The Nevada State Athletic Commission released the salary amounts from Saturday night’s Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine event at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and it appears that Robbie Lawler was the big winner of the night, taking home more than a quarter of the night’s $566,000 in total purses.
Lawler was paid a flat rate of $150,000 for his first-round TKO over Adian Amagov.
To put things into perspective, the total purse for UFC 141 was $1369714.28, or nearly two-and-a-half times as much.
Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champ Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal picked up the second highest paycheck of the night with $95,000 for his second round KO of Lorenz Larkin, while middleweight champ Luke Rockhold netted the night’s third highest amount with $90,000, including a $25,000 win bonus, for his first-round drubbing of Keith Jardine.
Tyron Woodley, whose conservative lay and pray victory over Canadian Jordan Mein, took home $60,000 for his non-performance — half of which was made up of a win bonus.
Check out what the other fighters on the card were paid after the jump.
(“Really? That’s it?”)
The Nevada State Athletic Commission released the salary amounts from Saturday night’s Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine event at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and it appears that Robbie Lawler was the big winner of the night, taking home more than a quarter of the night’s $566,000 in total purses.
Lawler was paid a flat rate of $150,000 for his first-round TKO over Adian Amagov.
To put things into perspective, the total purse for UFC 141 was $1369714.28, or nearly two-and-a-half times as much.
Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champ Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal picked up the second highest paycheck of the night with $95,000 for his second round KO of Lorenz Larkin, while middleweight champ Luke Rockhold netted the night’s third highest amount with $90,000, including a $25,000 win bonus, for his first-round drubbing of Keith Jardine.
Tyron Woodley, whose conservative lay and pray victory over Canadian Jordan Mein, took home $60,000 for his non-performance — half of which was made up of a win bonus.
Check out what the other fighters on the card were paid:
Filed under: Strikeforce, NewsMiddleweight Robbie Lawler was the highest earner at Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine, banking a flat purse of $150,000 in his fight against Adlan Amagov.
The next highest paid were Muhammed Lawal and Luke Rockhold at $9…
Middleweight Robbie Lawler was the highest earner at Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine, banking a flat purse of $150,000 in his fight against Adlan Amagov.
The next highest paid were Muhammed Lawal and Luke Rockhold at $95,000 and $90,000, respectively, at this past Saturday’s Showtime-televised card in Las Vegas.
Below are the Strikeforce fighter salaries, reported by Strikeforce to the Nevada state commission.
Filed under: StrikeforceHope you enjoyed your free preview weekend of Showtime in all its MMA-tastic glory. Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine went down more or less exactly as expected on Saturday night, with every favorite notching a victory and every…
Hope you enjoyed your free preview weekend of Showtime in all its MMA-tastic glory. Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine went down more or less exactly as expected on Saturday night, with every favorite notching a victory and every underdog taking a beating that was almost perfectly in line with how long their odds of success were.
With the event over and the Showtime preview curtain drawn closed, it’s time once again to sort through the action in search of the biggest winners, losers, and everything in between.
Biggest Winner: Luke Rockhold
He took a tough situation and made it look easy. Granted, a win over Keith Jardine doesn’t mean what it did five years ago, but you can’t complain about a first-round knockout. Rockhold was calm when he needed to be and ruthlessly aggressive when he saw his opening. He looked like a champion, in other words. His appeal for the UFC to send him some challengers was also a pretty savvy move. Zuffa won’t bring him over to the big show? Then let the big show come to him. Framing it that way lets the fans know that he wants bigger challenges just as badly as they want to see him challenged, but without alienating his employers in the process. For now, Strikeforce could match him against either Tim Kennedy or Robbie Lawler without eliciting too many groans, but if Rockhold keeps winning that talent pool is going to become a puddle very quickly.
Biggest Loser: Adlan Amagov
It looks bad enough when you wind up and hit a guy with a very illegal knee early in the first round. It looks even worse when that same guy comes right back at you with a very legal knee that floors you en route to a quick finish. Amagov seemed to be doing well against Lawler in the opening seconds, but that flagrant foul halted his momentum and only made Lawler mad. Then Amagov found out for himself what it’s like to be on the business end of a Lawler blitz. Strikeforce seemed hot on the young Russian coming into this bout, and that enthusiasm was not entirely unfounded. But this loss shows that he’s still in need of a little more seasoning — and maybe a primer on the unified rules — before he’s ready for the big fights.
