I'm one of the main people who's said stuff like this so I'll tell you: It's not that it doesn't count, I never said that, it's just that it tells us LESS than most other ways of winning.
ESPECIALLY when the opponent is top 5 or higher.
Tell me this, based on their first fight, do you REALLY think Vitor would have no chance in a rematch against Anderson? Yeah sure he got ko'd in the first round but knowing how dangerous he is and how fast his hands are, do you really think he can't still land one of them in a rematch?
that's the same basic problem with cain/jds, we know how amazing cain's wrestling is and he didn't even get a chance to use it. You're crazy if you don't think the rematch can go the other way. You're crazy if you think the 1st fight absolutely means that JDS is all around the better fighter.