(Go gentle into that good night, hot secretary. /Photo via Sherdog)
The writing’s been on the wall for a some time now — Bellator didn’t put on any women’s fights during their brief 2013 Summer Series, only featured three women’s bouts during all of Season 8, and hasn’t hosted a women’s tournament since 2010. Last night, Bjorn Rebney released a statement confirming that their last three contracted female fighters have been released, and that Bellator will no longer be promoting women’s MMA:
“Jessica Eye, Jessica Aguilar and Felice Herrig represent all that is good in women’s MMA. Both Eye and Aguilar are ranked No. 1 in the world in their respective divisions and carry themselves with class and distinction, elevating the women’s game. I’ve said many times that fighters need to fight, and fight often. Given our current focus, we are not in a position to provide these very deserving women regular and recurring fights on a large platform, and I felt it was best to let them go and secure options that did. I genuinely wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors and will be rooting for each of them wherever they fight.”
Since the arrival of Invicta FC last year, followed by the debut of female bantamweights in the UFC, the marketplace for women’s MMA has become much more competitive. Bellator’s early efforts to promote women’s fighting were admirable, but at some point they began to lose interest. Notably, Bellator virtually forgot about Zoila Frausto after she won the promotion’s inaugural strawweight tournament, and there’s been nothing resembling a long-term strategy for women in Bellator since then. Essentially, there are other promotions doing women’s MMA much better these days, and with bigger stars. (See: Rousey, Cyborg.) Seems like a good time to walk away.
(Go gentle into that good night, hot secretary. /Photo via Sherdog)
The writing’s been on the wall for a some time now — Bellator didn’t put on any women’s fights during their brief 2013 Summer Series, only featured three women’s bouts during all of Season 8, and hasn’t hosted a women’s tournament since 2010. Last night, Bjorn Rebney released a statement confirming that their last three contracted female fighters have been released, and that Bellator will no longer be promoting women’s MMA:
“Jessica Eye, Jessica Aguilar and Felice Herrig represent all that is good in women’s MMA. Both Eye and Aguilar are ranked No. 1 in the world in their respective divisions and carry themselves with class and distinction, elevating the women’s game. I’ve said many times that fighters need to fight, and fight often. Given our current focus, we are not in a position to provide these very deserving women regular and recurring fights on a large platform, and I felt it was best to let them go and secure options that did. I genuinely wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors and will be rooting for each of them wherever they fight.”
Since the arrival of Invicta FC last year, followed by the debut of female bantamweights in the UFC, the marketplace for women’s MMA has become much more competitive. Bellator’s early efforts to promote women’s fighting were admirable, but at some point they began to lose interest. Notably, Bellator virtually forgot about Zoila Frausto after she won the promotion’s inaugural strawweight tournament, and there’s been nothing resembling a long-term strategy for women in Bellator since then. Essentially, there are other promotions doing women’s MMA much better these days, and with bigger stars. (See: Rousey, Cyborg.) Seems like a good time to walk away.
Though Eye, Aguilar, and Herrig are all too small to find homes in the UFC’s bantamweight division, strawweight Felice Herrig has already signed a multi-fight contract with Invicta FC, and will make her debut later this year:
“I couldn’t be happier than I am now, after signing with Invicta FC,” said Herrig. “I have seen them do so much for women and really give them a chance to shine. I don’t think anyone realized how big Invicta FC would become, and I am truly proud to say I have found a home with them.”
Herrig, who went 3-0 under the Bellator banner — and quickly became the best reason to watch their weigh-ins — has won her last four fights by decision. Invicta features a stacked roster at 115 pounds, led by champion Carla Esparza, and featuring a pack of exciting contenders and prospects like Rose Namajunas, Bec Hyatt, Tecia Torres, Claudia Gadelha, and Joanne Calderwood. It’s the best place in the world for a female strawweight looking for bigger opportunities, and Herrig will make a great addition. Best of luck, Lil’ Bulldog.
