dominated the final 90 seconds after blasting Saffiedine with a left elbow. That was the shot that opened the cut under Saffiedine's right eye. The Belgian fighting out Dan Henderson's camp in Temecula, Ca. was on the run the rest of the round.

Villante punch to the back of Smith's head (Tracy Lee)

LAS VEGAS - After wading into deep water a little soon in his career, Gian Villante is finding his way in the Strikeforce light heavyweight division. The former Hofstra football player rose to the occasion by swarming Trevor Smith and taking him out in less than 70 seconds.

He'll take the win, but the way it went down was little questionable.

Smith, a former wrestling star at Iowa State, had trouble from the start defending himself on the feet. Fighting from a low wrestling stance, he got rocked by a short left hook. The stunned Smith backed up and then tried a sloppy right kick. Villante caught the kick and pushed forward to land a right, and dropped Smith.

On the ground, he got off 13 shots. The last two drilled Smith in the back of the end. That's when referee Kim Winslow stepped in to stop things. A confused Smith began to work a single-leg on the ref. It was all over in just 65 seconds.

Brock Lesnar retires at UFC 141 (Getty Images)With its two biggest pay-per-view draws (Brock Lesnar and Georges St-Pierre) disappearing in the last month, Dana White could be in a sour mood. But he's not, especially over the sudden retirement of Lesnar last week at UFC 141.

"The way I look at the Brock Lesnar thing is we were lucky to have him around for as long as we did. Look at what he did. It was fun to have him in the UFC while we did. He made the heavyweight division, some exciting fights," White said on "The MMA Insiders" on ESPN1100/98.9 FM in Las Vegas (10:09 mark).

White often tells the story of laughing at Lesnar when he first asked to fight in the UFC. He eventually went on to win the UFC heavyweight title and defend it successfully against Shane Carwin.

Jon Jones NYC radio appearance (Getty Images)After his dominant win at UFC 140, Jon Jones talked about taking a break from fighting and treating his parents to a vacation.

Jones' inactivity lasted just three weeks before he began to get the itch again.

"[Jones] called about four days ago and said 'okay let's go, I'm done with vacation.'" UFC president Dana White said on "The MMA Insiders" on ESPN1100/98.9 FM in Las Vegas (12:37 mark). "He said he wanted to take all this time off and then they were calling me four days ago saying he wants to fight as soon as possible. He's ready to go."

With so many of the promotion's stars on the shelf with injuries (Junior dos Santos, Cain Velasquez, Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva) that's great news for the first quarter of 2012. A decision on Jones' next fight will have to wait until after UFC on Fox 2 on Jan. 28.