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Cris Cyborg Re-Signs With Strikeforce — Next Fight Still TBA

(“Hey, remember when I punched you in the face? That was awesome.” Photo courtesy of Esther/Strikeforce)

Inactive for 14 months (and counting), Cristiane “Cris Cyborg” Santos confirmed via Twitter last night that she has finally re-signed with Strikeforce. The 145-pound women’s champ officially became a free-agent in June, when her champion’s clause expired before she and Strikeforce could come to terms on a new deal. Though she had been negotiating with other organizations — and was even courted by the WWE — Santos is back where she belongs, and will face Opponent TBA at Event TBA.

Of course, Cyborg’s original problem still remains — that there are no credible challengers ready to fight her. I have a bad feeling that Ronda Rousey is about to get a life-changing phone call very soon.

(“Hey, remember when I punched you in the face? That was awesome.” Photo courtesy of Esther/Strikeforce)

Video: Is Ronda Rousey the New ‘New Face of Women’s MMA’?

(Props: mmasavvy)

As a competitive judoka, Cali-bred Ronda Rousey earned a bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics and a gold medal at the 2007 Pan Am Games. As a budding MMA fighter, she has won all five of her fights (2 pro, 3 amateur) by submission, all in less than a minute. Now training with Team Hayastan in Santa Monica, Rousey makes her Strikeforce debut tomorrow night at Strikeforce Challengers: Gurgel vs. Duarte in Las Vegas, where she’ll face Sarah D’Alelio. So yeah, it’s time for you to start paying attention to this woman.

As she explains in the above video, women’s MMA needs another visible competitor to fill the vacuum left by Gina Carano. (Uh, hello?) Even though people haven’t seen her standup yet, she feels she’s better than D’Alelio on the feet, and if their fight lasts more than a minute, hey, that’s cool too. Is another women’s MMA star about to be born? After the jump, a glimpse of the kind of ferocious ground-work that Ronda could be showing off tomorrow…

(Props: mmasavvy)

(Ronda Rousey vs. Taylor Stratford, 1/7/11)

Olympic Judoka Ronda Rousey Signs with Strikeforce

When fans booed the first women’s MMA match promoted by Zuffa, most of us assumed we were witnessing the beginning of the end for women’s MMA under the Zuffa banner. Strikeforce allowing their women’s middleweight champion Chris “Cyborg” Santos to become a free agent seemed to confirm that. However, it seems that Strikeforce still intends to keep women’s MMA around for the time being. On Friday, Strikeforce announced that Olympic judoka Ronda Rousey will be making her promotional debut on the prelims of the July 30 Fedor vs. Henderson card against 4-1 Sarah D’Alelio.

At 24 years old, Rousey is a very interesting prospect. She became the first American woman to earn an Olympic medal in judo, winning a Bronze medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. She celebrated this by becoming a vegan. Seriously. She is currently 2-0 as a professional MMA fighter, with both fights ending in under a minute by armbar. For that matter, all of her amateur fights ended that way as well. To say the least, the odds are pretty good that her fight against Sarah D’Alelio won’t last too long.

Video of her June 17 fight against Charmaine Tweet after the jump.

Dana White Has a Plan ‘B’ If Strikeforce Doesn’t Work Out Under the Zuffa Banner

1 by Zuffaforce

Dana White was interviewed by Forbes $ports Money while he was in Toronto for UFC 129 last month and as always the UFC president had a lot to say.

Among other items, The Baldfather touched on some hot button topics like the UFC’s plans for Strikeforce, whether or not women’s MMA will survive the merger and what prompted the minority stake sale of 10 percent of the company to Flash Entertainment.

Check out the transcription of some of the key quotes from the show after the jump.

1 by Zuffaforce

Dana White was interviewed by Forbes $ports Money while he was in Toronto for UFC 129 last month and as always the UFC president had a lot to say.

Here’s what White had to say:

About why the UFC purchased Strikeforce:

“Well, Strikeforce was for sale. The funny thing about the reputation that we have is that we’re anti-competition, which couldn’t be further from the truth. But the reality is, as we continue to expand and grow, we do need more fighters and we love the content. We need more content. The one thing that these guys have who do it right, and the ones that we usually end up buying, is they have a great library, they have a stable of fighters and if they have a name and a television deal like Strikeforce did, that’s not a bad thing either.”

About whether or not he sees Strikeforce existing separately from the UFC for the long term:

“The thing with Strikeforce is, when we acquired them they have a deal with Showtime. We’re working with Showtime now, which I’ve had a very rocky relationship with, but Lorenzo is working with them right now, and we’re gonna try to run this thing separately and we’ll see how it goes.We’ll see if we can pull this thing off and make it happen. If it didn’t happen, the worst case scenario that happens if we own Strikeforce is these guys roll over into the UFC.”

About whether or not he feels the the skill level of athletes will continue to evolve as fast as it has:

“Yeah, well that’s our thing. The great thing about this sport is mixed martial arts is the new martial art. When you and I were growing up, parents would put you in karate or tae kwon do and stuff like that. Kids are taking mixed martial arts. This is what women, children, businessmen, guys who want to fight — this is what they train in and not just here, but all over the world. I’m in a position right now where I can get a fighter from anywhere in the world right now. As this thing continues to grow and progress, guys that would have played baseball, basketball, football — guys who are real athletes — you’re going to see a lot of them becoming mixed martial artists.”

About whether or not women’s MMA has a future under th Zuffa banner:

“There’s this big misconception out there about me that I don’t like women’s fighting and everything else. I have no problem with women’s fighting. The problem I have right now — and it was a problem with boxing and it’s a problem with MMA right now — is that you don’t have enough women who are good enough to create an entire division. So what you get are a couple of women who are very good and a lot of women that really aren’t, and I don’t like lopsided fights, especially with women. So as this sport continues to grow, if there are more and more women where you can actually create an entire division with a lot of talented women, I’m all about it.”

About why Zuffa decided to part with a 10 percent share of the company to Abu Dhabi-based Flash Entertainment:

“Everybody was coming at us and wanted to either buy or buy into it and we didn’t need the money. There was no added value in bringing in any of these guys, so it didn’t make sense. But when we hooked up with Flash Entertainment from Abu Dhabi, these guys are the largest investment firm in the world. Not only do they have the capital, but these guys have relationships. This was more of a strategic move for us. These guys were good business partners to get in, especially as we continue to expand. Can we fly over there and set up meetings in China? I don’t know. Maybe we can do it. With these guys we can.”

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.

Face-Off of the Year Candidate: Felice Herrig vs. Nicdali Rivera-Calanoc

(Props: MMARecap via MiddleEasy)

XFO 39 goes down tonight at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, featuring Jeff Curran’s “win or retire” match against Billy Vaughn, Jamie Varner‘s first post-WEC match against Tyler Combs, and a women’s bout between the lovely Felice Herrig and 7-4 Tulsa-based scrapper Nicdali Rivera-Calanoc. At yesterday’s weigh-ins, Felice and Nicdali produced one of the greatest staredown photos in recent memory. (Whether you prefer this one or Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort pretty much depends on if you prefer chicks or dudes. Sorry. That’s the deal.) XFO 39 will be streamed live on alienwarearena.com/mma; the card kicks off at 7 p.m.

(Props: MMARecap via MiddleEasy)