No other fights for the 8/18 card have been reported yet, and the venue hasn’t been announced, although Strikeforce’s last two stops in San Diego — for Melendez vs. Masvidal and Diaz vs. Daley — went down at the Valley View Casino.
If Rousey can armbar her way through Kaufman, she may earn the dubious honor of facing Cris Cyborg in her next defense. As Scott Coker recently explained: “I think (a fight between Rousey and Cyborg) is going to be inevitable. I think that fight will happen at some point. We’re just waiting for Cyborg to get off her suspension but that conversation will happen once she’s back ready to fight because her and Ronda at 135-pounds? That might be the highest rated show on Showtime for the year or for the past fights we’ve done. Women’s fights always rate well on Showtime and Ronda’s always delivered.”
No other fights for the 8/18 card have been reported yet, and the venue hasn’t been announced, although Strikeforce’s last two stops in San Diego — for Melendez vs. Masvidal and Diaz vs. Daley — went down at the Valley View Casino.
If Rousey can armbar her way through Kaufman, she may earn the dubious honor of facing Cris Cyborg in her next defense. As Scott Coker recently explained: ”I think (a fight between Rousey and Cyborg) is going to be inevitable. I think that fight will happen at some point. We’re just waiting for Cyborg to get off her suspension but that conversation will happen once she’s back ready to fight because her and Ronda at 135-pounds? That might be the highest rated show on Showtime for the year or for the past fights we’ve done. Women’s fights always rate well on Showtime and Ronda’s always delivered.”
So, two questions…
1) Does Cyborg deserve a title fight directly after coming back from a steroid suspension? What kind of a message does that send? Not that there’s a better option in terms of 135-pound contenders, but shouldn’t she be able to prove that she can compete cleanly before resuming her career as if nothing happened?
2) Will Sarah Kaufman foil these plans altogether? Since losing her own Strikeforce bantamweight belt to Marloes Coenen back in October 2010, Sarah Kaufman has won three straight, including decisions over Liz Carmouche and Alexis Davis. Of course, the fact that her only career loss came via armbar doesn’t bode well for her chances against Rowdy. But upsets happen all the time — especially when future superfights depend on the favorite winning. Any Kaufman fans want to make the case for her against Ronda?
(Unfortunately, there is still no word on the mysterious disappearance of Heidi Androl. Sad.)
It looks like the speculations that arose in the aftermath of Strikeforce: Rousey vs. Tate had some truth behind it, because it has been reported that newly crowned Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey will defend her title against inaugural bantamweight champ Sarah Kaufman. Though no specific date or location has been mentioned, the Strikeforce brass are hoping to have these two throw down sometime in August, and probably in either Nevada or California, as the majority of Strikeforce’s recent cards have been held in those locations.
Rumors of a potential clash between Rousey and Kaufman first started following the pair’s respective wins over Miesha Tate and Alexis Davis on March 13th. “Rowdy” took the considerably easier path to victory, snatching up her fifth consecutive first round armbar in typically gruesome fashion over Tate, whereas Kaufman chose to slug it out with Davis for three rounds in what was one of the most exciting brawls of the year, bar none, and brought home a majority decision victory.
Although Kaufman has a considerable experience and striking advantage over Rousey, her lone loss in sixteen fights has come by way of armbar (to Marloes Coenen in their October 2010 title fight), so expect her to be a considerable underdog coming into this one. As with any fight against Rousey, Kaufman’s only chance will lie in her ability to sprawl-and-brawl with the Olympic judoka, or God forbid take her out of the first round. Then again, we hear Rousey is taking out champions in the men’s division nowadays, so perhaps Kaufman is already dead in the water.
Full fight videos of Kaufman/Davis and Rousey/Tate await you after the jump.
(Unfortunately, there is still no word on the mysterious disappearance of Heidi Androl. Sad.)
