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Miesha Tate vs. Cat Zingano Was Reportedly Too Hardcore for the Swedes

(She’s a witch! Burn her! BURRRRRRN HERRRRRRRRRRR!!! / Photo via Fight! Magazine)

So here’s a weird little tidbit: The UFC’s next women’s bantamweight fight between Miesha Tate and Cat Zingano was originally supposed to serve as the co-main event for UFC on Fuel TV: Gustafsson vs. Mousasi (April 6th; Stockholm, Sweden), but it was reportedly sunk due to political concerns, and the matchup was moved to the TUF 17 Finale. After Ariel Helwani first mentioned the date-switch, Fighters Only followed up with more details:

The fight was pulled because it was felt by Garry Cook, the UFC VP in charge of UK and European operations, that it wasn’t suited to the Swedish audience.

Sweden is a new market and there is still some considerable opposition to the UFC among that infamously liberal and ‘progressive’ nation’s press. Politically it is a very left-wing country and it was only in 2007 that a 1970 ban on professional boxing was lifted.

Alexander Gustafsson has spearheaded the charge into what has proven to be an unexpectedly lucrative market for the UFC, but the potential for the national press to dislike or misinterpret a women’s fight was felt to be too high to risk.

(She’s a witch! Burn her! BURRRRRRN HERRRRRRRRRRR!!! / Photo via Fight! Magazine)

The fight was pulled because it was felt by Garry Cook, the UFC VP in charge of UK and European operations, that it wasn’t suited to the Swedish audience.

For the fight to turn out to be a bloodbath would have been especially damaging…A new co-main has not been announced for the Stockholm card, but the mood on the messageboards among Swedish fans is generally one of relief that the female fight was scrapped — and not just because of the risk it poses to the sport. Progressive as they are, it seems even the Swedish fans [aren’t] particularly excited about female MMA either.

In general, Swedish support for the UFC has been fantastic so far — which makes this story even more disheartening. Keep in mind that Sweden is a country that invented a new pronoun to promote their oddball obsession with gender-neutrality. The most recent World Economic Forum report on global gender equality ranked Sweden #4 in the world out of 135 countries; the U.S. landed at a totally respectable #22. So to summarize, gender-differences don’t exist in Sweden — except in the context of cage-fighting, in which women are delicate flowers that need to be protected by men who know better.

I’m actually skeptical about this whole story, to be honest. You can look at MMA message boards in any country and find pockets of fans who don’t care for women’s MMA, and there are newspaper editorial writers in every major city who would declare a bloody fight between two women to be the end of modern civilization.

When Garry Cook made the decision to move a female fight off of UFC on FUEL 9, he had these concerns in mind. (And hell, I’ll just say it — maybe his own tastes were a factor as well.) But instead of presenting a great matchup to a crowd of enthusiastic UFC fans, he buckled under the pressure. Sure, some of those Swedish fans might have been disgusted or disinterested in Tate vs. Zingano. But maybe the fight could have helped change some perceptions.

Miesha Tate vs. Cat Zingano Booked for TUF 17 Finale on 4/13

(MY GOD DEM ARMS. NOT SURE IF WANT. / Photo via allelbows)

No matter how Ronda Rousey‘s UFC 157 title fight against Liz Carmouche turns out, at least one more women’s bout will take place in the UFC this year — and it’s a good one, too. UFC officials confirmed today that former Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champ Miesha Tate will make her Octagon debut at the Ultimate Fighter 17 finale (April 13th, Las Vegas), where she’ll face 7-0 prospect Cat “Alpha” Zingano.

A native of Broomfield, Colorado, Zingano’s most recent appearance was at Invicta FC 3 last October, where she submitted Raquel Pennington by second-round rear-naked choke. Prior to that fight, Zingano pulled off a body-slam KO against Takayo Hashi, TKO’d Carina Damm, and won Ring Of Fire titles at bantamweight and flyweight. In other words, this lady is serious business. And forget Cris Cyborg — Zingano is probably the most absurdly–jacked female fighter we’ve seen since Rin Nakai.

So will Zingano be successful in her UFC debut, or will she suffer the blankety wrath of Takedown Tate? Shoot us your prediction — as well as your general interest level in this fight — in the comments section.

(MY GOD DEM ARMS. NOT SURE IF WANT. / Photo via allelbows)

Of Course Tito Ortiz is The Reason Cyborg Turned Down Rousey Fight at UFC 157

(Related clip: Tito and Cyborg rolling together in June 2011. Skip to 2:30 to see Cyborg lift Tito like a damsel in distress. Anyway, they’re business partners now. / Props: MMA Heat)

A few heads were scratched when the UFC announced yesterday that UFC 157 would be headlined by Ronda Rousey taking on Liz Carmouche. Rousey’s star is certainly on the rise and is as good a bet as any first-time pay-per-view headliner would be, but Carmouche is relatively unknown outside of hardcore Women’s Mixed Martial Arts circles. and WMMA as a PPV entity is unproven on the whole.

