Category — Girl fighting

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.

There’s one preliminary card fight on Saturday’s Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers that is almost guaranteed to make the live broadcast. Marloes Coenen (16-3; pictured) is facing Roxanne Modafferi (13-4) in a women’s 145-pound bout to determine who will become the number-one contender for Cris “Cyborg” Santos’s Strikeforce title. Strikeforce needs to build on the momentum it built up from August’s Cyborg vs. Gina Carano title fight and will want to get this in front of as many eyeballs as possible so they can remind people that Cyborg/Carano wasn’t just a one-off or sideshow bout.

A couple of women’s MMA fights have been dropped from upcoming Strikeforce cards.

Erin Toughill has withdrawn from her November 7 Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers bout against Marloes Coenen due to medical reasons. The winner of that fight was expected to advance to a title fight with 145-pound champ Cris “Cyborg” Santos, who was originally scheduled to face Coenen for the title on the Fedor vs. Rogers card but had to withdraw due to an injury suffered during ADCC sub wrestling world championships in September.

Meanwhile, it looks like I’ll have to wait a little bit longer to see Sarah Kaufman back in action. Kaufman’s bout with Takayo Hashi has been scrapped from November 20’s Strikeforce Challengers V: Woodley vs. Bears event. No reason has been given for the decision although MMA Junkie is reporting that the 135-pound bout could be rescheduled for early 2010.

A couple of days ago I ran an interview with Sarah Kaufman, a 10-0 135-pounder – and Female Fighter of the Year nominee – who has fought three times in the span of 57 days earlier this year but hasn’t been on the cage since June. Well, now comes word (via a note passed along by one of my Twitter followers) that Kaufman will face Takayo Hashi (12-1) on the November 20 Strikeforce: Challengers card. I’ve sent Kaufman an e-mail to try and get confirmation and if it’s true I’ll het her thoughts on the fight.

Between April and June of this year Kaufman fought and beat Sara Schneider, Miesha Tate and Shayna Baszler, the latter two on Strikeforce: ShoMMA cards. Hashi is a Japanese grappler who has fought primarily in the Smackgirl promotion and she’ll be in tough against the hard-hitting Kaufman. I’m being polite. I think Kaufman is going to clean the mat with her and I’d be very surprised if it goes the distance.

Kaufman vs. Hashi isn’t the only women’s bout on the Challengers card as Brandon Vera’s wide, Kerry Vera, will face Randy Couture’s ex-wife, Kim Couture. Brandon and Randy headline UFC 105 on November 14.

Rounding out the card – so far – are Tyron Woodley vs. Rudy Bears and Rafael Cavalcante vs. Aaron Rosa.

In the days and weeks following Strikeforce: Carano vs Cyborg the media jumped on board to highlight a string of up-and-coming female fighters as the future of women’s MMA – Cindy Dandois, Miesha Tate, Marloes Coenen, Erin Toughill and others. A Coenen-Toughill fight was even added to the November 7 Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers card. Nowhere did I read about Sarah Kaufman. And I complained about that.

The 24-year-old Victoria, BC native is 10-0 in her professional MMA career and – I believe – far and away the top 135-pound female fighter in the world. In a span of 57 days between April and June of this year she fought and beat Sara Schneider, Miesha Tate and Shayna Baszler, the latter two on Strikeforce: ShoMMA cards. The Baszler bout was also the first Strikeforce women’s bout to feature five-minute rounds, dispelling any doubt that women can’t handle the longer rounds.

Kaufman has blazing hands, crisp striking, solid takedown defense and vicious ground-and-pound. Oh yeah, she’s also a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, so her submissions aren’t too shabby either.

So where’s the love for Kaufman? Well, I figured if I wasn’t reading about her elsewhere I might as well write about her. And Kaufman graciously agreed to a phone interview. On the day we spoke she was actually at work at Zugec Ultimate Martial Arts (aka ZUMA), the club where she started training as a teenager and where she’s now an instructor and manager.

