Strikeforce: "Tate vs. Rousey" kicked off its main card on Showtime tonight (Sat., March 3, 2012) with a middleweight showdown pitting former division champion Ronaldo Souza against the unheralded Bristol Marunde.

Naturally, Souza was favored heavily coming in, mostly due to the fact that no one knows who Marunde was coming into the evening's festivities. They know who he is now.

For all the wrong reasons, of course, due largely to his eating one of the sweetest spinning back kick's to the face you'll ever see. He walked through it, and managed to survive to the third round, but he was thoroughly dominated and eventually succumbed to an arm triangle choke.

What's there to be said when the biggest criticism coming from this fight will likely be Souza's inability to finish sooner?

To the surprise of no one, "Jacare" dominated the early action, avoiding strong shots from his opponent and taking his back in short order. He got a little dirty once he did, though, headbutting Marunde in the back, which the referee reprimanded him for.

Then the Brazilian was reset due to illegal shots to the back of the head. No point was taken but the message was loud and clear.

It turned out to be a good thing because Souza landed a strong counter that sent Bristol crashing to the floor. He survived the shot, not to mention the follow up guillotine, but the first round ended with the former champion having asserted his control.

Easy peasy.

Presumably because he wanted to entertain himself, Souza came out in the second throwing spinning shit, as Nick Diaz would call it, unloading with kicks and punches that had Murande flustered and falling backwards.

"Jacare" also hit a late takedown (FTW) and played with a leg lock for a few seconds before the horn sounded. By this point it was just embarrassing how wide the gap between the two was.

The third round came and it was only a matter of time before Souza locked in the submission and forced the tap.

Move along, folks, nothing to see here.

Remember, too, to check out MMAmania.com's ongoing live coverage of the "Tate vs. Rousey" main card action by clicking here.