It looks like the speculations that arose in the aftermath of Strikeforce: Rousey vs. Tate had some truth behind it, because it has been reported that newly crowned Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey will defend her title against inaugural bantamweight champ Sarah Kaufman. Though no specific date or location has been mentioned, the Strikeforce brass are hoping to have these two throw down sometime in August, and probably in either Nevada or California, as the majority of Strikeforce’s recent cards have been held in those locations.
Rumors of a potential clash between Rousey and Kaufman first started following the pair’s respective wins over Miesha Tate and Alexis Davis on March 13th. “Rowdy” took the considerably easier path to victory, snatching up her fifth consecutive first round armbar in typically gruesome fashion over Tate, whereas Kaufman chose to slug it out with Davis for three rounds in what was one of the most exciting brawls of the year, bar none, and brought home a majority decision victory.
Although Kaufman has a considerable experience and striking advantage over Rousey, her lone loss in sixteen fights has come by way of armbar (to Marloes Coenen in their October 2010 title fight), so expect her to be a considerable underdog coming into this one. As with any fight against Rousey, Kaufman’s only chance will lie in her ability to sprawl-and-brawl with the Olympic judoka, or God forbid take her out of the first round. Then again, we hear Rousey is taking out champions in the men’s division nowadays, so perhaps Kaufman is already dead in the water.
In either case, check out both ladies most recent fights below.
Kaufman vs. Davis
Rousey vs. Tate
Who do you got, Potato Nation, or rather, how long do you think Kaufman will last?
(Once again, we must turn to Rowdy Roddy Piper to lead by example.)
Although moments were tense in the aftermath of “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey’s brutal first round, title-earning armbar over Meisha Tate, it seemed as if the two competitors had finally found, at the minimum, a newfound respect for one another. Sure, Ronda still referred to Meisha as “fake,” but it seemed like these two had perhaps found a common ground. A close friendship and some drunk photos of them making out seemed to be on the horizon, at least to us.
I, personally, would love the opportunity to have a rematch. I think at a high level, it takes one mistake. Anyone can make a mistake at any moment and someone’s able to capitalize on that. I don’t feel that Ronda proved anything other than what she’s already (proved) — that she has one thing that she’s great at. Really phenomenal at. But everything else, I could beat her. Give me another shot. I think it was competitive. I think for the most part I was probably winning. And I think at a competitive high level, one day one person could beat the one person, and the other day the other person would beat the other person.
This statement is…let’s call it ballsy, to say the least. And let’s not get into the fact that, “I think for the most part I was probably winning,” just surpassed Judo Gene LeBell’s “nice big dinner” line as the most hilariously confusing sentence in the history of the English language. A hell of a lot of conviction there.
Well believe it or not, Ronda caught wind of Meisha’s statements, because the Internet is a surprisingly crowded place. And wouldn’t you know, she was not too pleased by them.
Hear what she had to say after the jump.
(Once again, we must turn to Rowdy Roddy Piper to lead by example.)
Although moments were tense in the aftermath of “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey’s brutal first round, title-earning armbar over Meisha Tate, it seemed as if the two competitors had finally found, at the minimum, a newfound respect for one another. Sure, Ronda still referred to Meisha as “fake,” but it seemed like these two had perhaps found a common ground. A close friendship and some drunk photos of them making out seemed to be on the horizon, at least to us.
I, personally, would love the opportunity to have a rematch. I think at a high level, it takes one mistake. Anyone can make a mistake at any moment and someone’s able to capitalize on that. I don’t feel that Ronda proved anything other than what she’s already (proved) — that she has one thing that she’s great at. Really phenomenal at. But everything else, I could beat her. Give me another shot. I think it was competitive. I think for the most part I was probably winning. And I think at a competitive high level, one day one person could beat the one person, and the other day the other person would beat the other person.
This statement is…let’s call it ballsy, to say the least. And let’s not get into the fact that, “I think for the most part I was probably winning,” just surpassed Judo Gene LeBell’s “nice big dinner” line as the most hilariously confusing sentence in the history of the English language. A hell of a lot of conviction there.
