Weekly Women’s MMA Wrap-Up

Welcome to this week’s edition of Weekly Women’s MMA Wrap-Up, focusing on all things female MMA.

Strikeforce Updates

Obviously the big news rocking the MMA world is Russian heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko signing to Strikeforce. Since Strikeforce has several female fighters contracted, any added attention being brought to the promotion could really help women’s MMA.

There has certainly been a lot of attention to the August 15th card, featuring the first ever female headliner with Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos (7-1) taking on Gina “Conviction” Carano (7-0). Carano even made the sports section of the New York Times. Although Erin Toughill (10-2-1) was also supposed to be fighting on the Strikeforce card, several sites reported that she was now a reserve fighter for the Carano/Cyborg bout, should one pull out in case of injury.

Many have pointed out that the necessity of a sideline fighter would not likely be due to injury. It would be necessary because of Carano’s embarrassing inability to make weight time and time again. Cyborg has also missed weight, once. Strikeforce Director of Communications Mike Afromowitz said, “It’s in case one of them can’t fight, I mean anything can happen, whether it’s injury or not making weight, you need a backup plan and there’s less women in this sport than men so it’s not like we could call up a licensed fighter to replace the women” in either circumstance. Afromowitz pointed out that Josh Thomson was scheduled to defend his title in a rematch against Gilbert Melendez, but pulled out and was replaced with Mitsuhiro Ishida. While it’s certainly possible that one of the female fighters will have to cancel, Erin Toughill stated on the Underground that “some contract issues were the reason” and “it goes way beyond an ‘opponent’” so whether or not this was planned in advance is uncertain. However, Toughill’s fight was not scheduled to be televised, and a future fight on a different card might be. And since Carano’s numerous instances of missing weight have had little real consequence, I for one would be thrilled to see Cyborg battle Toughill if Gina still can’t figure out how to show up to a fight at the weight she was contracted at. Luckily, this fight is at 145 lbs. so hopefully neither Cyborg or Carano will have any problems.

WAMMA Rankings
Tim from Fightergirls has taken charge and gotten WAMMA rankings together this month as WAMMA tries to figure out how to update their website. The new women’s rankings for August are available here.

Media

First of all, there was an excellent article on female fighters posted on MMA Rising. It is worth checking out as it features profiles on all of the top women in the sport.

There are three television shows featuring women’s MMA.

BBC has put together a documentary starring female fighters Rosi Sexton (10-1) and Lisa Higo (4-0), which is scheduled to air in October. “It is very candid and shows what it is like to compete and train at the top of female Mixed Martial Arts, the training and the desire to win burns right through to the core of what we are about,” states the Leeds Cage website, where Higo trains. The documentary, Girl Fight, is scheduled to air sometime in October.

NBC’s Ultimate Women Challenge, a reality show based on 16 female fighters, will likely be aired in 2010. The rumored lineup includes Felice “Lil Bulldog” Herrig (0-2), Angela Hayes (1-5), Alexis Davis (6-2), Lisa Higo (4-0), Julie Kedzie (11-8), Casey Noland,
Patricia Hall, Angela Magana (8-3), Melissa Steele, Heather Clark, Christy Tada, Lacey “the Ladie” Shuckman (3-1), Jessica Aguilar (5-3), Martha Benavides, and Michelle Vera (1-0).
Check out the preview. watch?v=TjZRoBcp6Gs

Another reality-based TV show of a lighter flavor is Fightlife. As the website says, the show will focus on “hardcore partying, the drama, catfights, relationships, owning and operating fight shop, intense physical training led by Ken Shamrock, and their professional MMA fights.” The show features Tonya Evinger (7-3), with coaching from Kelly Weatherford and Mario Horta in addition to Ken Shamrock.
Check out the Fightlife trailer here.

She Can Wrestle, Too!

Heavyweight fighter Lana “Lethal Force” Stefanac (6-0) will represent North America in the women’s over 67kg division in Barcelona, Spain at the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship.

Cookies for Karma

Marcelline is a fourth-degree Judo blackbelt from Cameroon, Africa. She is an accomplished international competitor who almost made it to the Olympics, twice, but was prevented (once by a broken finger and once by pregnancy). Marcelline came to the US in October ’07 as a coach for the Cameroon Judo Team as well as a competitor in the U.S. Open. She took two gold medals and one silver. Marcelline moved to Arizona in May 2008, leaving her three children with her mother in Africa. Marcelline could not find steady work until March ’09, when she was hired by a gym as a personal trainer for nearly minimum wage pay. She braids hair for extra income and recently moved into her own apartment. She now has everything she needs to care for her children (ages 4, 6 and 12), who now have passports, but she needs to raise at least $7,000 to fly them to the U.S.

My friend Kirsten decided to fundraise for Marcelline, and is selling vegan carob oatmeal raisin cookies. She has raised $70 so far and is 1% of the way there. She plans on selling cookies once a week for a whole year. Cookies are only $1 each, so buy some if you live in Tucson! Kirsten is also accepting Paypal donations (which can be sent to krlovette@gmail.com) as well as AirFrance air mile donations. Kirsten’s cookie prices and ingredients, as well as a beautiful picture of Marcelline with her two younger children, can be seen in the notes section of her facebook page.

Fight Updates
Two women’s fights took place on August 1st. Monica Lovato (3-0) took on Elsie Henry (1-2) at King of the Cage: Gatekeeper. Lovato sunk in a rear naked choke halfway through the first round. Lovato previously beat Henry by TKO at Desert Extreme “Rockstar” in Alamogordo, NM this past January.

Valerie Coolbaugh (3-2) also finished her fight by submission in the 1st round, defeating Linda Cunningham (0-3) by armbar at Battle at the Bend 4. (This was a reversal of Vicious Val’s previous fight, where she lost to Rosi Sexton (10-1) by first round armbar).

There are five bouts taking place this weekend. “Windy” Tomomi Sunaba (12-10) is fighting “Jet” Izumi Noguchi (5-5) at Shooto. It’s “the Crazy Bitch” versus “Little Evil” as Amber Powell (1-1) prepares to face Thricia Poovey (7-6) at King of the Cage: Gunslinger. Tessa Simpson (2-0) is taking on Anita Rodriguez (1-1) at Bully Bash and Brawl 2. And War in the Yard is featuring two female fights as Buffi Hayes makes her debut against Suzy Smith (1-2) and Priscilla Brownfield debuts against Jordan Sprague (0-1) It’s shaping up to be quite an active month for women’s MMA.

See you next week with all the fight updates and some build-up for Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg!
\