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?
Ten thousand dollars is a huge chunk of change to most of us, One that would be a huge boost to our home finances, one that might prompt us to buy a new car or maybe pay off some bills or any of a multitude of wonderful dreams, but ten thousand dollars is a performance bonus to four fighters. After a five round fight with Urijah Faber (that left Faber with badly damaged hands), Mike Brown went home with his title still intact. He received his prize for winning the fight, but he and Faber both went home with an extra ten thousand dollars in their pockets. This money was a bonus to them both for their performance in the ring.
In a bout prior to the one above, Aldo shocked the whole crowd by opening the bout with a punishing flying knee. The strike took Swanson to the mat, opening a massive wound over his left eye and leaving him unable to continue the battle. Aldo also received one of the four ten thousand dollar performance bonuses handed out that night.
Dikun was the final recipient of the four ten thousand dollar performance awards handed out, as he pulled off a slick flying triangle choke at the mid point of the opening round of his bout with Rolando.
