Silva sends a message and other UFC 102 results

It didn’t look like much – a short left hook – but it was enough to drop Keith Jardine just 95 seconds into Saturday’s UFC 102 bout with Thiago Silva.

Jardine, awkward and ugly, was the early aggressor, until Silva seemed to figure out his opponent’s rhythm and land the kill shot for the TKO.

Silva moves to 14-1 with 12 wins via strikes. He’s also 5-1 in the UFC and now firmly back in the title picture despite just coming off a loss to light heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida in January. Jardine, meanwhile, suffered the first back-to-back losses of his career and owns a record of 14-6-1 (6-5 in the UFC) and will have to be content with being a gatekeeper to the crown and not a contender.

In other main card action, middleweight Chris Leben, who looks like Rorschach from the Watchmen, was choked unconscious mid-tap by three-time NCAA Division I wrestling champion and former WEC fighter Jake Rosholt in the third round. Rosholt won Submission of the Night and moves to 6-1 (1-1 in the UFC), while Leben, who was returning from a nine-month steroid suspension following UFC 89, is now 18-6 (8-5 in the UFC).

It was a Polish Experiment gone wrong as Krzysztof Soszynski lost a unanimous decision to light heavyweight Brandon Vera. The mostly stand-up affair favored Vera, a Muay Thai practitioner who picked apart his opponent from range and from within the clinch.

Vera, a former top heavyweight contender, is now 3-1 since dropping to light heavyweight in 2008. Vera’s overall record is 11-3 (7-3 in the UFC). Soszynski drops to 18-9-1 (3-1 in the UFC).

Undercard results:

Among the preliminary bouts, Todd Duffee scored the fastest knockout in UFC history, flattening heavyweight Tim Hague in just seven seconds. A knee injury gave Aaron Simpson the advantage as he beat Ed Herman via second-round TKO. Gabriel Gonzaga tried to punt Chris Tuchscherer’s goal post through the uprights to open the fight and when the fight restarted five minutes later Gonzaga finished what he started with an ugly beating that ended with a TKO half-way through the first stanza. Evan Dunham earned a split decision over Marcus Aurelio and Mark Munoz took a split decision from Nick Catone. Mike Russow pounded Justin McCully for three rounds to pick up the unanimous decision.