So there’s this featherweight from Santa Catarina named Julio Cesar Neves, and he’s an absolute monster. In less than two years of professional competition, Neves has racked up a record of 26-0 (!), with 24 of those wins by stoppage. On Saturday, he picked up his 13th win of the year (!!), and we have a feeling this one will get him noticed by the big leagues.
The fight you see above went down at Watch Out Combat Show 28, where Neves faced Dener Dos Santos. Less than two minutes into the first round, Neves fires a capoeira-style cartwheel kick that immediately sends Dos Santos into falling-tree mode. Your move, Lelo.
And now, in the women’s division, we have a knockout that’s less flashy, more smashy…
So there’s this featherweight from Santa Catarina named Julio Cesar Neves, and he’s an absolute monster. In less than two years of professional competition, Neves has racked up a record of 26-0 (!), with 24 of those wins by stoppage. On Saturday, he picked up his 13th win of the year (!!), and we have a feeling this one will get him noticed by the big leagues.
The fight you see above went down at Watch Out Combat Show 28, where Neves faced Dener Dos Santos. Less than two minutes into the first round, Neves fires a capoeira-style cartwheel kick that immediately sends Dos Santos into falling-tree mode. Your move, Lelo.
And now, in the women’s division, we have a knockout that’s less flashy, more smashy…
On July 27th, atomweight prospect Jinh Yu Frey produced a strong front-runner for WMMA Knockout of the Year at Sugar Creek Showdown 18 in Hinton, Oklahoma, when she put Darla Harris to sleep in the first round. Frey stunned Harris with a hard head kick, then knocked her clean out with a brutal straight-left. As Harris began to topple over in the familiar falling-tree style, Frey fired off another straight left, helping to speed up her opponent’s descent to the mat. The win bumped Frey’s pro record to 2-0. An injury and grad school might postpone her return to the cage, but we hope to see Frey on a bigger stage in the future.
There are points in MMA history that if one punch is ducked, one kick is thrown, one submission is secured, the entire fate of the sport changes.
Numerous fights hold the distinction of being important enough that history hung in the balance while the combatants tried to incapacitate one another, but one that doesn’t get much attention in the discussion of Griffin/Bonnar-level important fights is Gina Carano vs. Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos (or now Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino. Whatever, we’re just gonna call her Cyborg). Yeah, most people recognize its importance as the first BIG fight in WMMA history, but their appreciation for it doesn’t extend past that. And, historically, it shouldn’t. The fight was a big deal but it lead to nothing good. It sent the most recognized fighter in WMMA away from the sport forever. Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate, and others had to pick up the mantle that Gina Carano ran away from.
But, for a moment, let us pretend that the result of Carano vs. Cyborg was reversed. That’s what the second installment of CagePotato’s Alternate History series is based on: The fallout of Gina Carano hypothetically defeating Cyborg in Strikeforce.
What Would’ve Happened if Gina Carano Defeated Cyborg in 2009?
Before we get into counterfactuals, let’s briefly discuss what happened historically.
EliteXC (gee it fields weird to type that name again) had a burgeoning women’s division, no doubt to say “Hey, we have something the UFC doesn’t” and to draw attention away from the fact that their male roster wasn’t as loaded as the UFC’s. Not an issue though, because the women were awesome. Two specific ones were more awesome than most: Carano and Cyborg.
Carano was the most marketable female fighter at the time because she’s fucking gorgeous — and not just “fighter” hot, but seriouslyattractive. She could fight pretty damn well, too. Pushing Carano was therefore a no-brainer.
Cyborg isn’t conventionally attractive but she’s gifted at inflicting violence. Legitimate talent combined with an affinity for smashing fighters in a crowd-pleasing way is easy to promote.
There are points in MMA history that if one punch is ducked, one kick is thrown, one submission is secured, the entire fate of the sport changes.
Numerous fights hold the distinction of being important enough that history hung in the balance while the combatants tried to incapacitate one another, but one that doesn’t get much attention in the discussion of Griffin/Bonnar-level important fights is Gina Carano vs. Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos (or now Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino. Whatever, we’re just gonna call her Cyborg). Yeah, most people recognize its importance as the first BIG fight in WMMA history, but their appreciation for it doesn’t extend past that. And, historically, it shouldn’t. The fight was a big deal but it lead to nothing good. It sent the most recognized fighter in WMMA away from the sport forever. Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate, and others had to pick up the mantle that Gina Carano ran away from.
