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Exclusive: Strikeforce Women’s Middleweight Champ Cris ‘Cyborg’ is Officially a Free Agent and Is Close to Coming to Terms With a New Promotion

Well, Cris “Cyborg” Santos is officially a free agent, which either means that Strikeforce was unwilling to pay her what she felt she was worth, or that Zuffa has decided against continuing to promote women’s MMA under the SF banner. Either way, it’s a blow to the promotion’s women’s division.

A source we spoke to today received confirmation from Cyborg’s management that Zuffa’s exclusive negotiation period with the 10-1 Curitiba, Brazil fighter ended yesterday and that the parent company of Strikeforce and the UFC failed to come to terms with the Strikeforce women’s middleweight champ before she became a free agent at the stroke of midnight.

According to Santos’ former manager Ken Pavia who helped negotiate the deal that was fulfilled with her last fight with Jan Finney on June 26, 2010, there was a champion’s clause in her contract, which he said he thought would extend her deal. But according to another we spoke to who is close to the situation, the clause had a one-year expiration date and when Strikeforce failed to re-sign her or offer her a fight by June 26, they waived their right to exercise the option.

You may recall that former Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields had a similar proviso in his contract, but when Scott Coker and co. figured there was little chance of resigning him, they granted him a release rather than make him sit out the one-year waiting period.

We’re told that Cris is in serious discussions with a promotion that we’ve been asked not to name until the deal is finalized and that she could have a new contract in place as early as this weekend. Wherever Gina Carano is, she’s thanking her lucky stars.

We will have updates the situation when we are given the go-ahead to release them by the parties involved.

Heads Up: The 2011 IBJJF World Jiu Jitsu Championships Are Under Way

(Cyborg Santos gives Amanda Lucas a guided tour of the mat)

Since the very beginning of our sport, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has been a critical component of Mixed Martial Arts competition (spoiler- Royce Gracie wins). Odds are good that unless you’re a diehard republican or an MMA judge, you share at least some appreciation for the subtle art of torquing limbs and rendering folks unconscious. Good news for you- the 2011 Mudials go down this weekend.

Competition in the lower belt rankings began on Thursday. In the video above you can check out Strikeforce’s 145lb women’s champion Cris Santos slam MMA fighter/George Lucas’s daughter Amanda Lucas in every manner possible en route to claiming a gold medal in the purple belt division. It is a little surprising that the most intimidating female fighter on the planet is competing as a purple belt, but not surprising enough that we would ask her about it to her face. ‘Grats to Cyborg for the medal and for finding a way to keep busy while her fighting career is inexplicably left to die on the vine.

Info on how to watch the event is after the break.

(Cyborg Santos gives Amanda Lucas a guided tour of the mat)

For those of you whose thirst for action cannot be quenched by TUF Finales alone, you’re in luck. BudoVideos.com will be broadcasting the event live from Long Beach, California on Saturday and Sunday, starting at 9:00 a.m. PT. Saturday’s stream is free, but Sunday’s finals will set you back a cool $9.95. It’s a small price to pay to catch some of the world’s greatest submission artists go head to head.

Business as Usual: Cris Cyborg, World Champion, Still Can’t Get a Damn Fight

(Weird. The “cover your ears and rock back and forth while humming to yourself” defense worked so well in training.)

Inactive and without a fight booked since her squashing of Jan Finney last June, 145-pound Strikeforce women’s champion Cristiane “Cris Cyborg” Santos is desperate to return to competition — so desperate that she had reportedly been negotiating for gigs with the WWE and a Brazilian fight promotion in recent months. Now she’s moved onto the public-pleading stage of her frustration. Here’s what she had to say yesterday via Twitter:

Hi My dear fans, want to fight too soon, but not dependent on me. This very difficult to renegotiate with scott. They’re not appreciating all I did for the event. I am very sad, but I will not give up. God has another purpose in my life…Maybe I fight the world jiujtsu not going to be the way you like with many punches…but I will give my best to make you guys like it.

Alright, Cris, here’s the deal…

(Weird. The “cover your ears and rock back and forth while humming to yourself” defense worked so well in training.)

Alright, Cris, here’s the deal…

First off, Scott Coker has an acute case of senioritis at this point. It’s not that he doesn’t appreciate you, it’s that he’s completely checked out of the job. Even in the pre-buyout era, the amount of power that Coker actually wielded to get things done was debatable. But right now? By all accounts, the UFC is running the show while Scott Coker sits alone in an office in San Jose, doing absolutely jack-shit. (And we’re not knocking jack-shit. It’s nice work if you can get it.)

