Tag: WMMA

And Now She’s Retired: Julie Kedzie Hangs Up Her Gloves Following Loss at UFC Fight Night 33


(Kedzie — being gawked at by Gina Carano and Gary Shaw — in the good ‘ol bad days of women’s MMA. / Photo via George Ruiz)

When Julie Kedzie dropped a split-decision to Bethe Correia at UFC Fight Night 33, it marked her fourth-consecutive loss in MMA, dropping her lifetime record to 16-13. But even before the scores were read, Kedzie had made up her mind that she had reached the end of the road. Directly following the fight, Kedzie went on twitter to announce her retirement from MMA, after nearly ten years in the sport:

Before walking out to my fight today, I had a long talk with my coach and we decided that this would be my last MMA fight. I would have loved to have gone out on a win, but c’est la vie-don’t leave it to the judges. Heartbreak is a huge part of this sport. I really truly want to thank all of you for being a part of my journey as a fighter. I will still be involved in MMA for the rest of my life..but now it’s time for me to accept that I can give more to the sport by stepping back and taking role in helping to develop other fighters. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to the @UFC, my team, and all of you who have made me achieve some amazing dreams.

Female bantamweight old-schoolers like Kedzie, Roxanne Modafferi, and Shayna Baszler have looked a step behind their more modern counterparts during their brief time featured in the UFC and on TUF, but it would be unfair to chalk it up to a lack of talent. What we’ve witnessed lately has been a generational changing-of-the-guard, in which the pioneers — who often start out one-dimensional, rounding out their games as they go along — are replaced by the young fighters who grew up with the sport.

Julie Kedzie began her career in 2004, when eight-person tournaments were still socially acceptable, before women’s MMA was readily available on television, and when there was virtually no incentive for a women to compete in MMA, other than the thrill of competition.


(Kedzie — being gawked at by Gina Carano and Gary Shaw — in the good ‘ol bad days of women’s MMA. / Photo via George Ruiz)

When Julie Kedzie dropped a split-decision to Bethe Correia at UFC Fight Night 33, it marked her fourth-consecutive loss in MMA, dropping her lifetime record to 16-13. But even before the scores were read, Kedzie had made up her mind that she had reached the end of the road. Directly following the fight, Kedzie went on twitter to announce her retirement from MMA, after nearly ten years in the sport:

Before walking out to my fight today, I had a long talk with my coach and we decided that this would be my last MMA fight. I would have loved to have gone out on a win, but c’est la vie-don’t leave it to the judges. Heartbreak is a huge part of this sport. I really truly want to thank all of you for being a part of my journey as a fighter. I will still be involved in MMA for the rest of my life..but now it’s time for me to accept that I can give more to the sport by stepping back and taking role in helping to develop other fighters. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to the @UFC, my team, and all of you who have made me achieve some amazing dreams.

Female bantamweight old-schoolers like Kedzie, Roxanne Modafferi, and Shayna Baszler have looked a step behind their more modern counterparts during their brief time featured in the UFC and on TUF, but it would be unfair to chalk it up to a lack of talent. What we’ve witnessed lately has been a generational changing-of-the-guard, in which the pioneers — who often start out one-dimensional, rounding out their games as they go along — are replaced by the young fighters who grew up with the sport.

Julie Kedzie began her career in 2004, when eight-person tournaments were still socially acceptable, before women’s MMA was readily available on television, and when there was virtually no incentive for a women to compete in MMA, other than the thrill of competition. After winning three fights in one night at the HOOKnSHOOT: 2005 Women’s Grand Prix — taking out Missy Karr, Jen Finney, and Molly Helsel — Kedzie became a regular in the fledgling WMMA circuit, tangling with other notable names like Baszler and Tara LaRosa.

Kedzie got her first big TV spot in February 2007, when she fought Gina Carano on the Showtime broadcast of EliteXC: Destiny, dropping a unanimous decision to Carano in an action-packed three rounder that marked the first women’s bout aired live on American television.

