With a third bout between Jason “Mayhem” Miller and Tim Kennedy (12-3) scrapped, Strikeforce has now booked Kennedy into a bout with Strikeforce rising star Luke Rockhold (7-1) at the promotions upcoming March event in Columbus.
The bout between Kennedy vs. Rockhold was made official on Monday in a press release for the upcoming March 5th event, which will take place at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. Their bout will take place on the Showtime broadcasted main card. Headlining the event will be a Strikeforce light heavyweight title bout between current champ Rafael “Feijão” Cavalcante and former PRIDE champ Dan Henderson.
Kennedy is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza for the then, vacant Strikeforce middleweight title back in August of last Year. The defeat ended a four fight win streak for Kennedy who stopped Trevor Prangley, Zak Cummings, and Nick Thompson all by submission in three of those victories under the Strikeforce banner.
Rockhold has won six in a row and all with Strikeforce since making his debut at the Strikeforce: Young Guns II event back in February 2008. He only appeared in the cage once in 2010 at a Strikeforce Challengers 6 event last February, stopping Paul Bradley by TKO with knees to the body. That win ended a four rear-naked choke submission victory streak for Rockhold.