PHOENIX, Ariz. (Aug. 11, 2010) – There is a very strong possibility that STRIKEFORCE Women’s Welterweight (135 pounds) Champion Sarah Kaufman will be watching a future opponent during the first-ever STRIKEFORCE women’s single-elimination tournament at STRIKEFORCE Challengers on Friday, Aug. 13, at Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, Ariz., live on SHOWTIME®.
Kaufman will be on hand to watch as STRIKEFORCE women’s welterweight contenders Miesha “Takedown” Tate, Carina “Beauty But The Beast” Damm, Hitomi “Girlfight Monster” Akano and Maiju Kujala compete in the tournament. She likes the idea and is looking forward to the night of fights.
“I think it’s a real interesting concept,” said the undefeated Kaufman, who will also sign autographs for fans along with STRIKEFORCE Women’s Middleweight (145 pounds) Champion Cris Cyborg at the official weigh-in, which will begin at 5 p.m. local time at Dodge Theatre, tomorrow/Thursday. “It has to be tough to have to train for potentially three different opponents. But at the same time when you train you should be training everything anyway. Hopefully you’re at a level where you can tweak what game plan you are going to go with.”
A draw to determine the semifinal matchups for the two-round tournament will take place at the weigh-in on Thursday. The tournament winner will become the official No. 2 contender in the STRIKEFORCE women’s welterweight division.
The winners of each semifinal bout on Friday will face off in the tournament final later that night, just before the main event matchup between Joe “Diesel” Riggs (32-12) and Louis Taylor (6-1) that will be fought at a catch weight of 182 pounds.
Kaufman said she expects to see all for women use their ground fighting skills and that there isn’t a dominant striker amongst the four. She sized up each of the four women who will fight on Friday:
MIESHA TATE: “She’s definitely known as a wrestler. I think all the girls will use their wrestling but I think Miesha especially will use the entire cage and angle for the takedown and try to get a finish and control from the ground.”
CARINA DAMM: “She is known for her unorthodox striking. She is coming up in weight so it will be interesting to see how she does against the heavier girls. She does a lot of showboating and uses some Capoeira. I think she uses that to mentally throw her opponents off. So we’ll see if she uses that. I’m not really sure where her strong suit is but I would say it’s on the ground.”
HITOMI AKANO: “She has amazing judo and I know she works with Josh Barnett. All the Japanese girls are tough competitors and just don’t quit. So I expect Hitomi to be tough to beat.”
MAIJU KUJALA: “She’s probably the best striker of the group. I haven’t seen a lot of her and she remains the mystery girl of the four. She has described herself as a slow fighter so I’m interested to see what she’ll bring to the cage on Friday.”
Tickets for the STRIKEFORCE Challengers event are on sale at the Dodge Theatre Box Office, all Ticketmaster outlets, by phone at (800) 745-3000, and online at www.livenation.com and www.strikeforce.com .
Dodge Theatre doors will open at 5 p.m. local time. The first preliminary bout will begin at 5:30 p.m. and the first main card bout will begin at 8.
The SHOWTIME telecast will begin at 11 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the west coast.)
STRIKEFORCE Challengers is a proving ground for up-and-coming MMA fighters. The series is designed to provide today’s top prospects with the opportunity to step-up their level of competition and demonstrate their ability in a nationally televised event.
About STRIKEFORCE
STRIKEFORCE (www.strikeforce.com) is a world-class mixed martial arts cage fight promotion which, on Friday, March 10, 2006, made history with its “Shamrock vs. Gracie” event, the first sanctioned mixed martial arts fight card in California state history. The star-studded extravaganza, which pitted legendary champion Frank Shamrock against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Cesar Gracie at San Jose’s HP Pavilion, played host to a sold-out, record crowd of 18,265. Since 1995, STRIKEFORCE, sanctioned by ISKA, has been the exclusive provider of martial arts programming for ESPN and, after 12 years of success as a leading, world championship kickboxing promotion, the company unveiled its mixed martial arts (MMA) series with “Shamrock vs. Gracie.” In May 2008, West Coast Productions, the parent company of STRIKEFORCE, partnered with Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment (SVS&E), an entity created in 2000 to oversee all business operation aspects of the San Jose Sharks and HP Pavilion at San Jose. In March 2009, STRIKEFORCE signed a multi-year agreement with SHOWTIME® to stage live events on the premium cable television network. The promotion has since also produced two live, primetime events on the CBS Television Network.