Category — Girl fighting

It was a solid technical fight – crisp striking from Sarah Kaufman, solid grappling from Roxanne Modaferri, dirty boxing from both – until the last 15 seconds of the third round. That’s when the undefeated Strikeforce women’s 135-pound champ finished her opponent in dramatic, spectacular, bone-jarring fashion, pancaking her to the canvas and into unconsciousness.

It’s one of the most incredible ends to a women’s bout ever and the kind of highlight reel finish you expect in men’s MMA (or possibly from a Cris “Cyborg” Santos fight). Simply put: that was one hell of a power slam. Bombs-a-way!

Kaufman had complained about being stuck on a Strikeforce Challengers card for four consecutive fights and made it clear she intended to use this fight to make a point – that she deserved (and rightly so) to be on the roster for a Strikeforce regular card. Consider the point made.

Taking a more macro view, it’s also a finish that will silence some of the naysayers and help further entrench women’s MMA into the mainstream. Let’s not underestimate its significance in this regard. Women’s MMA needs great fighters, great personalities and great fights to become more accepted. Knocking out Modaferri should make the rest of the MMA world wake up.

It’s bullshit that tonight’s women’s 135-pound title fight between champ Sarah Kaufman and Roxanne Modaferri has been stuck in tonight’s Strikeforce: Challengers ghetto. Sure, it’s the co-main event, but these are two of the toughest, scrappiest fighters – male or female – in all of MMA, fighting for a belt. This deserves to be on a regular Strikeforce card, not this Grapefruit League event. And I have to agree with Kaufman and Cage Potato that it appears the only way to be successful in women’s MMA is to look like a Maxim model (like Gina Carano) or smash every opponent Hulk-style (like Cris “Cyborg” Santos). I guess having the hair style of Bo Derek without the cheekbones just isn’t enough. And for the record, my money’s on Kaufman.

While Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos gets set to face Jan Finney at June 26’s Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum, the woman she beat to earn the women’s featherweight belt, Gina Carano, has been conspicuously absent from the cage.

Well, her Hollywood dalliance, the Steve Soderberg-directed action thriller Haywire (formerly the too-on-the-nose Knockout), has begun preview screenings. And the advance word is good. Very good:

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Sarah Kaufman is the newly crowned Strikeforce women’s 135-pound champion. No surprise there. Anything but a win would have been considered a huge upset. Kaufman seriously out-struck the challenger, Japanese grappling phenom Takayo Hashi, for five full rounds en route to the unanimous decision win at Friday’s Strikeforce Challengers event.

She shrugged off Hashi’s few (and feeble) takedown attempts, and while Kaufman is no slouch on the ground, she had no interest in swimming with the shark, preferring to let Hashi get back up every time she was knocked down (which was often). The result was, well, it was a smart gameplan perfectly executed by Kaufman, although watching from home it reminded me of Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites. It was a little on the dull side.

Hashi was clearly powerless on her feet yet Kaufman seemed reluctant to go in for the kill. She played it safe. Safe doesn’t mean exciting but it is smart, especially when there’s a title on the line. I don’t blame Kaufman at all. She showed cage intelligence, never allowed Hashi an opening to mount any sort of serious assault.

Yes, it’s her third straight decision win after eight consecutive KO or TKO victories. As a fan, I want to see knockouts and submissions, especially from a fighter like Kaufman, who’s fully capable of pulling off both. What I got was a striking clinic – stiff, head-snapping jabs, sharp rights and inside leg kids as she stalked Hashi for 25 minutes.

After the fight she apologized to fans for not being able to finish Hashi as she’d hoped. This morning, she went for her traditional day-after-battle run. Think about that – she goes five dominating rounds (that didn’t exactly leave her unbloodied) and less than twelve hours later she’s hitting the pavement. Nothing to apologize for if you ask me.

There were a couple of other notable fights on the rather lackluster card. Rolles Gracie look-alike Luke Rockhold scored an impressive first-round TKO over Paul Bradley in their middleweight tilt. Right hooks and kicks did all the damage to the seriously outclassed Bradley. Meanwhile, the co-main event between wrestler Trevor Prangley and striker Karl Amoussou ended with a poke in Amoussou’s eye and a technical draw due to doctor’s stoppage. Too bad, too, because Amoussou looks like one dangerous cat.