Most Predictable: Keith Jardine
Again, you can’t blame Jardine for stepping up and taking his shot when Strikeforce offered — what’s he supposed to say, ‘Thanks, but I don’t deserve it’? — but the rest of us saw this coming. Jardine’s toughness has never been a question, but his skills have eroded with age. So has his chin. As nice a guy as Jardine is, we’ve got to be honest and admit that he’d done nothing to justify a title shot. Yes, he’s had a full, interesting career. And sure, anything can happen in a fight. At least, theoretically. At the same time, just because a given outcome is not impossible that does not make it likely. ‘Anything can happen’ is what you tell yourself when you’re about to do something that you know is a bad idea. It’s a way of reassuring yourself that while failure may be likely, it’s not guaranteed. That’s fine for some pursuits, like buying a lottery ticket. But maybe it’s not the right way to go about booking title fights.
Most Impressive in Defeat: Tyler Stinson
When the fight stayed standing, he had Tarec Saffiedine looking worried and confused. It was just when it hit the mat that Stinson seemed woefully out of his element. If he had better takedown defense or even just more of a sense of urgency about getting off his back, maybe this one would have gone a different way. Instead, he came off looking like a decent prospect with some obvious holes in his game. That’s not the worst thing that can happen. Saffiedine is a good fighter who’s struggled less with bigger names, so Stinson can take some minor solace in that. He can also get back in the gym and improve his wrestling, and then maybe the next time he gets a shot like this he’ll earn more than just a moral victory.
Least Impressive in Victory: Tyron Woodley
If you’ve been waiting for Woodley to develop into something more than just a wrestler with perfunctory ground-and-pound, your wait continues. He had little trouble taking Jordan Mein down and keeping him there, but once on top he seemed to put it in cruise control. Woodley’s ground attack appears designed solely to avoid stand-ups and submissions. Anything else — say, I don’t know, damaging his opponent in search of a finish — is a bonus. There were very few bonuses to be had against Mein, and so Woodley contented himself with staying on top and out of harm’s way. That’s smart, in a way, and it resulted in a decision victory. But as far as career advancement goes, it’s maybe not the best strategy. Woodley is 10-0 in his three years as a pro, which means he ought to be able to do a little more than just wrestle at this point. This fight was a great opportunity for him to show off a more well-rounded game, or at least a little more aggression once he had the fight where he wanted it. He took the cautious approach instead, and fans surely took note.
Most Passionately Compassionate: Mo Lawal
After knocking out Lorenz Larkin with a torrent of rapid-fire right hands, Lawal’s biggest concern seemed to be the lack of concern displayed by referee Kim Winslow. He seemed disgusted with how long she allowed the beating to continue and could even be heard on the broadcast chiding her for it as they stood awaiting the official announcement. Winslow claimed she wanted to give Larkin the chance to show he was still in it, but this was after he’d already been knocked out of it and then briefly back in again. Apparently Lawal doesn’t like being forced to hurt his fellow man more than is absolutely necessary, which is strange, considering his stated goal of ending “Feijao” Cavalcante’s career in a rematch. Let’s hope Winslow isn’t the ref for that one.
Strangest Sight: Mauro Ranallo interviewing Dana White
A year ago it would have been difficult to imagine a Strikeforce broadcast punctuated by a cageside interview with the UFC president. And now there he is, standing alongside the voice of MMA on Showtime, doing an interview that is noticeably less enthusiastic than the screaming pre-fight pitches he’s used to doing with Joe Rogan. In fairness, this time White didn’t have a pay-per-view to sell, but neither did he look terribly happy about his camera time. I guess some things you do because you want to, and other things you do because you have to. For White, all things Strikeforce seem to fall into the latter category.
At Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine, a welterweight fight took place between undefeated prospect Tyron Woodley and the relatively unknown 21-year-old Jordan Mein. “T-Wood,” who was calling himself the uncrowned Strikeforce welterweight champion c…
At Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine, a welterweight fight took place between undefeated prospect Tyron Woodley and the relatively unknown 21-year-old Jordan Mein.
“T-Wood,” who was calling himself the uncrowned Strikeforce welterweight champion coming in, looked as poor as a fighter could possibly look in a winning performance.
Woodley made Jon Fitch look like Jon Jones as far as being an exciting fighter goes.
As expected, the former NCAA Division I All-American wrestler controlled the fight with his takedowns and top control, which is to be expected and makes for part of a completely logical game plan.
However, Woodley did absolutely nothing from the top position. Not once did he attempt to pass guard or improve his position in anyway and Mein actually landed more strikes from the bottom position than Woodley did from the top.
Not every wrestler can have vicious Mark Munoz style ground and pound, but for whatever reason, Woodley just had absolutely no interest in throwing strikes from inside Mein’s guard.
Woodley instead was content to just hold his opponent down and watch the time tick away on the clock rather than look to inflict any serious damage and try to finish the fight.
Although he improved his professional MMA record to 10-0, the former Missouri Tiger only earned a split decision from the judges.
One judge actually thought that Mein looked better off his back than Woodley did controlling from the top position and awarded the fight to Mein: a very rare evaluation in MMA.
How often is it that a fighter is 8-0 in a respected promotion and is still yet to receive a title shot? The answer is not very often, although UFC lightweight Jim Miller comes to mind.
The bottom line is that with Strikeforce being in shambles, as it is right now, to crown a boring champion that fans do not want to see in the cage would only bring the brand down even further.
To his credit, Woodley, who was clamoring for a fight with Nick Diaz when he was still the Strikeforce welterweight champion, has five submission wins and one knockout through 10 professional fights.
So while Woodley may not have reached Jon Fitch territory yet, we know how this story ends if the Strikeforce welterweight continues to wrestle his way to decision victories.
Last night, Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold said he was going to retain his tile against “The Dean of Mean” Keith Jardine. Like it or not, he did just that.He showed a flashy array of kicks, an ability to maintain his composure against …
Last night, Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold said he was going to retain his tile against “The Dean of Mean” Keith Jardine. Like it or not, he did just that.
He showed a flashy array of kicks, an ability to maintain his composure against the cage, and some very accurate landing with his punches, all of which Jardine had no answer to in the striking realm outside of some of his patented leg kicks.
Rockhold basically dissected and demolished Jardine, which we all expected, but when Mauro Ranallo brought up Rockhold’s initially-anticipated opponent Tim Kennedy, Rockhold had other plans.
Specifically, the terms of Rockhold’s “other plans” involved a few UFC middleweights going to Strikeforce, and the mention of Kennedy or any other Strikeforce middleweight were somewhat brushed off until the post-fight press conference.
Now, had one asked immediately after the fight if Rockhold’s head was getting too big, I might have easily said that it was, but now that the adrenaline rush has cooled out, his head no longer seems so swollen.
In the heat of the moment after the win, he called out the UFC middleweight lineup and looked ready to prove that he belonged, but even he knows that other challenges exist in Strikeforce, even if there aren’t that many of them.
Tim Kennedy was to have gotten Rockhold before an injury forced Kennedy from the bout, Robbie Lawler is only two or three more wins away from another crack at the gold, and let’s not forget that one judge made a claim that said Jacare Souza lost all five rounds in his September bout with Rockhold.
Simply put, Rockhold knows he has some competition left in Strikeforce before he gets his crack at the UFC middleweight division, and he knows there are still a few questions that need to be answered about his end potential as a fighter, so now is the time for him to keep his nose to the grindstone and focus on defeating the best in the division in which he reigns now before he even thinks about the UFC middleweight division.
Middleweight 
Hope you enjoyed your free preview weekend of Showtime in all its 
At Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine, a welterweight fight took place between undefeated prospect Tyron Woodley and the relatively unknown 21-year-old Jordan Mein.