But, for a moment, let us pretend that the result of Carano vs. Cyborg was reversed. That’s what the second installment of CagePotato’s Alternate History series is based on: The fallout of Gina Carano hypothetically defeating Cyborg in Strikeforce.
What Would’ve Happened if Gina Carano Defeated Cyborg in 2009?
Before we get into counterfactuals, let’s briefly discuss what happened historically.
EliteXC (gee it fields weird to type that name again) had a burgeoning women’s division, no doubt to say “Hey, we have something the UFC doesn’t” and to draw attention away from the fact that their male roster wasn’t as loaded as the UFC’s. Not an issue though, because the women were awesome. Two specific ones were more awesome than most: Carano and Cyborg.
Carano was the most marketable female fighter at the time because she’s fucking gorgeous — and not just “fighter” hot, but seriouslyattractive. She could fight pretty damn well, too. Pushing Carano was therefore a no-brainer.
Cyborg isn’t conventionally attractive but she’s gifted at inflicting violence. Legitimate talent combined with an affinity for smashing fighters in a crowd-pleasing way is easy to promote.
Carano easily plowed through her competition while in EliteXC while Cyborg did the same. But the two never got to meet under the EliteXC banner. An off-balance jab from Seth Petruzelli straight to Kimbo Slice’s bearded chin sealed EliteXC’s fate (and, thankfully, sent the intolerable douchebag $kala back to obscurity).
After EliteXC’s demise, Strikeforce championed women’s MMA. They had Carano vs. Cyborg main event a show (the first time two women headlined a major MMA event) in August 2009. The fight wasn’t competitive. Cyborg was Gallagher and Carano was a hapless, helpless watermelon. Carano left the sport for Hollywood, never to return. Cyborg body-slammed Tito Ortiz, pissed hot for steroids, and beat up some fighters that she was way better than — a disappointing aftermath for one of the biggest fights in WMMA history.
But what if the fighter’s fortunes were reversed?
For argument’s sake, we’ll say that Carano didn’t botch the knee-bar she rolled for in the first round and managed to tap out Cyborg. What would’ve happened then?
Gina Carano (and a bunch of women for her to beat up) get brought into the UFC as soon as possible — and it ends badly.
Dana White is all about the money. He once swore that we’d NEVER see women in the UFC. But, here we are a couple years later with women in the UFC. What changed?
Ronda Rousey. The UFC realized they could hire a sexy, talented, silver-tongued woman and promote the shit out of her so that Dana White can buy more Ferraris while saying that the UFC pay scale is fine. White himself is open about this fact (well, the part about Rousey, anyway). He said so in an interview with Zuffa minister of propaganda journalist Ariel Helwani back in December:
“I’m putting my toe in the water, and I’m checking it out. There’s no doubt, for people who say, ‘Oh, this is the Ronda Rousey show,’ fuck right it is. You’re absolutely right. I’m not trying to shy away from that and say, ‘Oh no, we’re getting into women’s MMA.’ This is the Ronda Rousey Show.”
In this alternate timeline, Zuffa decides to bring the “Gina Carano Show” to the UFC as soon as possible after she beats Cyborg. Now, this is where it gets a little murky. Contractually speaking, it’s difficult to determine when the UFC could’ve poached the women away from Strikeforce. When Cyborg signed on with Strikeforce, she had a four-fight deal. After the Carano fight, Cyborg had two fights left. Finding Carano’s contract details has proved more difficult. All I can find is that she re-negotiated a new contract with Strikeforce after they purchased EliteXC’s assets. I’m no lawyer, so I’m not going to pretend to understand contractual intricacies. So, for the sake of this counterfactual, let’s pretend that the UFC lures Carano, Cyborg, and other prominent female fighters into the Octagon sometime after Carano-Cyborg but BEFORE Strikeforce can make the much-anticipated rematch.
