Is Coenen the destroyer?

While Cris “Cyborg” Santos was fielding questions during Saturday’s Strikeforce post-fight press conference following her first-round dismantling of Gina Carano – “She can keep the title of ‘The Face of Women’s MMA’ because I have the Strikeforce title here,” was the gist of her comments – and Carano was presumably off icing said face, Cyborg’s likely next opponent was literally waiting in the wings.

Marloes Coenen was at the event as a stand-in should either Cyborg or Carano fail to make wait. That didn’t happen, obviously, so now Coenen is expected to be the first challenger to the newly crowned women’s champion.

The 28-year-old Dutch MMA fighter has a 16-3 record, with 12 of those wins by submission. Coenen and Cyborg, which sounds like an Ah-nuld movie mashup, were scheduled to clash once before in Canada’s XMMA organization in February, but Santos withdrew due to an injury.

Now, it looks as though Coenen will get her shot at the Brazilian powerhouse, either in Cyborg’s first title defense later this year or at the upcoming Strikeforce women’s eight-fighter tournament which will see the winner take on the champion.

As a sidenote, Coenen was actually a back-up for the original back-up, Erin Toughill , who was not at the event due to a “breakdown in communication,” according to Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker. Coenen suffered her first professional loss to Toughill by knockout in 2004.