Kaufman hasn’t fought since June and she was feeling anxious to get back in the cage. “I get antsy if I’m not in training for a fight,” she says with a laugh. “I like fighting often.”

Hopefully, she’ll be in the cage again soon. Strikeforce has been talking about creating a 135-pound bantamweight championship title and it would be impossible to think that Kaufman wouldn’t be one of the top two contenders. The promotion has also floated the idea of a bantamweight tournament leading to a title bout. Again, though, it would be an insult for Kaufman to have to battle her way through a tournament of lesser fighters. If there’s a tournament she should get a by to the final.

“I’m hoping to have my next fight lined up in the next six or eight weeks, although I’m not sure what Strikeforce has in mind,” she says. “I know they’ve been talking about a possible 135-pound title, and I certainly think I’d be in line to fight for that. But I’m not sure about a tournament. In some ways, that would be a step backwards for me and I always want to be moving forward.”

Just because Kaufman doesn’t have her next fight lined up doesn’t mean she’s resting on her laurels. She spent part of her summer in Albuquerque, NM, training with Greg Jackson, striking coach Michael Winkeljohn and veteran cagefighter Julie Kedzie. “Greg runs one of the best MMA schools there is, he’s got a great team around him, lots of high-calibre fighters, which is a great environment to be in and certainly different than what I’m used to here, and it was an opportunity to focus on training without having to teach classes,” she says.

And because one of Jackson’s specialties is the ground-and-pound, that suited Kaufman to a tee despite her reputation as an outstanding boxer. “I don’t consider myself a striker. I love punching, especially on the ground. It’s effective,” she says. “A lot of fighters get caught up in grappling when they go to the ground and they forget about striking on the ground.”

While Gina Carano’s pinup-girl image has certainly gone a long way toward bringing women’s MMA mainstream attention, it’s not exactly how Kaufman would like to see the sport promoted. “If it’s promoted as ‘look how hot this girl is’ it’s frustrating. Sex does sell, but I’m in there to fight. You’re not going to see me posing in a bathing suit in magazines to promote myself or the sport.”

Kaufman also has some good advice for women who think they may want to get into the cage and mix it up. “Going into a gym and saying ‘I want to fight’ is not the way to go about it,” she says. “You want to go in to learn how to fight and then decide if fighting is actually what you want to do. Don’t put the cart before the horse.” And given the amount of testosterone fueling the sport, even at the lowest level, finding that right gym can be difficult. “You need to find a gym that doesn’t have a lot of egos, where they’re accepting of women training and training seriously, who are okay with rolling with a girl or getting hit by a girl and who don’t feel the need to show how strong or tough they are. They need to be able to work with you and help you, not try to always prove that they’re better than you. They’re supposed to be your teachers and training partners, not your opponents.”

Growing up in Victoria, Kaufman discovered mixed martial arts by accident. She was a self-described “book nerd” and “straight-A” student who also studied ballet from the time she could walk. When a martial arts school – Zuma – opened up in the same building as her dance school, on  a whim she decided to check out a Muay Thai cardio conditioning class and was immediately hooked.

Pretty soon her aspirations of being a cardiovascular surgeon were put on the back burner so she could send people to the hospital instead.

Coached by Zuma head instructor Adam Zugec, who remains her coach to this day, Kaufman made her MMA debut at age 21 at North American Challenge 23, an event held on tribal lands near Vancouver. After a crowd-pleasing slugfest, she knocked out Liz Posener in the third round.

“I’m really competitive and I don’t like to be bad at things, and I took my first fight super seriously,” she says. “I actually wasn’t that nervous, the only thing I was nervous about was I didn’t want to lose. It had nothing to do with getting hit or getting hurt or anything. I just wanted to win. I didn’t want to disappoint my coach or my friends. My coach was so nervous before the fight I had to massage his shoulders in the locker room so that he would relax.”