From there, Kedzie’s career endured the highs and lows of any regional fighter trying to make his or her way in the sport. She was part of Ultimate Women Challenge, which began as a promising TUF-clone for women, and quickly turned into a nightmarish fiasco. She also won the Jackson’s MMA Series women’s bantamweight title in April 2011, with a decision win against Kaitlin Young. It was the last time she’d taste victory.

Kedzie landed in Strikeforce, where she lost twice, first to Alexis Davis (by decision), then to Miesha Tate (by third-round armbar). Following the formal dissolution of Strikeforce at the beginning of this year, Kedzie was picked up by the UFC, and lost her Octagon debut to Germaine de Randamie by split-decision. Sometime after that, she decided that competing in MMA wasn’t in her blood anymore. By the time she fought Correia, she was already gone. (Thankfully, she left us with one more classic weigh-in moment.)

Since last year, Kedzie has worked as a broadcaster for the all-female promotion Invicta FC, and she’s also a contributing writer to Fightland, where she’s shared some incredible tales about her life in the sport. The point is, Julie has other things to occupy her, and she retired from the sport for the right reasons. Instead of slogging on for years in local shows, continuing to trade her physical health for small amounts of money, she recognized that being a pro MMA fighter wasn’t really working for her anymore. She doesn’t need it, so she left. Could have been worse.

Julie Kedzie helped build the foundation for American WMMA simply by being there when only a handful of women thought it was worth it, and for that she deserves all of our respect. CagePotato would like to wish Julie the best of luck with everything that comes after this. You can send her some love on twitter @julesk_fighter.


(Remember her well. Props: MMAFighting.com)

[VIDEO] Ronda Rousey’s Training Partner/Bestie Scored Another First Round Sub Over the Weekend and it Wasn’t an Armbar


(Classic Marina, always having to one up her big shot BFF.) 

If you tuned into The Ultimate Fighter at all this season (which judging by the ratings, you probably didn’t), you might have noticed the brooding brunette oft seen standing at Ronda Rousey‘s side, assisting her in training demonstrations, flipping off Miesha Tate, and other such shenanigans. Her name is Marina Shafir, and aside from being Rousey’s longtime training partner/B.F.F, she’s also an undefeated amateur MMA fighter who had secured three straight wins via first round armbar (sound familiar?).

That was of course, until last weekend, when Shafir captured the Tuff-n-Uff women’s featherweight title via a first round submission of Tabitha Patterson at the aptly titled “Future Stars of MMA.” The victory was Shafir’s second in a row to come at the 59 second mark, but in the interest of providing you with some motivation to view the fight video after the jump, we will leave the technique with which Shafir secured said victory up in the air.


(Classic Marina, always having to one up her big shot BFF.) 

If you tuned into The Ultimate Fighter at all this season (which judging by the ratings, you probably didn’t), you might have noticed the brooding brunette oft seen standing at Ronda Rousey‘s side, assisting her in training demonstrations, flipping off Miesha Tate, and other such shenanigans. Her name is Marina Shafir, and aside from being Rousey’s longtime training partner/B.F.F, she’s also an undefeated amateur MMA fighter who had secured three straight wins via first round armbar (sound familiar?).

That was of course, until last weekend, when Shafir captured the Tuff-n-Uff women’s featherweight title via a first round submission of Tabitha Patterson at the aptly titled “Future Stars of MMA.” The victory was Shafir’s second in a row to come at the 59 second mark, but in the interest of providing you with some motivation to view the fight video after the jump, we will leave the technique with which Shafir secured said victory up in the air.

As you can see, Shafir’s standup is unpolished at best, but the woman’s ground game is as overwhelming and vicious as her fellow judoka’s. Just look at how she forced that arm triangle into existence from the moment she pushed Patterson against the cage. As is always the case with Rousey’s opponents, Patterson knew what was coming, and she still couldn’t stop it.

Now that I think of it, the whole finishing sequence reminds me of the harrowing 2008 documentary, Dawn of the Dead. While trapped in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, Sir Ving Rhames declares that ”There are things worse than death, and one of them is sitting here waiting to die.” That’s how I imagine what it must be like to fight Rousey, and to a lesser extent, Shafir. You sign up for the fight, clinging to the hope that you will somehow achieve the impossible, yet ultimately knowing that it can only end in you wiping your ass with the other hand. That, my friends, is worse than death.

