Cyborg is good for women’s MMA

There were an awful lot of kneejerk reactions following Saturday’s Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg title fight, emphasis on the second syllable: jerk.

“Gina Carano is the female Kimbo Slice” read one horrendous headline. “Carano loss is a loss for women’s MMA” and “Four reasons why female MMA will never be popular” were just a couple of others.

I think some of these writers need to get their heads out of their asses. And their asses out of the 1970s.

Gina Carano lost to Cris “Cyborg” Santos. The fight lasted just one round and it was five of the most satisfying minutes of mixed martial arts I’ve ever watched. My enthusiasm has nothing to do with watching two chicks beat on each other and everything to do with watching two female athletes at the top of their game put on a fight that equaled their male counterparts in terms of skill, athleticism and violence. It was real fighting by real fighters. Period.

If Carano had won it would have been a covergirl coronation and she would have to continue to carry the load for women’s MMA as she has for the past two years. Yes, her beauty and charm make her more marketable than the more masculine Cyborg. She’s the Danica Patrick or Mia Hamm of MMA. But this has also drawn criticism – from fans, the media, even other female fighters – that she has leveraged her looks to get where she is. They make her out to be the Anna Kournikova of MMA, conveniently ignoring the fact that she’s a World Muay Thai champion and (until Saturday) her professional MMA record stood at 7-0. Sure, for some people women’s MMA begins and ends with Carano, just as boxing began and ended with Muhammad Ali for some people three decades ago. But none of that matters now.

Strikeforce has an indisputable women’s champion in Cyborg (8-1). She may not be pretty, she may not appear on Maxim’s Hot 100 list or get offers from Playboy. But since when does that matter to a fight fan? I thought what matters is whether she can fight and she erased any doubt about that with a truly dominating 4:59 of fighting on Saturday. Cyborg also gives the sport a villain, as I’m sure there will be many more “Beauty vs. the Beast” scenarios played out in the media in fights to come. Cyborg is a terminator and if you recall, the bad robot in the first movie was the hero in the sequel.

As for Carano, she’s not going anywhere. She’s not retiring. People are writing her off like her career is over. Hardly. She’ll go back to the drawing board, shore up the holes in her game and come out swinging. Who doesn’t want to see a Carano-Cyborg rematch? Rocky vs. Apollo Creed anyone? Rocky vs. Clubber Lang anyone? People love a well-deserved rematch, especially when the fan favourite loses the first time around. Imagine the hype, buzz, attention that will bring the sport. Now Strikeforce has two names, two faces to market. Carano no longer has to carry the sport alone. If anything, a Carano win might have actually hurt women’s MMA because again she would be the only one to embody the sport in a public sense.

Now, female MMA is still about six or seven years behind male MMA. It’s in that hinterland similar to when Royce Gracie first left the UFC. Except for two crucial differences: the sport in general is much more established in terms of public perception and acceptance, and the marketing/promotion side of things are much more sophisticated in terms of knowing how to sell the sport, reach its intended audience, etc.

I read an argument that women’s MMA, like other women’s sports, won’t be popular because if it could be done it would’ve been done already. That’s like saying we can’t go to Mars because we’ve never been to Mars. Specious logic at best. Although I gather the writer’s point is actually that because male athletes dominate our attention then female athletes have no chance. The writer points specifically to boxers Christy Martin, who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated a few years ago, and Laila Ali, the daughter Muhammad Ali. If these two women couldn’t make boxing popular and mainstream what chance does women’s MMA have with Carano and Cyborg? All I can say to that is: boxing is not the same sport as MMA, boxing appeals to a slightly different audience, it has more complicated promoter/organizational issues, and there are more women involved in a martial art, whether karate or judo or Muay Thai or kung fu or whatever, who can relate to mixed martial arts than there are women who are into boxing. MMA also has an air of being cool and hip and “in” (hello Affliction t-shirts!) and can be marketed more like McDonald’s.

All that women’s MMA requires are talented fighters. Carano and Cyborg are a good start. Strikeforce has also signed Marloes Coenen (16-3), Erin Toughill (10-2-1), Sarah Kaufman (10-0) and Miesha Tate (6-2). That’s a strong roster to build from. Strikeforce is also planning a women’s MMA tournament, involving up to eight fighters in a single-elimination affair, just like the old Pride days. That’s a great way to promote not just one fighter, but several, and for them all to make a name for themselves, pull off a surprise, put themselves in contention for a title shot.

And let’s not forget, women’s MMA is still building. There are more women waiting in the wings, there are women who saw the Carano-Cyborg fight and are just now going into the gyms to train. Give them three or four years, give the sport three or four years