The thing is, women’s MMA is simply not a priority for the people who currently run Strikeforce. There’s a good chance it never will be. But even in a perfect world for Cyborg — if Coker was calling the shots in some capacity, and wanted to book a fight for her — there’s still no logical opponent for the champ, and booking Santos in another squash match isn’t worth much from a business perspective.

A small part of the blame for that can be put on Strikeforce for not putting more effort into finding and building up contenders at 145. The larger reality might be that the ideal candidate doesn’t exist. A true 145′er with a good record and a recognizable name who’s as dangerous as Cyborg? (Or at least fairly credible and good-looking enough to put on a poster?) Gina Carano was the last fighter who fit that description. Erin Toughill was a good option as well, but her Strikeforce debut never materialized for one reason or another.

Cris Cyborg’s prime competitive years are wasting away and there’s absolutely nothing she can do about it, which is a tragedy. I hope that one day she’s looked back on as a pioneer of the sport. Unfortunately, she exists in a moment when there’s no logical place for a 145-pound female badass in MMA.

MMA Top 10 Women’s Pound-for-Pound

Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator, Rankings, Women’s OverallThese are uncertain times for women’s mixed martial arts. Strikeforce has been the industry leader in female fights, while the UFC has maintained that it has no interest in putting women…

Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator, Rankings, Women’s Overall

These are uncertain times for women’s mixed martial arts. Strikeforce has been the industry leader in female fights, while the UFC has maintained that it has no interest in putting women in the Octagon. So now that the UFC runs Strikeforce, does that mean women’s MMA is endangered?

Not necessarily. The Strikeforce women were invited to the UFC’s recent fighter summit in Las Vegas, which indicates that Zuffa thinks women have a future within the company, and next month’s return of the sport’s biggest female star, Gina Carano, will result in a publicity boost for women’s MMA.

So as I review the top 10 female fighters in mixed martial arts, I’m confident that it’s a list of fighters whose futures are bright. Even if I’m not sure where and when most of them will fight next.

Zuffa Meets with Strikeforce Female Fighters at The Fight Summit

Several of Strikeforce elite female fighters made their first trip out to The Fight Summit, which is an MMA business conference run by Zuffa. As the promotion now resides under the Zuffa umbrella, Strikeforce fighters including: Miesha Tate, Cris Cyborg, Amanda Nunes, Sarah Kaufmann, Elaina Maxwell and Marloes Coenen attended the 2 day conference in […]

Miesha Tate.. future UFC fighter?

Several of Strikeforce elite female fighters made their first trip out to The Fight Summit, which is an MMA business conference run by Zuffa. As the promotion now resides under the Zuffa umbrella, Strikeforce fighters including: Miesha Tate, Cris Cyborg, Amanda Nunes, Sarah Kaufmann, Elaina Maxwell and Marloes Coenen attended the 2 day conference in Las Vegas. Were there discussions of seeing these females sometime in the future fighting under the UFC promotion? That may be very top secret, but we do know that the ladies and all the Strikeforce fighters participated in new photo shoots and videos promos for upcoming Strikeforce broadcasts and advertising.

And now some photos of Miesha Tate:

Scott Coker Thinks Gina Carano Will Be Back Fighting for Strikeforce This Year

("I’m not sure what this has to do with the movie, Mr. Spielberg, but if you say Kate Capshaw auditioned topless, I’m cool with it, too.")
Well, it looks like Scott Coker is still under the impression that the former face of his promotion, Gi…

("I’m not sure what this has to do with the movie, Mr. Spielberg, but if you say Kate Capshaw auditioned topless, I’m cool with it, too.")

Well, it looks like Scott Coker is still under the impression that the former face of his promotion, Gina Carano will be back competing for Strikeforce this year.

While on MMAFighting.com’s The MMA Hour Monday, Coker said that he’s confident that the former Strikeforce female 145-pound standout who hasn’t fought since losing her strap to Cris "Cyborg" Santos 17 months ago in August of 2009 will make her much-anticipated return before the end of 2011 — a lofty claim he made last year as well, that didn’t materialize.

"I believe she’ll be back in the cage this year. From what I know of her, she is a competitor at heart; she’s going to want to fight," Coker told Ariel Helwani. "She’s not going to want to end her career the way it ended. So, I think she’ll be back."