Rockhold hopes win over Jardine strengthens rep

LAS VEGAS – Keith Jardine has never won a fight in Strikeforce and has won just two of his last eight bouts overall. Jardine also has never made the middleweight limit of 185 pounds for a professional mixed martial arts fight.

A one-time heavyweight, Jardine has competed mostly as a light heavyweight and had to think a second before recalling when he last made the middleweight limit.

"I've never been down to 185 since my freshman year of high school, probably," Jardine said, joking.

Yet, Jardine will face champion Luke Rockhold for the Strikeforce middleweight title on Saturday in the main event of a Showtime-televised card from the Hard Rock Hotel, a matchup that has puzzled fans, media and Rockhold himself.

In addition to having never fought at middleweight and having not beaten an elite opponent since gaining a decision over Brandon Vera on Oct. 10, 2008, Jardine, 36, has earned a championship bout. Rockhold hasn't been shy about expressing his opinion, though he concedes that Jardine's name recognition won't hurt.

"It all depends upon how you look at it," Rockhold said of Jardine getting the title shot. "It doesn't exactly make sense, of course, but if you look at the middleweight division, of course [Tim] Kennedy makes sense. 'Jacare' [ex-champion Ronaldo Souza] is still out there, and there is some unfinished business there. If I don't finish a fight, I always want to go back and finish it.

"Jardine is a tough opponent and he's a guy who has been in there with the best, so it is what it is. From a promotional standpoint, it's good and beating a guy like Keith Jardine is going to speak volumes. He's a proven guy against top-caliber opponents."

Jardine has wins over former UFC light heavyweight champions Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin, but he's struggled since his Sept. 22, 2007, victory over Liddell in Anaheim, Calif. Since then, he's gone 3-6-1 overall.

He accepted a Strikeforce fight against Gegard Mousasi in April on a week's notice and fought to a draw, a bout he took only to get back with Zuffa, the company that owns both Strikeforce and the UFC. Jardine was cut by the UFC after his June 19, 2010, loss to Matt Hamill.

Jardine smirked ever so slightly as he listened to Rockhold question his qualification for a title bout. He's taken so many shots recently, he doesn't much care for what anyone else has to say.

"I haven't been out there doing too much with the media and I haven't really looked online or on my Twitter or anything, because I knew there would be negative energy out there," Jardine said. "You know what? I say, 'Screw you,' whoever says that. We'll see [Saturday] who belongs in that ring and who doesn't. That's where I am coming from right now."

Many of the fighters who have competed primarily in Strikeforce have faced an identity crisis ever since Zuffa bought the company in March. It's clearly played second fiddle to the UFC and its viability has been questioned.

Rockhold is 8-1 and has won seven fights in a row, but he's not given the recognition of a top-level middleweight like UFC champion Anderson Silva. It will, he said, take victories over fighters who have been in the UFC and have developed big names in order for fighters like he and training partner Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal to earn respect for their skills.

Lawal joked that the absence of one reporter from Thursday's news conference signified it still wasn't viewed as a significant card by the media.

Rockhold hopes to be able to build his reputation off Jardine, who has great name recognition from his six-year stint in the UFC.

"People get familiar with you from beating a UFC guy, and that will put you on the map," Rockhold said.

Part of Rockhold's lack of name recognition has been because he's injury prone. Saturday's bout will be just his second in more than 22 months. But he didn't begin his career until a few months prior to the peak of Jardine's, when "The Dean of Mean" scored an upset win over Liddell, who then was the biggest star in the sport.

The fact that Saturday's title fight will occur during a free preview weekend on Showtime and thus might garner a bigger audience than normal is a bonus for Rockhold, who is eager to move into the MMA elite.

[ Related: 'King' Mo Lawal is determined to not let the Strikeforce ceiling fall in on him ]

"He's had a long road and he's fought all the guys in the UFC," the 27-year-old Rockhold said of Jardine. "He's done pretty well for himself outside the UFC. There is no secret he's coming toward the end of his career. He's trying to fight back and he's done pretty well for himself after the UFC, but it's like this: I'm on my way up, he's on his way out and ain't nothing going to change come Saturday night."

The soft-spoken Jardine rarely raises his voice or shows even a hint of anger. But he's eager to reinvent himself as a middleweight, even though he said that 24 hours before the weigh-in he was still "big" and declined to say how much weight he'd have to cut.

Listening to Rockhold speak, he smirked.

"I'm just getting started, by the way," Jardine said to Rockhold.

It was the kind of talk that Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker wanted to hear. Jardine approached him about cutting to middleweight and Coker took that as an indication of his dedication to the sport. Fighters at 36 years old generally are looking to move up in weight, not come down 20 pounds.

Coker hopes, as most promoters do, that the matchup of the young champion against the veteran challenger will make a star out of Rockhold if he wins.

"What you want in a fight is two guys who are both convinced they're the best and that they're going to win and for them to go out and try to prove it," Coker said. "Both of these guys believe they're going to win and I think that's why this is going to be a great fight."

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