Although Gina Carano may have stepped away from our beloved sport years ago, her ability to captivate and stimulate MMA fans in gif form remains unmatched to this day. But none of the truly amazing photos, screengrabs, or gifs Carano has been responsible for over the years hold a candle to the night she was captured biting her lip at Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Diaz on April 11th, 2009 — five years ago today.
In fact, nothing Carano has done since — not the sexy dance or Haywireor even fighting for the Strikeforce Women’s championship — quite compares to the glorious night she bit her lip while staring directly into the soul of our wieners, and I say that with all due respect. Because above all else, Carano has always been a bit of a trailblazer. She brought women’s MMA into the mainstream and was one of the sport’s first crossover stars, to the point that she is still being used to promote WMMA despite leaving it behind some 5 years ago. She also was the first female fighter to bite her lip on camera, capturing the imagination of the country in doing so. And for that last thing, we give thanks.
But there is an unsung hero in all this, a person who truly helped launch Carano’s lip-biting career into the stratosphere and one who finally deserves his due credit. I’m talking about the Strikeforce cameraman who was given the simple assignment of filming Gina Carano sitting ringside and used the opportunity to forever cement his place in MMA History, of course. I don’t mean to overstate this, but the way he ever so slightly pushed in on Carano (phrasing) just in time for the lip bite is a moment of filmmaking history comparable to Spielberg’s dolly zoom shot in Jaws.
Georgia O’Keeffe spent most of her career trying to capture the essence of female sexuality, strength, and femininity, and this anonymous Strikeforce cameraman managed to do it in under 15 seconds. So on this day, we salute you, Strikeforce cameraman responsible for the Gina Carano lip-bite gif (“Reeeeal men of geeenius…”).
Oh yeah, Nick Diaz vs. Frank Shamrock also went down on this day five years ago. We’ve thrown a full video of their fight after the jump, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Although Gina Carano may have stepped away from our beloved sport years ago, her ability to captivate and stimulate MMA fans in gif form remains unmatched to this day. But none of the truly amazing photos, screengrabs, or gifs Carano has been responsible for over the years hold a candle to the night she was captured biting her lip at Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Diaz on April 11th, 2009 — five years ago today.
In fact, nothing Carano has done since — not the sexy dance or Haywireor even fighting for the Strikeforce Women’s championship — quite compares to the glorious night she bit her lip while staring directly into the soul of our wieners, and I say that with all due respect. Because above all else, Carano has always been a bit of a trailblazer. She brought women’s MMA into the mainstream and was one of the sport’s first crossover stars, to the point that she is still being used to promote WMMA despite leaving it behind some 5 years ago. She also was the first female fighter to bite her lip on camera, capturing the imagination of the country in doing so. And for that last thing, we give thanks.
But there is an unsung hero in all this, a person who truly helped launch Carano’s lip-biting career into the stratosphere and one who finally deserves his due credit. I’m talking about the Strikeforce cameraman who was given the simple assignment of filming Gina Carano sitting ringside and used the opportunity to forever cement his place in MMA History, of course. I don’t mean to overstate this, but the way he ever so slightly pushed in on Carano (phrasing) just in time for the lip bite is a moment of filmmaking history comparable to Spielberg’s dolly zoom shot in Jaws.
Georgia O’Keeffe spent most of her career trying to capture the essence of female sexuality, strength, and femininity, and this anonymous Strikeforce cameraman managed to do it in under 15 seconds. So on this day, we salute you, Strikeforce cameraman responsible for the Gina Carano lip-bite gif (“Reeeeal men of geeenius…”).
Oh yeah, Nick Diaz vs. Frank Shamrock also went down on this day five years ago. We’ve thrown a full video of their fight after the jump, if you’re into that sort of thing.