Well believe it or not, Ronda caught wind of Meisha’s statements, because the Internet is a surprisingly crowded place. And wouldn’t you know, she was not too pleased by them. When asked for a response to Tate’s claims during a recent interview with BloodyElbow, Ronda responded with a shake of her head and the following verbal beatdown:
It just kind of makes her sound dumb. Everyone knows that I wanted to armbar her, and there was nothing she could do to stop me, even with months of preparation. I think that proves a lot. It’s like she’s not even looking at the actual situation. I don’t know what match she was watching, to really think that. One of those pieces of advice that my mom tells me all the time is, ‘Never listen to your own press.’ The second I got out of that cage, my coach was already telling me a million things I did wrong. It just seems tome like she must be surrounded by a bunch of “yes men” all the time, saying stuff like, ‘Oh yeah, you were winning. You were totally dominating.’ If I was her, I would look at that match, look at what I did wrong, and try to fix it next time, and not be like ‘I was totally winning before I lost.’
Ronda went on to say that she would gladly accept a rematch with Tate, as long as it happened this weekend, and with the same referee as in their first contest. OK, so maybe those last two bits were made up.
Given Tate’s probable layoff, coupled with the general belief that Sarah Kaufman will be getting the next crack at Rousey, it doesn’t look like these two will be seeing one another in the ring anytime soon. However, I leave you with two pieces of evidence that argue that this fight should never, ever, happen again.
And it was here, in this blighted place, that Strikeforce learned to live again… (Props: FoxSports.com)
The fact that a Strikeforce aftermath is being broken down into two separate posts is probably confusing most of our longtime readers, considering we’ve had so little to say about the organization leading up to last night’s Strikeforce card. Ever since Zuffa’s acquisition of the organization, our post-event recaps have focused on Strikeforce’s lack of a direction, now-meaningless titles and ever-diminishing roster. The organization clearly wasn’t going anywhere (i.e. going under), yet it also, well, wasn’t going anywhere (i.e. it wasn’t planning future growth). Yet last night, for the first time in a while, Strikeforce looked like an organization that could consistently provide MMA fans with intriguing, relevant matchups.
After all of the hype that Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate managed to create for last night’s bout, the ending could not have possibly gone better for Strikeforce. Exciting fight? Check. Dramatic finish? Check. And most importantly, Sarah Kaufman’s victory over Alexis Davis on the undercard established a clear challenger for the new champion who actually stands a chance at beating the champion. The biggest problem with Strikeforce’s title fights as of late has been the fact that the champions are simply too much better than anyone that Strikeforce can match them up with (Rockhold vs. Jardine, anyone?). While Rousey continued to look phenomenal in her short MMA career last night, former champion Sarah Kaufman provides another intriguing matchup for her. Back to back championship fights in a Strikeforce weight class that will pit the champion against a formidable opponent who is coming off of a victory: Now that’s encouraging.
And it was here, in this blighted place, that Strikeforce learned to live again… (Props: FoxSports.com)
The fact that a Strikeforce aftermath is being broken down into two separate posts is probably confusing most of our longtime readers, considering we’ve had so little to say about the organization leading up to last night’s Strikeforce card. Ever since Zuffa’s acquisition of the organization, our post-event recaps have focused on Strikeforce’s lack of a direction, now-meaningless titles and ever-diminishing roster. The organization clearly wasn’t going anywhere (i.e. going under), yet it also, well, wasn’t going anywhere (i.e. it wasn’t planning future growth). Yet last night, for the first time in a while, Strikeforce looked like an organization that could consistently provide MMA fans with intriguing, relevant matchups.
After all of the hype that Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate managed to create for last night’s bout, the ending could not have possibly gone better for Strikeforce. Exciting fight? Check. Dramatic finish? Check. And most importantly, Sarah Kaufman’s victory over Alexis Davis on the undercard established a clear challenger for the new champion who actually stands a chance at beating the champion. The biggest problem with Strikeforce’s title fights as of late has been the fact that the champions are simply too much better than anyone that Strikeforce can match them up with (Rockhold vs. Jardine, anyone?). While Rousey continued to look phenomenal in her short MMA career last night, former champion Sarah Kaufman provides another intriguing matchup for her. Back to back championship fights in a Strikeforce weight class that will pit the champion against a formidable opponent who is coming off of a victory: Now that’s encouraging.