What happens then and why does it end badly?
The UFC women’s division, in this alternate history, serves the same purpose that the current women’s division does: To act as a feeder system to the star at the top. In this alternate timeline, the star at the top is Gina Carano. Zuffa has Carano crush cans and has Cyborg do the same in order to build to an all-important rematch between the two. Maybe they even put them as coaches on a TUF season.
In the rematch, if Cyborg beats Carano, Carano takes her ball and goes to Hollywood like she did historically.
If Carano beats Cyborg in the rematch, the supply of money that can be made from the only feud in WMMA that people cared about is exhausted. Carano, sensing greener pastures and more money without having to damage her looks, leaves for Hollywood anyway. Once the cash cow at the top is gone, the feeder system no longer serves a purpose. Uncle Dana and Co. disband the women’s division (there’s a historical precedent for this; they disbanded the lightweight division in 2003).
“Never fucking again,” Dana White will tell reporters. Ronda Rousey’s emergence in 2011 isn’t even a blip on Zuffa’s radar screen. Why would it be? They tried their WMMA experiment and it failed. WMMA’s one chance in the UFC was blown.
It hasn’t even been two weeks since Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino fought and won in MMA against Marloes Coenen at Invicta FC 6, but the new featherweight champion has booked not one but two Muay Thai fights for herself on August 25th in Thailand. “Cyborg will take on France’s top kickboxer Angelique Pitiot and Italy’s Annalisa Bucci, with one taking three rounds and the other two rounds,” Wombat Sports reports.
“Cyborg” represents the famed Brazilian Chute Boxe team, which has Muay Thai as its base, but according to the report, the fighter has never previously been to the kickboxing style’s motherland of Thailand. While many fighters travel to exotic locations in the weeks after fights for vacation, Justino is going to Thailand to fight two women back-to-back just because she can.
Say what you will about her questionable Tito Ortiz-driven decision of turning down a contract with the UFC, but this lady isn’t afraid to fight for her money, that’s for sure. We don’t know much about her two scheduled opponents but considering the fact that five rounds of shadow-boxing — much less actual fighting — gets us winded, we’re quite impressed with Cyborg’s latest goal.
Oh yeah, Kim Couture is also on the card, fighting Thai fighter Petchrocha Looksaikongdin. First off, we didn’t realize that “Sugar Free” (ugh) was still competing. Secondly, fighting someone with that many syllables in their name, in their own backyard, doesn’t seem like a great idea for Kim, who is no stranger to unfortunatebeat-downs.
After the jump: Cris Cyborg destroys some broad named Edna in a Muay Thai rules bout back in 2006.
(Photo via Esther Lin/Invicta FC)
It hasn’t even been two weeks since Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino fought and won in MMA against Marloes Coenen at Invicta FC 6, but the new featherweight champion has booked not one but two Muay Thai fights for herself on August 25th in Thailand. “Cyborg will take on France’s top kickboxer Angelique Pitiot and Italy’s Annalisa Bucci, with one taking three rounds and the other two rounds,” Wombat Sports reports.
“Cyborg” represents the famed Brazilian Chute Boxe team, which has Muay Thai as its base, but according to the report, the fighter has never previously been to the kickboxing style’s motherland of Thailand. While many fighters travel to exotic locations in the weeks after fights for vacation, Justino is going to Thailand to fight two women back-to-back just because she can.
Say what you will about her questionable Tito Ortiz-driven decision of turning down a contract with the UFC, but this lady isn’t afraid to fight for her money, that’s for sure. We don’t know much about her two scheduled opponents but considering the fact that five rounds of shadow-boxing — much less actual fighting — gets us winded, we’re quite impressed with Cyborg’s latest goal.
Oh yeah, Kim Couture is also on the card, fighting Thai fighter Petchrocha Looksaikongdin. First off, we didn’t realize that “Sugar Free” (ugh) was still competing. Secondly, fighting someone with that many syllables in their name, in their own backyard, doesn’t seem like a great idea for Kim, who is no stranger to unfortunatebeat-downs.
