Tag: mieshatate

Featherweight Champ Cris ‘Cyborg’ Santos Wants to Rule Bantamweight, Too

Filed under: Strikeforce, NewsAfter a seemingly interminable, 18-month trip to the sidelines during the prime of her career, Strikeforce women’s featherweight champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos is finally heading back where she belongs, in the middle o…

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After a seemingly interminable, 18-month trip to the sidelines during the prime of her career, Strikeforce women’s featherweight champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos is finally heading back where she belongs, in the middle of the cage.

When Santos returns at December 17’s Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Masvidal event, she’ll have the respected Japanese fighter Hiroko Yamanaka standing across from her, hoping to wrest the belt away. But like always, Santos will enter as a huge favorite to retain her championship in dominant fashion, and a win could open the door for her to become a two-division champion.

That’s because Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker told reporters on Tuesday that the promotion plans to continue both Cyborg’s featherweight class, as well as the bantamweight class, currently reigned over by champ Miesha Tate. Recently, it had been rumored that the featherweight class would be dropped. But even though Coker suggests Cyborg’s division will still be in play, the Brazilian phenom said she is interested in fighting in both classes.

“It’s going to be difficult but I’m going to try to make the move if there’s more work for me there,” Santos said on Tuesday.

“I want to try to do both categories if possible, but I know there is more opportunity at 135,” she added.

It’s hard to blame “Cyborg” for looking to fill her plate after her recent stretch of inactivity. She had fought four times in 14 months from April 2009 to June 2010, scoring four KO/TKO finishes in that time, but the last of those wins over Jan Finney was the last fight on her contract.

The two sides engaged in lengthy negotiations, and for a time, Santos announced she would fight in her home country, but every possibility to return to action seemed to fall through for her until she finally re-signed with her current promotion in August 2011.

Still just 26 years old, Santos will attempt to shake off the ring rust while defending her belt. She sees the layoff as no issue, choosing to emphasize the improvements she was able to make while honing her craft in the gym.

“I feel like I’ve gotten better at jiu-jitsu, I’ve been staying competitive in that aspect,” she said. “I’ve been working on boxing, striking. I feel I’m better and more well-rounded as a fighter than I was before.”

If that’s true, now fighters in two weight classes will have to contend with her unique blend of athleticism, power and technique.

 

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MMA Top 10 Women: Ronda Rousey Enters the Top 5

Filed under: Strikeforce, Bellator, Rankings, Women’s OverallRonda Rousey is the next big thing in women’s mixed martial arts.

The undefeated Rousey, who beat Julia Budd on the Nov. 18 Strikeforce Challengers card, has been running through her competi…

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Ronda Rousey is the next big thing in women’s mixed martial arts.

The undefeated Rousey, who beat Julia Budd on the Nov. 18 Strikeforce Challengers card, has been running through her competition like few fighters, male or female, we’ve ever seen: Rousey is 4-0, and incredibly all four of her wins have come in less than a minute, all by armbar. Before turning pro she had three amateur fights, and she won all three of those by armbar in less than a minute, too.

And so, although she’s still new to the sport and still hasn’t been tested against the best women Strikeforce has to offer, Rousey makes my Top 5 as we rank the top pound-for-pound fighters in women’s MMA. She looks that good.

What we don’t know yet is whether Rousey is more than just a one-trick pony: If she faces an opponent who’s able to keep the fight standing, will she be able to hold her own exchanging punches? And although she’s not going to face anyone who’s on her level as a judo player, will she be able to execute more than just her go-to arm bar if she faces an opponent who’s sophisticated enough on the ground not to let Rousey get her arm?

It remains to be seen. But I think she’s a future champion, and I think she deserves her place on the list of the top women in the sport, which is below.

Top 10 pound-for-pound women in MMA

(Editor’s note: The ranking from the last time we ranked women are in parentheses)

1. Cris Cyborg (1): After more than a year away, Cyborg returns to defend her women’s 145-pound title against Hiroko Yamanaka. That’s an interesting matchup; Yamanaka has a 12-1 record and will have a height and reach advantage over Cyborg. But Yamanaka has never fought outside Japan before, and Cyborg has been so dominant that at this point it’s very tough to see anyone beating her.