It made more sense once it was revealed that several opponents, including currently suspended former 145-pound champion Cristaine “Cyborg” Santos, had turned Rousey down. The potential Rousey/Santos fight is the biggest women’s match out there, as both have held Strikeforce world titles and have a running feud with one another.

According to White, however, his former friend/client/contracted worker/sworn enemy Tito Ortiz is to blame for Rousey vs. Cyborg not taking place at UFC 157. “That’s the fight that should be happening,” White said during yesterday’s UFC on Fox pre-event presser in Seattle. “Tito Ortiz is her manager, and he advised against it.”

Well, of course it’s Tito’s fault. It’s been forever since White was able to complain about and blame something on Tito. All must feel right in the world once more for the Baldfather.

(Related clip: Tito and Cyborg rolling together in June 2011. Skip to 2:30 to see Cyborg lift Tito like a damsel in distress. Anyway, they’re business partners now. / Props: MMA Heat)

According to White, however, his former friend/client/contracted worker/sworn enemy Tito Ortiz is to blame for Rousey vs. Cyborg not taking place at UFC 157. ”That’s the fight that should be happening,” White said during yesterday’s UFC on Fox pre-event presser in Seattle. “Tito Ortiz is her manager, and he advised against it.”

Well, of course it’s Tito’s fault. It’s been forever since White was able to complain about and blame something on Tito. All must feel right in the world once more for the Baldfather.

MMA Junkie reached Ortiz for comment via text message. According to Tito, “Cyborg” will fight Ronda at 145 — her competitive weight, not Rousey’s — at any point, but would want more time to safely cut down to 135 than February and UFC 157.

“That was never said!” Ortiz reportedly texted Junkie. “‘Cyborg’ will fight her anytime, anywhere at 145. Cris said she would kill herself trying to make 135. I won’t allow it, (and) neither should the UFC or Dana. Cris wants the fight, fans want the fight, and so does the UFC.”

Meanwhile, Rousey tore into Santos while speaking with MMA Junkie, and claimed that Miesha Tate and Sara McMann also both turned down title fights with her for UFC 157.

“I know [Cyborg] can make 135, and so does she,” Rousey told Junkie. “It just takes her a little while to realize that this is the only option she has. It took her a little bit longer because I don’t think she’s that bright. Once she does sit down and think about it, we’ll have the only fight that really makes sense.

“I think it’s really funny that when me and Miesha were supposed to fight, she was going on and on about how I didn’t deserve to fight her, and now she doesn’t want to fight me,” Rousey said. “And I also think it’s really funny that Sara was telling all these people that I was running away from her, and then she turns down a fight for the UFC title. I mean, c’mon,” Rousey continued.

MMA Junkie also reached Tate for comment, who claimed that she was never, in fact, offered a fight against Rousey. “I’ve made it pretty clear that I wanted to take some time off since my last fight, and that was back in August, so maybe because of that, the opportunity wasn’t presented to me. But it was never offered to me,” she said.

“The only thing that I can say is when I was down in Brazil, (UFC matchmaker) Sean (Shelby) asked if I might be interested in fighting in February. There was never any mention of an opponent or it being in the UFC. So I said, ‘I still want to take a little more time off and find myself as a fighter and a person. It was never made clear to me at all that it would be such a huge opportunity, that it could be against Ronda or in the UFC. At that point, they hadn’t even announced that women were coming to the UFC. This was back in early October when the UFC was down in Brazil.”

There’s no way of telling for sure where, exactly, the truth sits on this topic, between all this he/she said stuff. We cannot, however, even imagine a world where White would present a story in a particularly subjective way and without full context given, especially ones involving Tito Ortiz or fighters turning down fights.

Update: Now Sara McMann’s manager Monte Cox is also denying that they were offered a fight against Ronda Rousey.

– Elias Cepeda

GAME-CHANGER: Ronda Rousey Becomes the UFC’s First Female Fighter; Strikeforce to Fold After January 12th Title Tripleheader

Two pieces of related news broke last night that have massive implications for the future of MMA. First, Strikeforce superstar Ronda Rousey has reportedly become the first female fighter to join the UFC, and will immediately be crowned the UFC’s 135-pound women’s champion. The news was broken by TMZ, and confirmed by MMAFighting with sources close to the promotion, although neither the UFC nor Rousey have released an official statement. No word on Rousey’s promotional debut date or opponent, though her old pal Miesha Tate will apparently be a part of the UFC’s budding women’s roster as well.

It’s a historic moment for the sport, and one that’s surprising in how quickly it came together. In less than two years, we went from women will “never” be in the UFC, to women’s MMA is “absolutely going to happen” in the UFC, and much of the credit for that can be given to Rousey herself, whose nasty grappling and dude-in-a-beautiful-body appeal charmed UFC president Dana White into evolving his opinion.