After the jump: Cris Cyborg destroys some broad named Edna in a Muay Thai rules bout back in 2006.
“It’s agitating, it gets under my skin. I know that there’s stuff that I could have done, but in the end I wouldn’t take it back for nothin’ because I felt like I was fighting for my life…but that’s the price that you pay if you don’t finish it, and I didn’t finish it. And after this fight I realized like, you only got you and that’s it, and…if you go to decision, it’s gonna be luck. You’re rolling the dice with the judges, and I’m not gonna let that happen again.”
So says a crestfallen Rose Namajunas, following her tough decision loss to Tecia Torres at Invicta FC 6. Though her stellar performance wasn’t enough to convince the judges to give her the win, Namajunas vs. Torres was easily one of the greatest WMMA fights of 2013. Hell, we were just proud to be part of her sports bra.
The latest “All Angles” video from Invicta manages to recap a night’s worth of emotional content into four minutes of behind-the-scenes gold, including the tense moments before the fight, highlights from the battle itself, Rose’s bummed-out post-fight monologue, and finally some incredible footage of Torres breaking down in tears while talking to her mom on the phone afterwards.
“It’s agitating, it gets under my skin. I know that there’s stuff that I could have done, but in the end I wouldn’t take it back for nothin’ because I felt like I was fighting for my life…but that’s the price that you pay if you don’t finish it, and I didn’t finish it. And after this fight I realized like, you only got you and that’s it, and…if you go to decision, it’s gonna be luck. You’re rolling the dice with the judges, and I’m not gonna let that happen again.”
So says a crestfallen Rose Namajunas, following her tough decision loss to Tecia Torres at Invicta FC 6. Though her stellar performance wasn’t enough to convince the judges to give her the win, Namajunas vs. Torres was easily one of the greatest WMMA fights of 2013. Hell, we were just proud to be part of her sports bra.
The latest “All Angles” video from Invicta manages to recap a night’s worth of emotional content into four minutes of behind-the-scenes gold, including the tense moments before the fight, highlights from the battle itself, Rose’s bummed-out post-fight monologue, and finally some incredible footage of Torres breaking down in tears while talking to her mom on the phone afterwards.
Oh, you thought Cris “Cyborg” Santos was a terrifying killing machine simply based on her destruction of every woman put before her over the years? Well if you haven’t witnessed her backstage ritual before one such destruction, you don’t yet know true fear.
Watching “Cyborg” punch, knee and slam opponents in the cage is scary enough but seeing her gleefully prance and atonally sing to psych herself up for it is downright eerie. It’s like watching Fedor play cards backstage before knocking someone out or watching Wanderlei Silva smile and bounce to techno music before disemboweling an opponent.
There are killers and then there are natural-born killers. Watch the behind-the-scenes video we’ve placed above to see a natural-born killer flip that switch on and off and, in between, brutalize the game Marloes Coenen at Invicta 6. Then plug in your Dutch Schaefer night light and pray to your God that you never cross this woman in a dark alleyway. Or at a Curves. Or at an Old Country Buffet when there is only one piece of fried chicken left.
– Elias Cepeda
Oh, you thought Cris “Cyborg” Santos was a terrifying killing machine simply based on her destruction of every woman put before her over the years? Well if you haven’t witnessed her backstage ritual before one such destruction, you don’t yet know true fear.
Watching “Cyborg” punch, knee and slam opponents in the cage is scary enough but seeing her gleefully prance and atonally sing to psych herself up for it is downright eerie. It’s like watching Fedor play cards backstage before knocking someone out or watching Wanderlei Silva smile and bounce to techno music before disemboweling an opponent.
There are killers and then there are natural-born killers. Watch the behind-the-scenes video we’ve placed above to see a natural-born killer flip that switch on and off and, in between, brutalize the game Marloes Coenen at Invicta 6. Then plug in your Dutch Schaefer night light and pray to your God that you never cross this woman in a dark alleyway. Or at a Curves. Or at an Old Country Buffet when there is only one piece of fried chicken left.