–J. Jones

CagePotato PSA: You Can Support Women’s MMA and Still Think a Women’s Fight Was Awful


(Roxanne Modafferi, cruising to another bantamweight title-defense in the Ultimate Friendship Championship. / Photo via Getty)

By Matt Saccaro

In women’s MMA, as in men’s MMA, there are great matches and there are not-so-great matches. Claiming a men’s fight is sub-optimal doesn’t carry a negative stigma. Sure, some “YOU’RE NOT A FIGHTER, BRO” types will get upset, but generally it’s OK to call out the poor aspects of a contest — whether it pertains to the booking or the in-cage action — when two males are fighting.

Making the same comments when women are in the cage changes things. We learned this the hard way on Twitter last night. You’re branded a WMMA hater when you say that every women’s fight on The Ultimate Fighter 18 Finale isn’t Bonnar vs. Griffin I with estrogen.

We don’t hate women’s MMA. CagePotato is a proud sponsor of Invicta strawweight Rose Namajunas, and we’ll be sponsoring Angela “Overkill” Hill for her XFC debut later this month. However, just because we love WMMA doesn’t mean we’re not going to criticize a fight just because it’s between two women.


(Roxanne Modafferi, cruising to another bantamweight title-defense in the Ultimate Friendship Championship. / Photo via Getty)

By Matt Saccaro

In women’s MMA, as in men’s MMA, there are great matches and there are not-so-great matches. Claiming a men’s fight is sub-optimal doesn’t carry a negative stigma. Sure, some “YOU’RE NOT A FIGHTER, BRO” types will get upset, but generally it’s OK to call out the poor aspects of a contest — whether it pertains to the booking or the in-cage action — when two males are fighting.

Making the same comments when women are in the cage changes things. We learned this the hard way on Twitter last night. You’re branded a WMMA hater when you say that every women’s fight on The Ultimate Fighter 18 Finale isn’t Bonnar vs. Griffin I with estrogen.

We don’t hate women’s MMA. CagePotato is a proud sponsor of Invicta strawweight Rose Namajunas, and we’ll be sponsoring Angela “Overkill” Hill for her XFC debut later this month. However, just because we love WMMA doesn’t mean we’re not going to criticize a fight just because it’s between two women.

WMMA became popular because of the determination, dauntlessness, aggression, and outright ferocity of the contests throughout its history. Women often out-shined their XY-chromosomed counterparts whenever they were showcased on the MMA world stage. This is in large part due to the fact that, when WMMA was given airtime, we were generally seeing the best-of-the-best women fighting. As such, their performances were better — the kind that showed us what WMMA was all about and what made MMA fans fall in love with it.

There are still many female MMA fights that showcase these same traits — but not all. Some of the fights on last night’s TUF 18 Finale were just average, and there were moments from those fights that were certainly worthy of a few snarky tweets. Roxanne Modafferi is not a good striker, plain and simple, and Jessica Rakoczy’s terrible pro record can be partially explained by the massive holes in her ground game. As WMMA grows, it will fall prey to the same problems that men’s MMA has faced recently. Some fighters won’t be of the highest quality yet will still have a job in the world’s greatest MMA organization, if only to fill space in a frantic event schedule. Some fights will simply be lackluster.

Pointing these things out, as well as the apparently-controversial fact that not every fight between two women demonstrates “what women’s MMA is all about,” doesn’t mean you don’t like WMMA, because if you didn’t like it you wouldn’t care enough to watch. Supporting gender equality in sports means you should be able to criticize female athletes for bad performances just as quickly as you would with men. And if you follow CagePotato on Twitter and get upset when we express a harsh (but honest) opinion…what the hell are you doing following us in the first place?

Dana White Announces That a Women’s (?) Strawweight Division (?!!) Is in the Works


(Strawweights: Willing to go the extra mile on weigh-in night, and that’s really all that matters. Photo via Bellator.)