For the record, I’m predicting Kaufman by first-round TKO in tonight’s Strikeforce Challengers women’s 135-pound title bout.

I’m going to pimp this again: Sarah Kaufman vs. Takayo Hashi at Friday’s Strikeforce Challengers VI. It’s for the inaugural women’s 135-pound title. Sherdog has an interview with Kaufman that does a decent job of breaking down the match-up, especially if you’re unfamiliar with either fighter. I can understand if you don’t know the Japanese fighter – even though she’s ranked top-three in the division this is her North American debut. But Kaufman is one of the top pound-for-pound female fighters in the game. And she’s deserving of the title shot and the headlining berth on the card.

Not only is Sarah Kaufman fighting on Friday’s Strikeforce Challengers VI card, not only is she on the main card, where she will square off with Takayo Hashi for the promotion’s inaugural women’s welterweight title, she (and Hashi) are the main event of the evening.

Sounds great to me. I love seeing women’s MMA getting the higher-profile treatment, especially when the bout doesn’t involve the obvious glamour factor of a Gina Carano. Watching these two 135-pounders have at it should be a blast.

Now, I can’t speak for Hashi. I know little about the 12-1 Smackgirl vet and Strikeforce newcomer. But Kaufman – wow. She’s 10-0 with some of the sharpest striking in the game, strong takedown defense and some serious submissions skills. No joke.

As for the rest of the main card, expect Karl Amoussou vs. Trevor Prangley; Paul Bradley vs. Luke Rockhold; Tarec Saffiedine vs. James Terry; and Raul Castillo vs. Yancy Medeiros.

Have to admit I’m excited about this: Sarah Kaufman will fight Takayo Hashi for the inaugural Strikeforce women’s 135-pound title on February 26. Kaufman made the announcement on her Facebook page just moments ago. The Victoria, BC, native is a strong striker with a solid ground game who’s accumulated a 10-0 record, including impressive wins over Shayna Baszler and Miesha Tate at back-to-back ShoMMA events last year. Her opponent is a 12-1 Smackgirl and ADCC vet. The two were originally supposed to meet at a Strikeforce: Challengers event last November.

Guess what boys, a female MMA star has just been offered an invitation to pose for Playboy. Before you go grabbing for the Kleenex, it’s not Gina Carano or Sarah Ponce or Miesha Tate, but Cris “Cyborg” Santos.

Years ago, stumbling around Amsterdam I learned an important lesson: You cannot unsee things in life. Certain images will haunt you for the rest of your days (as anyone who has watched WWE star Chyna’s porn can tell you). You can shower but you will not be clean.

I have a ton of respect for Cyborg. She holds the Strikeforce 145-pound women’s title, easily beating Carano and simultaneously shortening the amount of time I spend in the shower by about five minutes (hurry up, make that movie, Steven Soderbergh!). Cyborg will defend her Strikeforce title on January 30 against Marloes Coenen. She trains with the Chute Boxe Academy and is an outstanding athlete. There has been a lot of speculation that she takes performance enhancing drugs, but as far as I know she has never failed a drug test so these accusations are almost vindictive in nature since there is no evidence that her athletic prowess is attributable to anything other than hard work.

MMA has a peculiar relationship with female fighters, often focusing more on their personal lives than their fighting abilities. There is not much hype about who Wanderlei Silva is dating and Playgirl will not be calling him anytime soon. That said, some female MMA fighters (notably Carano, Tate and Ponce) pose suggestively for men’s magazines, thus promoting themselves as a sex symbol as well as fighters. Therefore, commenting on what they do as hotties, as well as fighters, is fair game.

Cyborg vs. Carano was billed by some as Beauty vs. the Beast. As far as I know, Cyborg had never publicized herself as anything other than a fighter. Therefore, I thought commenting on her looks was inappropriate. However, once she admits she’s considering posing for Playboy, her looks become a fair target.

Cyborg says that in her entire life only one man has seen her naked and she needs to “think deeply” about posing for Playboy. If she decides yes, I’ll be buying “Jugs” that month instead.

With Gina Carano off making movies with Steven Soderbergh, MMA is in need of a new hottie to drool over. I nominate Houston-based kickboxer-turned-mixed martial artist Sarah Ponce. Amazing… eyebrows. Yeah, eyebrows.