Clearly, the promotion can make money off of the former Olympic medalist. The question is, who is she going to fight, and exactly how committed is the UFC to women’s MMA? Will the UFC be doing its best to fill out multiple weight divisions and regularly put female fighters on its cards, or is this just going to be the Ronda Rousey Show, with “Rowdy” armbarring whoever they can find to fight her, in relatively meaningless exhibitions three times a year? More details are expected to be announced early next week, which may shed some more insight on the UFC’s longer-term goals with their new acquisition.

And that brings us to the second bit of major news, which might even be more well-received, considering how long we’ve been begging for it…

Though it hasn’t been confirmed yet, reports indicate that Strikeforce will be folding after their next show. After Strikeforce’s last two events were canceled due to poorly-timed injuries to main-event fighters, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker promised fans a “stacked” card in january to make up for it. And yes, that event will be stacked (at least by Strikeforce’s standards), but it also could be the promotion’s last hurrah.

Slated for Saturday, January 12th, at the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the card will feature the following bouts:

– Gilbert Melendez defending his lightweight title against Pat Healy; the two were originally supposed to face off in September, before Melendez suffered an injury in training.

– Luke Rockhold defending his middleweight title against Lorenz Larkin, who won his 185-pound debut against Robbie Lawler in July.

– Nate Marquardt defending his welterweight title against Tarec Saffiedine, who has won decisions in his last three outings.

– Daniel Cormier fulfilling his contract obligations against Dutch veteran Dion Staring. Yep. That’s the best they could do.

If Strikeforce is indeed kaput after the January show, some of these guys could be fighting to remain employed by Zuffa, which could make the vibe at the Chesapeake Energy Arena even more somber than it would be already. It’ll be a weird night, full of title fights that don’t mean jack shit, and the sense of impending doom. But hey, it’s what we all wanted, right?

Good News: For Only $4.99, You Can Show Your Genitals to Miesha Tate via Video Chat

(For all you high rollers out there, $5.99 gets you one of these signed with lipstick.)

What in the hell is happening in the world of MMA? First we find out that Ken Shamrock will talk you into a living death for only $11.99 a minute, and now this noise.

Gentlemen, have you ever found yourself watching a Miesha Tate fight and thought, “You know what, that woman is a great fighter, I would love to show her my penis over the internet.” Well today is your lucky day, because a thread on the UG recently brought to light that the former Strikeforce bantamweight women’s champion has apparently launched a “members only” website, where just $4.99 a month (!!!!) gets you access to the following:

-Latest and up to date news
-Latest and up to date appearances and schedule
-Exclusive photos not found anywhere else
-Exclusive videos not found anywhere else
-Access to store for merchandise and memorbilia
-Contests available to fans only
-Be able to submit your picture with Miesha that will be permanently on her website
-Chance to Video Chat with Miesha herself (times and days TBD)
-Book 1 on 1 video chat
-See Marzia stream live from her phone (coming soon)

Let’s see you top that, Carmen!

(For all you high rollers out there, $5.99 gets you one of these signed with lipstick.)

What in the hell is happening in the world of MMA? First we find out that Ken Shamrock will talk you into a living death for only $11.99 a minute, and now this noise.

-Latest and up to date news
-Latest and up to date appearances and schedule
-Exclusive photos not found anywhere else
-Exclusive videos not found anywhere else
-Access to store for merchandise and memorbilia
-Contests available to fans only
-Be able to submit your picture with Miesha that will be permanently on her website
-Chance to Video Chat with Miesha herself (times and days TBD)
-Book 1 on 1 video chat
-See Marzia stream live from her phone (coming soon)

Let’s see you top that, Carmen!

In all seriousness (or at least as serious as we can be while discussing this), the items on this “members only” list seem to range from whatever the opposite of business savvy is to downright strange. Why would you limit who can purchase your merchandise to only those who have signed up for an additional fee to do so? Does she realize that most of these “exclusive” videos and photos will be made public as soon as they are put up on her website? And what kind of basement-dwelling sad sack would actually pay to have their fanboy photo with Miesha on her website? Though to be fair, it could bring a whole new meaning to the term “fist-posing.”

I went there. I apologize.

But rather than continue to mock this idea all over again, I’d rather let the anonymous members of the UG who came across this news do it, because they pretty much cover all the pseudo-sexual and downright mean comments were planning to say anyway. Enjoy.

YellowWrkedByTapIn: She is going to see a LOT of dicks.

Hocky Balboa: I’m kinda broke at the moment, so I’ve been jerking off to Giant Silva video chats for less than a dollar a month. (Ed note: This is my personal fav.)

58miles: Well when even elite WMMA fighters make less than a 17yr old full-time cashier at Walmart, these kinds of situations are going to occur.

_33 24: How long till Honda pays for a chat to break her balls?

And finally, Card, who proves that life, as in movies, is about showing, not telling:

According to the thread, Ronda Rousey has apparently already been notified of this and if history tells us anything, we can expect and epic surprise chat session any day now.

Break out those billfolds and stay tuned.

–J. Jones