For that matter, the victories from both Kazuo Misaki and Jacare Souza are significant for reasons other than a potential UFC call-up. After surprising Paul Daley with a diverse striking attack and surviving a nasty elbow from “Semtex”, Misaki pulled off the upset and won by split decision (don’t ask me what fight that third judge was watching). Even though Misaki doesn’t quite look ready for the UFC, Strikeforce actually has another competent challenger ready for him in Nate Marquardt, who holds two victories over Misaki in Pancrase. Pitting the two against each other makes sense, and should earn the winner a call-up to the majors. Likewise, Jacare displayed a much improved striking attack in his victory over Bristol Marunde. Given that his willingness to stand and trade punches with opponents essentially cost him his first fight against Luke Rockhold, it would be interesting to see how he matches up with the middleweight champion this time around. The bottom line here is that rather than shrugging our shoulders and asking “Okay, now what?”, there are logical matchups awaiting both fighters. It’s refreshing, to say the least.
This isn’t to say that there aren’t any reasons to keep being concerned for Strikeforce, as the event certainly produced some low points. After all of the talk about meaningful championship fights existing for Strikeforce, it’s sort of anti-climatic to bring up that Gilbert Melendez is going to fight Josh Thomson again, especially after his yawn-inducing fight against KJ Noons. Dana White’s recent announcement that he has essentially washed his hands of Strikeforce definitely doesn’t help matters either. And let’s not even start on how a major organization could allow a pedophile with white supremacist tattoos on television.
But after listening to Josh Barnett and Daniel Cormier hype up their clash on May 19th- no matter how insignificant the heavyweight tournament may be at this point- I genuinely feel excited about an upcoming Strikeforce card. I am genuinely curious about future Strikeforce title fights, even if the men’s belts have become meaningless. It’s been a while since I’ve been optimistic about Strikeforce- that’s got to be worth something.
Last night’s Strikeforce card was a memorable one — even though there were a couple aspects of the show that we’d love to forget. Now that the dust has settled, let’s take a look back at Tate vs. Rousey’s thrilling highlights and awful lowlights…
The Good
– First and foremost, this gif from the weigh ins. Oh, Ronda. [*flexes butt seductively*]
– Ronda Rousey‘s title-winning performance against Miesha Tate. We finally learned what Rousey’s “Plan B” is when she’s unable to armbar you within the first minute — unsurprisingly, it’s another armbar. Rousey kept her head when Miesha stormed out at her in the beginning of the fight, calmly extracted herself from bad positions on the ground, and didn’t get discouraged when her first nasty armbar attempt failed to break Miesha’s elbow. Instead, she relied on the judo expertise that has carried her to a title shot in less than a year of professional MMA competition, and got the inevitable snap/tap at 4:27 of round 1. During her post-fight interview, Rousey proved that her heat-seeking personality doesn’t turn off just because the match is over. (Yes, she holds grudges, and yes, she still thinks Tate sucks.) A meeting with former champ Sarah Kaufman is next, but I can’t be the only one looking ahead to a possible 135-pound superfight against Cris Cyborg.
– Ronaldo Souza‘s striking. In the past, Jacare’s occasional tendency to keep fights standing has struck me as a frustrating betrayal of his bread-and-butter. (See also: Demian Maia.) But against Bristol Marunde, Souza’s striking looked just as dangerous as his grappling; his ferocious overhand rights and unconventional kicks brought to mind other Brazilian bangers like Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante and Edson Barboza. Jacare is still evolving as a fighter, and Luke Rockhold should watch his back.