From there Kaufman raked up a pair of TKO victories at King of the Cage Canada and another at Ultimate Cage Wars 7. By 2007 she was fighting for the TKO promotion alongside UFC vets Jonathan Goulet and Patrick Cote and eventually won the HCF Women’s Championship with a second-round ground-and-pound win over HOOKnSHOOT alumnus Ginele Marquez. She defended the title once before TKOing her way into the U.S. at Palace Fighting Championship 2, stopping Sara Schneider in the second round.

Then came the call to the big show, Strikeforce, and her trio of wins earlier this year. “It’s been a great year so far. I’m just looking forward to getting back in the cage,” says Kaufman. “I’m into punching girls in the face.”

By the way, I just noticed that Kaufman has been nominated for Female Fighter of the Year at the 2009 World MMA Awards alongside Carano, Cyborg Santos, Rosie Sexton and Megamu Fujii.

MMA Junkie is reporting that a 145-pound bout between Marloes Coenen (16-3) and Erin Toughill (10-2-1) is in the works for the Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers preliminary card on November 7 and could air live if one of the four main-card fights falls through or the fights end quickly.

Women’s 145-pound champ Cris “Cyborg” Santos was scheduled for the event but was injured during the ADCC submission wrestling world championships last month. The winner of Coenen vs. Toughill is expected to challenge Cyborg in her first title defense.

Coenen, who was an understudy for August’s Gina Carano vs. Cyborg Santos title fight, will be looking to avenge her only loss, a first-round knockout at the hands of Toughill at a Smackgirl event in 2004. The Dutch fighter is 16-1 with 14 wins by stoppage (including 11 by submission), while Toughill is 10-2-1 in MMA and 8-2-1 (one NC) as a professional boxer.

While I don’t want any of the main-card bouts ti be canceled I’d love to see one of them end quickly enough to squeeze this fight onto the broadcast.

Strikeforce fighter Gina Carano will grace the cover of the new issue of ESPN The Magazine, set to hit newsstands on October 9. It’s “The Body Issue,” which Carano certainly qualifies for, even if the cover photo has been airbrushed to within an inch of its life. Carano has never looked that lean even at a weigh-in.

I don’t believe that fighters should act – I don’t really believe that fighters can act – but I’ll make an exception for Gina Carano, especially since she’s starring in a movie to be directed by Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Ocean’s Eleven). As I reported here, Carano will star in a spy-action-thriller called, appropriately, Knockout. Now Empire Magazine has an interview with Soderbergh, who gives a few details on the film:

“My feeling was, If I don’t do this, somebody else will,” says the Oscar-winning director. “I felt, somebody is going to look at her and go, ‘She should be in a movie!’ And I felt like, Why shouldn’t I be the person saying that?

“If you start following the female MMA fighters, Gina pops out pretty noticeably,” says Soderbergh. “I thought it was a fascinating combination of appearance and activity… I’d been wanting to make a spy action film for a while, but hadn’t really determined what I was going to bring to it that would distinguish it from the traditional approach. Then I thought, ‘Why don’t I just build it around her? She can actually break people in half.’ I was interested in doing something ultra-realistic.”

Carano – who appeared as Crush in TV’s American Gladiators and has a role in the Michael Jai White actioner Blood And Bone – will play someone who is ‘outsourced’ by the government to perform tasks the state can’t be seen to undertake. “My desire is for it to be a very realistic portrayal of somebody who gets hired, as these people do, by the government, to go and perform certain duties that it would be inappropriate to give to the military,” says Soderbergh. “That could be anything from a hostage-grab to surveillance to an actual killing…”

Plot details are light, because the script is currently being written, but Soderbergh describes Knockout as “a combination of a Bond movie and Point Blank,”though, “more on the scale of From Russian With Love than, you know, Quantum Of Solace… Something where the characters and the story are as prominent as the action stuff.”

Lem Dobbs, whose scripts for Kafka and The Limey were previously directed by Soderbergh, is writing the screenplay, with cameras expected to roll in February.