2. Zoila Gurgel (2): It’s unfortunate that after Gurgel’s huge win over Megumi Fujii, she’s only been able to fight once. She’s currently nursing a torn ACL and won’t be back any time soon. It would make sense for Bellator to arrange another women’s tournament for the right to take on Gurgel, although it’s not clear whether that’s in the promotion’s plans.

3. Miesha Tate (7): Tate turned in a great performance against Marloes Coenen to win the Strikeforce 135-pound women’s championship. What really worked for her in the Coenen fight was her superior wrestling, and it’s her wrestling that would make her a favorite to beat almost any female fighter in the world.

4. Megumi Fujii (3): In the year since suffering her one and only loss to Gurgel, Fujii has gone back to Japan and won a couple of unanimous decisions. I’d like to see her back in the Bellator cage in 2012, and a rematch with Gurgel would be the biggest women’s fight Bellator could make.

5. Ronda Rousey (NR): Rousey has been calling out Tate, and although the next shot at Tate’s 135-pound title was supposed to go to Sarah Kaufman, Zuffa may decide that Rousey is too hot to hold off on right now. Rousey is an easy sell for promoters because she’s smart and articulate and an Olympic bronze medalist in judo, and putting her in the cage with Tate would be one of the most marketable female fights that Strikeforce could arrange.

6. Marloes Coenen (4): First Coenen lost her Strikeforce title to Tate, then she lost her contract when her management at Golden Glory feuded with Zuffa. Now it’s anyone’s guess when or where she might fight next; she’s with an organization called BlackEye Promotions, which has no events scheduled.

7. Sarah Kaufman (5): Kaufman’s only loss was to Coenen, and since then she’s won two in a row, supposedly earning a title shot against Tate, whom Kaufman beat in 2009. The question is whether Strikeforce will push Kaufman aside to put Rousey in the cage with Tate.

8. Jessica Aguilar (8): Aguilar looked great in her unanimous decision win over Lisa Ellis-Ward at Bellator 58. Aguilar has now won seven of her last eight fights, with the only loss coming by split decision to Gurgel.

9. Tara LaRosa (6): LaRosa has been inactive since her great heel-hook submission of Carina Damm in March, and as a result a couple of more active fighters have leapfrogged her in the rankings. LaRosa is one of the real pioneers for women’s MMA. Let’s hope she’s back in the cage soon.

10. Alexis Davis (NR): Davis has had a couple big wins since we last updated our women’s rankings, beating Julie Kedzie by unanimous decision in July and then beating Amanda Nunes by TKO in September. I hope Zuffa keeps Strikeforce’s 135-pound women’s division alive, because Davis could be a great opponent for Tate, Kaufman or Rousey.

 

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Miesha Tate: Marloes Coenen Got ‘Exposed’ in Her Last Fight

Filed under: StrikeforceBy the time Miesha Tate steps in the cage to challenge for Marloes Coenen’s Strikeforce women’s welterweight title on July 30, it will have been nearly a year since her last fight.

For most fighters, that’s about the point whe…

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By the time Miesha Tate steps in the cage to challenge for Marloes Coenen‘s Strikeforce women’s welterweight title on July 30, it will have been nearly a year since her last fight.

For most fighters, that’s about the point where the dreaded ring rust starts to be an issue. But in this case, at least according to Tate, inactivity might prove to be a virtue.

“I’ve had a lot of opportunity to study her and see where her game is at,” Tate said of Coenen. “This time, since I haven’t fought for a year, I think it will benefit me because she’ll be expecting and game-planning and preparing for the fighter I was a year ago. I switched camps, I’ve been training in Sacramento with Urijah Faber and Chad Mendes and Brian [Caraway] and all the guys at Team Alpha Male, and the amount of growth I’ve had in this past year, I’m just a completely different fighter.”