Last night’s Strikeforce card was a memorable one — even though there were a couple aspects of the show that we’d love to forget. Now that the dust has settled, let’s take a look back at Tate vs. Rousey’s thrilling highlights and awful lowlights…
The Good
– First and foremost, this gif from the weigh ins. Oh, Ronda. [*flexes butt seductively*]
– Ronda Rousey‘s title-winning performance against Miesha Tate. We finally learned what Rousey’s “Plan B” is when she’s unable to armbar you within the first minute — unsurprisingly, it’s another armbar. Rousey kept her head when Miesha stormed out at her in the beginning of the fight, calmly extracted herself from bad positions on the ground, and didn’t get discouraged when her first nasty armbar attempt failed to break Miesha’s elbow. Instead, she relied on the judo expertise that has carried her to a title shot in less than a year of professional MMA competition, and got the inevitable snap/tap at 4:27 of round 1. During her post-fight interview, Rousey proved that her heat-seeking personality doesn’t turn off just because the match is over. (Yes, she holds grudges, and yes, she still thinks Tate sucks.) A meeting with former champ Sarah Kaufman is next, but I can’t be the only one looking ahead to a possible 135-pound superfight against Cris Cyborg.
– Ronaldo Souza‘s striking. In the past, Jacare’s occasional tendency to keep fights standing has struck me as a frustrating betrayal of his bread-and-butter. (See also: Demian Maia.) But against Bristol Marunde, Souza’s striking looked just as dangerous as his grappling; his ferocious overhand rights and unconventional kicks brought to mind other Brazilian bangers like Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante and Edson Barboza. Jacare is still evolving as a fighter, and Luke Rockhold should watch his back.
– The Sarah Kaufman vs. Alexis Davis fight on the prelims. If you were able to catch it on Showtime Extreme, consider yourself lucky. Kaufman/Davis was the kind of three-round brawl that you don’t often see in women’s MMA, and it went a long way in securing Kaufman as the rightful next-in-line for a bantamweight title shot. Kaufman will surely be a big underdog against Rousey, but her sprawl-and-brawl style is the perfect skillset for a fight against the champ.
The Bad – Scott Smith‘s physique. Judging by his soft midsection, Smith didn’t take preparations for his return to middleweight seriously enough, and it showed in his performance, where he was manhandled and out-grappled by relative newcomer Lumumba Sayers. The fight was over before Smith had a chance to make one of his miraculous comebacks. With four losses in a row, Smith’s time on the big stage might be over.
– The referee in Tate vs. Rousey not stopping the fight until about eight seconds after Tate’s arm had grown a new elbow. Tate showed her warrior heart by not tapping until the pain was overwhelming; the ref showed his ignorance by not stopping the fight until that moment.
– Josh Thomson‘s safety-first performance against KJ Noons, and his graceless analysis of it: “It was shit…My conditioning was shit, so my fight was shit.” Cool story, bro. Thomson made a big show of his anti-Obama t-shirt after the fight, but at least you have to give him credit for not being a creep about his political opinions, unlike some people we know.
The Ugly
– Kazuo Misaki’s face after his decision win over Paul Daley. After suffering a Marvin Eastman-caliber head gash in the third round, he also ended up with a Ryan McGillivray-style broken nose.
– The Nazi pedophile on the undercard. In an attempt to add more local flavor to the prelims, Strikeforce booked Ohio native Brandon Saling to fight Roger Bowling. Not-so-fun fact: Saling previously did time in prison on a “gross sexual imposition” charge for raping a 12-year-old girl. And he didn’t generate any sympathy last night when he stepped into the cage rocking white supremacist tattoos, including an ’88′ on his shoulder which is Neo Nazi code for “Heil Hitler.” To make a long story short, he’s a shit-stain on the underwear of humanity, and Strikeforce screwed up royally by not doing a basic background check before booking him on their televised prelim broadcast. This is not who we need representing us, guys.
