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Woman’s mixed martial arts has been fraught with arguments from its inception. Though it is slowly rising in popularity and is now featured on television and other known events, it still has a very rough road to climb. Proponents are becoming more vocal and with that vocalization, come the response from the opposite side.

Because this is a fight between women, it still has to work against the stigma of mud wrestling and any number of other ‘shows’ that objectify women for their body and not their talent. Don’t be fooled, these are real fights between real combatants. Some are pretty and some are not, but in this ring, that is of no consequence. This is a real fight and it’s time it attracts the attention, respect and appreciation it deserves.

Veteran men’s fights are three rounds of five minutes each. Veteran women’s fights are three rounds of three minutes each. It is understood that professional fighters with less than five professional fights only go three minute rounds, but women are required long after their five fights, to fight only the three minute rounds. The fighters would like equal treatment, but so far this has not been the case. They claim equal training and sometimes harder training than men, these women have pushed themselves to be recognized as the athletes they are but to date, they are still generally not offered the same benefits men receive.

Strikeforce has acquired Gina Carano’s contract from EliteXC and she’s on track for a fight on August 15th against the Brazilian competitor Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos. Carano, was one of the last remaining big names left in limbo following EliteXC’s demise, she and Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson were by far the most popular athletes in that particular promotion. The upcoming fight was announced by Strikeforce on Saturday during a Showtime broadcast of Strickeforce’s show in St. Louis.

Other women have more distinguished records as fighters, both from the United States and from Japan. Carano was promoted both for her fighting style and her natural good looks.

Carano’s opponent will be the first who is larger in stature as she has never been able to officially make the 140 pound division cut that EliteXC would have liked to have seen. Santos has a brutish presence, she is menacing in stance and large in stature. She stands out among the other female fighters.

Both of these women are very capable fighters with their own aggressive styles. They have both distinguished themselves in the past in prior fights and this fight is set to be a real eye opener. Only time will tell which one of them will have the power and stamina to win this competition.

The thought of women fighting, especially professionally has been at the very least frowned upon, but no one can dispute that a fight between two women will invariably draw a crowd of screaming rooting spectators. So why the problem with women fighters? Simple, Wrestling and any form of it has been historically a man’s sport. But now women are not only infiltrating it, they are doing very well at it. While (for now) their names aren’t likely to be household names, they are growing in popularity.

Professional woman’s fighting isn’t a thinly veiled beauty contest, quite the contrary. While some of the women are undoubtedly very easy on the eyes, just as many are not. Their popularity and draw have much more to do with their talent fighting than anything else. Those women that go into the ring thinking it’s the updated version of a female mud wrestling match are going to be very sorely surprised, VERY sorely.

As time goes on, and women prove themselves more and more in the fighting ring, their names will begin to become more familiar and their accomplishments will gain much more recognition. As their recognition increases, the demand for them will increase and so, you will see women take their rightful place in the ring, not with men, but beside them.

Mixed Martial Arts encompasses any moves or techniques learned in any of the martial arts, in order to defeat your opponent. It is difficult to really place a date on the emergence of this in history. The very first emergence of martial arts in recorded history is Pankration, which evolved in Greece around 648BC, it was included in the Olympic Games. Pankration, while it was the first, it was too early a form to have any direct influence on the martial arts of today.

In the late 1800s, wrestling and boxing became popular, when no holes barred matches were held, it was not uncommon to see someone with a wrestling build and background win the competition. One of the biggest driving forces and supporters of the creation of Mixed Martial Arts was Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee had his own style as he mixed styles from Karate, fencing, boxing, Jiu Jitsu and even wrestling. He combined all of these disciplines into his own creation that he found was the best for him. As time goes on, this style of fighting is becoming more and more popular in both forums and shows no signs of waning interest. Students are learning many different disciplines in order to compete successfully in the current day ring

The former WEC featherweight champion Urihah Faber needed to go directly to the hospital after his valiant fight with the reigning champion Mike Brown. He threw so many hard punishing punches that he actually broke his hand midway through the first round. He needed to opt out of attending the WEC 41 press conference in favor of taking care of his broken limb.

It became obvious by the second round that Faber indeed had some sort of hand problem as he was constantly throwing right elbow strikes instead of right punches, but he held in till the end, throwing elbow hits, kicks, punches with his left and even a choke in the fifth round. Brown took the battle in the end.

The x-rays show multiple injuries of varying degrees on at least two fingers. After his operation, he will need to give the injuries all the time they require to heal. If he starts back to fighting before they are fully healed, he will have a much larger chance of breaking them. If he takes a rest until he is notified by the doctors that he is totally and completely healed, he has a chance of those fingers being stronger than they were before they were broken. Which do you think he is likely to do?