Strikeforce has just announced that they'll be holding a one-night, four-person tournament in their 135-pound female division for their August 13th event. That's right, a four-person tournament, and it's stocked with notables like submission studdettes Miesha Tate and Hitomi Akano and fiesty Brazilian Carina Damm (Finnish fighter Maiju Kujala rounds out the brackets, but I know nothing about her). In terms of excitement, this is great news, and in terms of making women's MMA something worth caring about, this is a big freakin' deal. Everyone knows Gina Carano and Cris Cyborg, but there's a lot more to the sport than those two ladies, and with Roxy and Sarah Kaufman fighting on Friday, Marloes Coenen getting the winner, and the tournament winner getting the title shot after that… well, that's a lot of storyline created right before our eyes. BodogFIGHT did a decent job of making us give a crap about female MMA, but Strikeforce's upcoming bouts and tournament are practically reaching into our colons and taking the crap from us. And I mean that in a good way.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Sarah Kaufman vs. Roxanne Modafferi: The Most Meaningful Female MMA Bout All Year
Thus far in 2010 we've witnessed 145-pound Strikeforce champ Cris "Cyborg" Santos wreck an inferior fighter and utterly destroy someone who had no business being in the same cage. We've also seen Zoila Frausto unseat top-ranked 125 pounder Rosi Sexton in Bellator, and in one of the few serious bouts on that goofy Moosin card we saw Roxanne Modafferi avenge a 2006 loss to Tara LaRosa with a razor-thin split decision. But only now, in August, are we getting a female MMA bout with some real meaningfulness. That's right, I'm talking about Roxy squaring off against Strikeforce 135-pound champ Sarah Kaufman on Friday's Strikeforce Challengers event on Showtime. For unlike the rest of 2010's offerings, a champ is facing a legitimate challenger - a challenger who belongs in that same weight class and who isn't foolishly fighting up - and when you compare them side by side, it's clear you've got a compelling pairing. Roxy can throw and take a punch, can play the submission game as well as any of them, and has got a wealth of experience fighting the best. Kaufman, meanwhile, has got the best hands in her division and has never tasted defeat. In other words, these ladies are very capable of kicking each other's asses - a fact that goes a long way in making this one worth watching. Sure, Bellator's upcoming eight-person, 115-pound female tournament is going to rock, as will whatever tournament Strikeforce is putting together. But this Friday we're getting Roxy against Kaufman, and it's the first meaningful female fight of 2010.
Monday, July 19, 2010
From the Department of Corrections
That Dan Severn seminar slated for Ultimate Karate USA's school in Spanish Harlem tonight is now a Phillippe Nover seminar. The address is 1950 Third Avenue. Scheduled topics will include "Punching People in the Face Real Hard 101" and "Eating Balut (a Filipino delicacy of cooked duck fetus)".
Take On Muay Thai Tournament Postscript
Sitan's Omar Ahmed is the man, Bellmore Kickboxing's Terence Hill is beastly with his hands, and of course nothing beats a one-night eight-man tournament in terms of building excitement. Eleven decisions out of 12 fights was brutal, but unless you have mismatches, there's nothing you can really do about that. Overall, it was a great event with some very talented Muay Thai fighters.
