(Best finish of the night: Luke Rockhold vs. Paul Bradley)

Takayo Hashi may have been touted as the second-best 135-pound female fighter in the world coming into her title fight against Sarah Kaufman at last night’s Strikeforce Challengers event in San Jose, but for most of the five-round contest she looked woefully outmatched. Kaufman’s superior standup ruled the night, as the undefeated Canadian — and new "welterweight" women’s champion of Strikeforce — dropped Hashi twice in the first round, and spent the rest of the fight chasing the Japanese grappling specialist around the cage, landing punches whenever she was in range.

Kaufman successfully avoided the occasional takedown and submission attempts from her opponent, and outside of a teep kick that found its mark on her face in the final frame, she made it through all 25 minutes relatively untouched. After the fight’s conclusion — a 50-45 decision on all three judges’ scorecards — Kaufman apologized to the fans for her inability to finish Hashi, and generously credited Hashi’s constant movement: "It was really hard to get a lot of clean shots on her consecutively,” Kaufman said. “I would have loved to have finished the fight, but I couldn’t have done any more than I did.”


Speaking of drawn-out beatdowns, Belgian prospect Tarec Saffiedine hit Cung Le student James Terry with everything in his arsenal during their three-rounder, but wasn’t able to finish Terry and had to settle for a unanimous decision victory. More dramatic was Luke Rockhold’s first-round devastation of fellow middleweight Paul Bradley. Rockhold was able to drop Bradley twice with punches, before ending the fight with a head-kick and knees to the body. The up-and-coming AKA product increases his record to 7-1, with all wins coming by way of first-round stoppage. In the co-headliner, Karl "Psycho" Amoussou used his impressive striking to control Trevor Prangley until an inadvertent eye-poke from Prangley near the end of the first round stopped the action. When Amoussou wasn’t immediately able to continue, a doctor called a stop to the contest, putting a very unsatisfying technical draw on both fighters’ records.

Complete results from the event are below…

Main Card
– Sarah Kaufman def. Takayo Hashi via unanimous decision (50-45 x 3)
– Karl Amoussou vs. Trevor Prangley ends in a technical draw (accidental eye-poke), 4:14 of round 1
– Luke Rockhold def. Paul Bradley via TKO (strikes), 2:24 of round 1
– Tarec Saffiedine def. James Terry via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3)
– Yancy Medeiros def. Raul Castillo via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3)

Preliminary Card
– Wayne Phillips def. Eric Lawson via verbal submission (armbar), 4:47 of round 1
– Samuel Bracamnonte def. Chris Stewart via TKO, 0:59 of round 3 
– Tristan Arenal def. George Miller via TKO, 0:30 of round 2
– Jesse Tobar def. Johnson Nguyen via submission (rear-naked choke), 1:24 of round 2
– Renee Robinson def. Lilia Salas via TKO, 1:06 of round 1
– Steve Dickey def. Alan Lummel via TKO, 0:33 of round 1 
– Ronald Carillo def. Anthony De Los Santos via submission (armbar), 1:20 of round 2