Weekly Women’s MMA Wrap-Up

MIKU ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT

Miku “Supernova” Mastumoto, DEEP Women’s Lightweight Champion, announced her retirement at DEEP: 46th Impact in Tokyo. Miku did not give a reason, and many continue to be very concerned about her emotional well-being. Matsumoto did say that she wanted to have only last exhibition match.

Matsumoto holds a record of 23-4 and has avenged all four of her losses. She has won her last twelve fights and had recently stated that she wanted to fight Megumi Fujii. Her retirement at the peak of her career is a huge loss to the sport.

MORE STRIKEFORCE TOURNAMENT SPECULATION

The latest murmurings about Strikeforce’s tournaments are that they will be taking place in April and June. Two 4-woman tournaments in Holland will also take place under the Golden Glory banner on March 27th, with two winners receiving Strikeforce contracts. Scott Coker has also announced that he’s interested in a 125-lb tournament, presumably so that Tara LaRosa can fight the winner. Unfortunately, the top competition in that weight class is Rosi Sexton (who is signed to Bellator) and Carina Damm (who can’t fight in the U.S.), and it almost seems cruel to feed a tournament winner to Tara, who many consider the top pound-for-pound female fighter in the world. It’ll be interesting to see how this develops.

UPCOMING FIGHTS

American Top Team’s Jessica Aguilar (6-3) is facing Valerie Coolbaugh (3-4) at AFL: Rumble at the Rock 2 in Hollywood, Florida.

Lisa Newton (2-1) is fighting Simona Soukupova at KayoMMA: The Return. Claire Vagges and Kathryn Gallagher are also making their debut on the same card.

Stephanie Frausto (1-0) (yes, Zoila Frausto’s sister) is fighting Trisha Piñon at The Warriors Cage: Violence. Chantalle Castellanos (1-0) is also fighting Marion Reneau on the same card. Reneau and Piñon are making their professional debuts.

FIGHT RESULTS

Sarah Kaufman (11-0) took the gold home to Canada by defeating top prospect Takayo Hashi (12-2) in this title bout at Strikeforce Challengers Series 6 in San Jose. Kaufman won the fight by unanimous decision (50-45).

Jessica Kinnetz (record = mystery) defeated Madelina Salgado (0-1) via Unanimous Decision at Brutaal. Here’s our play-by-play of the three three-minute rounds.

Salgado came out throwing flurries and Kinnetz threw some back, but Salgado appeared to get the better of these exchanges. The fight then went to clinch, with Kinnetz getting a takedown to mount and some ground and pound. Salgado got Kinnetz in half guard and did a bit of bucking, which didn’t stop Kinnetz from throwing punches (though Salgado did a good job of defending). We scored the first round 10-9 for Kinnetz.

In the second round, Kinnetz immediately went for a takedown with Salgado responding with big punches. The two clinch with Kinnetz against the cage. Kinnetz manages to reverse position, with Salgado against the fence taking some knees. Kinnetz attempted some unsuccessful takedowns as the two battle in the clinch, with Salgado demonstrating some great takedown defense. We scored this round 10-9 for Salgado.

In the final round, Salgado came out swinging hard and Kinnetz went for a takedown right against the cage. Kinnetz landed heavy punches and then took Salgado’s back. Salgado did a good job of tying up Kinnetz’s hands. Kinnetz attempted a kimura and then just started punching from mount, with Salgado doing a decent job of blocking. We scored this round 10-9 for Kinnetz.

The judges reached a unanimous decision, scoring the contest 30-27 in favor of Jessica Kinnetz.

In other results, Amanda Nunes (5-1) defeated Ediane “India” Gomes (5-1) via 2nd round TKO at Bitteti Combat 6, and Carina Damm (15-3) defeated a very badly matched opponent, Aline Sergio (1-1), at Jungle Fights 16.

Diana Rael (1-0) defeated Caroline “The RareNinja” Portuagal (0-1) via 2nd round TKO at RFC 20: Stacked.

Elsie Henri (2-2) defeated Alyx Luck (2-2) by 1st round rear naked choke at KOTC: Starlight.

There are a TON of great fights scheduled in the next few months, so stay tuned!

Oh! I almost forgot!

MORON OF THE WEEK AWARD

This week’s award goes to Thomas Shipman, for sending this very disturbing facebook message.  Apparently he wants to get his ass kicked by a black belt, if anybody’s up for it.

hello Yael,
you have an excellent smile! do you compete in mixed martial arts? have you beaten many men in wrestling and other forms of fighting? i would like to have a private wrestling match with you one day. would this be possible for us to arrange? what is your height and weight? i do not know that many wrestling techniques, but i think that i might still be somewhat of a competitor for you. i don’t mind suffering light bruises throughtout our match, but i do not want to get any deep bruises. are you a blackbelt in any of the arts?