Filed under: StrikeforceNews that Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos tested positive for steroids following her last Strikeforce 145-pound title defense provoked a wide range of responses last week, but shock wasn’t one of them. Some reacted with bitter disappo…
News that Cristiane “Cyborg” Santostested positive for steroids following her last Strikeforce 145-pound title defense provoked a wide range of responses last week, but shock wasn’t one of them. Some reacted with bitter disappointment, others with cynical detachment, but no one who’s ever so much as seen a picture of the Brazilian fighter can say that they haven’t at least considered the possibility that her biceps might have gotten that way via some not-so-natural processes.
For as long as she’s been in the spotlight, that’s kind of been Santos’ thing. She’s the woman with the muscles, the female fighter who looks every bit as terrifying as she fights. The positive steroid test just confirmed what most fans already suspected: there’s a reason you don’t see more women like “Cyborg” running around.
Maybe that’s what’s so disappointing about this whole story. It just seems so obvious. It reminds us once again that the MMA world isn’t some magical, mystical place. Instead, it’s just like the rest of the world. When you suspect someone is a cheater, you eventually find out that you were right. Then you wonder why you ever gave them the benefit of the doubt to begin with.
That’s the real problem for Santos here. When Tim Sylvia popped positive and explained that he just wanted to look good with his shirt off, you could believe him. You took one look at his soggy, pasty torso and thought, yeah, if I had to go topless on TV I might be tempted to do something about that too.
But because Santos has long been known as the heavily muscled, über-aggressive women’s champ, one failed drug test provides an all-too convenient explanation for her exceptionalism and, rightly or wrongly, taints everything she’s ever done. It makes it seem as if this is merely the first time she’s been caught, but far from the first time she’s ever used.
Not that she’s admitted to pumping herself up with stanozolol, of course. Instead she blamed it on an unnamed “dietary supplement” and copped to nothing more serious than a failure to fully investigate the banned substances list. If she were Roy Nelson, that explanation might fly. But Cyborg is Cyborg. When you look like she does, even the mere hint of guilt is more than enough to convict you in the court of public opinion.
Naturally, people will wonder what this means for the future of the women’s division. They wonder the same thing whenever anything interesting happens to a female fighter, and sometimes even when nothing happens at all. For now, Santos has been stripped of the title and the 145-pound division put on hold. And honestly? That’s probably a good thing.
For the past couple years, Santos wasn’t just the champ in that division — she was the division. How can you tell? For starters, it’s a division that might as well not exist while she’s suspended, as UFC president Dana White more or less admitted. Think about it: how many times have you watched a women’s 145-pound bout in Strikeforce that wasn’t a title fight? There aren’t enough women at that weight to have a real division. It’s just Santos beating up one fresh victim after another, many of whom have been cajoled into gaining weight just to get their faces smashed on TV.
The real action in the women’s division is at 135 pounds. Between Miesha Tate, Ronda Rousey, Sarah Kaufman, and Marloes Coenen (among others), there’s a wealth of existing talent with more coming up all the time. Santos might have had a certain circus appeal — again, probably for the very same reasons she now finds herself suspended — but the competition is in the 135-pound class, where the fighters sport credible physiques and the interest isn’t limited to one dominant champ.
White loves to brag that he never gave in to the siren’s song of freak show fights, even when his company was struggling. And while matching Santos up against one undersized opponent after another isn’t exactly a freak show, neither is it indicative of a genuine interest in women’s MMA. It’s a sideshow. It’s the scary lady with the muscles against whichever brave soul would take the fight. Now that that option has been eliminated, at least for the time being, White and his crew would be smart to move the spotlight further down the scale, where there’s an actual division taking shape.
Santos’ current predicament is still disappointing, even if it’s not surprising, but it doesn’t have to be a negative for MMA. If the absence of Santos means a bigger share of the pie for the women who are (hopefully) competing clean against opponents their own size, it might just be the best thing that could have happened.
And who knows, maybe Santos can use the forced vacation time to slim down and join her colleagues at a lower weight class. Tossing that “dietary supplement” in the trash might be a good way to start.
News that 