It also helps that Tate got a chance to see Coenen fight as recently as March, and in a contest where she struggled early on. That was supposed to be Tate’s title shot until an injury forced her to withdraw. Instead, Strikeforce slotted the relatively inexperienced Liz Carmouche in against the 135-pound champion, and for the better part of three rounds Carmouche roughed Coenen up with superior wrestling and ground-and-pound skills.

The fight served as something of a scouting report, Tate said, and even though Coenen pulled out the win via a fourth-round triangle choke, the challenger was encouraged by what she saw that night.

“I think Liz is a somewhat greener version of me,” Tate said. “What happened to [Coenen] in that fight, that was what I’d already suspected of Marloes. She kind of got exposed in that fight as far as some of her weaknesses.”

The problem for Tate, and for Coenen, is that while Zuffa seems interested in continuing the women’s division under the Strikeforce banner for now, there’s no telling what might happen once Strikeforce’s contract with Showtime runs out and Zuffa is forced to make some decisions about the future of the organization.

That’s why there’s more pressure than ever on the female fighters to show that they are a viable draw, Tate said — though they get precious few opportunities to make that point.

“The thing about this, as with any fight card, for the men there’s going to be exciting fights and boring fights,” said Tate. “Just like [Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum], there were exciting fights and boring fights. But the women only get one shot. We usually only get one [women’s] fight per fight card. Sometimes it might be boring, just like the men, but then all of women’s MMA gets judged on that one fight. So yeah, there’s a little more pressure on that one fight to really shine, so that not everyone goes away with a bad taste about women’s MMA overall.”

That pressure to perform — along with the anxiety about long-term job security for female fighters under the Zuffa banner — makes this title fight an even bigger deal for Tate. Not only does she have to worry about making the most out of her long-awaited crack at the belt, she also has to put on enough of a show to make the powers that be appreciate her value.

It isn’t an easy burden to bear, Tate admitted, but it’s not as if she has much choice.

“I know we’ll probably be around at least as long as the Strikeforce and Showtime contract is still in motion. After that, I don’t know. I really want to go out there and put on a spectacular performance against Marloes just to show that we’re really talented athletes and we bring it every fight. We’re entertaining, and we can sell tickets. Bottom line, that’s what it comes down to.”

 

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Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson Fight Card

Filed under: StrikeforceThe Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson fight card features a Dan Henderson vs. Fedor Emelianenko main event on July 30 and emanates from the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman States, Ill.

The superfight between former PRIDE champions…

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Fedor vs. Henderson fight card.The Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson fight card features a Dan Henderson vs. Fedor Emelianenko main event on July 30 and emanates from the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman States, Ill.

The superfight between former PRIDE champions will be at a catchweight of 220 pounds. Fedor finds himself on a two-fight losing streak after getting bounced from the Strikeforce Heavyweight GP by Antonio Silva. Meanwhile, Henderson is moving up in weight after capturing the Strikeforce light heavyweight belt over Rafael Cavalcante in March.

The fight card is below.

Showtime Bouts
Dan Henderson vs. Fedor Emelianenko
Marloes Coenen vs. Miesha Tate
Paul Daley vs. Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos
Roger Gracie vs. Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal


Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson airs live on Showtime at 10 p.m. ET.

 

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Strikeforce Announces Fighters for Women’s Tournament ‘Reserve Bout’

Filed under: Strikeforce, NewsStrikeforce on Tuesday announced the backup fighters for its first women’s tournament, as well as the official rules for that tournament, which will be held Aug. 13 as part of a Strikeforce Challengers show in Phoenix.

Co…

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Strikeforce on Tuesday announced the backup fighters for its first women’s tournament, as well as the official rules for that tournament, which will be held Aug. 13 as part of a Strikeforce Challengers show in Phoenix.

Colleen Schneider and Liz Carmouche will take part in what the promotion is terming a “reserve bout” as part of the 135-pound, four-woman event. The two will fight on the preliminary card. The main card will air live on Showtime.