Strikeforce will hit the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino tomorrow night (Sat., Jan. 7, 2012) in Las Vegas to kick its new year off with the "Rockhold vs. Jardine" event.

In the main event, Luke Rockhold defends his middleweight title for the first time against Keith Jardine, a fight he thinks he'll finish in short order:

"I believe my wrestling is better and I believe my jiu-jitsu is a lot better. I believe I'm one of the elite grapplers in the middleweight division, Strikeforce, UFC, whever it is. This fight could go anywhere and I expect a finish sooner than later."

For his part, Jardine thinks Rockhold's cute moves present a nice style match-up for the dirty "Dean of Mean:"

"It's going to be all about the contrasting styles. He's more of a pretty fighter, he does kind of cute little things with his kicks and everything like that and I'm just here to get in a fight and scrap. I'm more of a dirty fighter, so it's going to be cool to see how that matches up."

A welterweight top contender bout is also going down with serious implications on the 170-pound title.

Tyron Woodley, widely considered the welterweight champion in waiting, isn't looking past his opponent, Jordan Mein:

"This is my most important fight. I'm not even thinking about the belt right now because if I don't get through this kid, there's no belt. So, for me, I gotta crush him and I gotta go out there and I gotta put on a great show."

It won't be easy, of course, as Mein is a top prospect who also hopes to break on through to the upper echelon of the division:

"It's a great match-up. He's undefeated, he's been a problem for everybody and I'm here to solve the problem and entertain while I'm at it."

All the action kicks off tomorrow night on Showtime at 10 p.m. ET. Remember, MMAmania.com will provide live round-by-round, blow-by-blow results of all the night's action, so be sure to come back and join us. It's always a great time.

And for all the latest news and notes on the event click here.