Hold onto your butts, Potato Nation, because Dana White just dropped a bomb that will make your insides explode faster than the Denny’s Hobbit menu.

During a recent interview on FOX Sports.com’s “The Fighter & The Kid” podcast, The Baldfather announced that the UFC is currently “working on” putting together a women’s strawweight division, thanks in no small part to the emphatic success of The Ultimate Fighter 18:

“I’ll give you guys something nobody knows yet. We’re actually working on bringing in another division for the women, which I said would never happen for a long time,” White told hosts Brendan Schaub and Bryan Callen. “125 pounds or 145 pounds?” Schaub asked. “Neither . . . 115 pounds,” White replied.

“I never in a million years thought that it would take off the way that it has.”

When asked whether or not the significant downturn TUF ratings have taken over the past few weeks have weighed into his decision, White allegedly told Schaub to “go f*ck himself” before storming out of the room yelling “LALALALALA CAN’T HEAR YOU” with his fingers in his ears. Allegedly.


(Strawweights: Willing to go the extra mile on weigh-in night, and that’s really all that matters. Photo via Bellator.)

Hold onto your butts, Potato Nation, because Dana White just dropped a bomb that will make your insides explode faster than the Denny’s Hobbit menu.

During a recent interview on FOX Sports.com’s “The Fighter & The Kid” podcast, The Baldfather announced that the UFC is currently “working on” putting together a women’s strawweight division, thanks in no small part to the emphatic success of The Ultimate Fighter 18:

“I’ll give you guys something nobody knows yet. We’re actually working on bringing in another division for the women, which I said would never happen for a long time,” White told hosts Brendan Schaub and Bryan Callen. “125 pounds or 145 pounds?” Schaub asked. “Neither . . . 115 pounds,” White replied.

“I never in a million years thought that it would take off the way that it has.”

When asked whether or not the significant downturn TUF ratings have taken over the past few weeks have weighed into his decision, White allegedly told Schaub to “go f*ck himself” before storming out of the room yelling “LALALALALA CAN’T HEAR YOU” with his fingers in his ears. Allegedly.

In all seriousness, this is undoubtedly a great move on the UFC’s part — women have consistently outperformed their male counterparts in terms of viewership this season (save for the recent hiccup that we shall never discuss again) — and have yet to put on a truly boring fight in the octagon thus far. One has to wonder, however, what led the UFC to land on arguably the least stacked division in the already shallow WMMA landscape next. I mean, it’s not like the strawweights have an incredibly talented, charismatic, blonde, Rousey-esque poster girl who knows how to market her sexuality or anything…

–J. Jones

The Beaten Path: 5 WMMA Prospects to Keep Your Eye on by Division

Women’s MMA is rapidly growing due to Invicta FC, the UFC and the popularity of this season’s The Ultimate Fighter. Stars like Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate and Cris “Cyborg” Justino are helping to bring light to the sport, while the young up-and-comers are putting on great fights to keep fans interested. It wasn’t long ago that women […]

Women’s MMA is rapidly growing due to Invicta FC, the UFC and the popularity of this season’s The Ultimate Fighter. Stars like Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate and Cris “Cyborg” Justino are helping to bring light to the sport, while the young up-and-comers are putting on great fights to keep fans interested. It wasn’t long ago that women […]

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Miesha Tate: ‘Emotionally Unstable’ Ronda Rousey Only Promotes Herself, Not WMMA

Upcoming UFC bantamweight title challenger Miesha Tate is looking to avenge a loss to arch nemesis and divisional champ Ronda Rousey at UFC 168, and the secret is out that there is a ton of bad blood between these two fighters.  Rousey and Tate’s heated feud has been getting aired out in the public on […]

Upcoming UFC bantamweight title challenger Miesha Tate is looking to avenge a loss to arch nemesis and divisional champ Ronda Rousey at UFC 168, and the secret is out that there is a ton of bad blood between these two fighters.  Rousey and Tate’s heated feud has been getting aired out in the public on […]

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