Miesha Tate, Tara LaRosa and Some Thoughts on Women’s MMA

Every once in a while, I pick up on some buzz in the women’s MMA community. I try to be plugged in to that scene, but I’m not always as attentive as (perhaps) I ought to be. Still, I have some great sources and some good friends who send me stuff. But the latest little controversy really got my gears rolling again, and is definitely something worth writing about.

On the edge of a major women’s MMA fight (in terms of its exposure to mainstream fans; not necessarily in terms of the internal dynamic of women’s MMA) between Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos (9-1 MMA, #1 IWMMAR) and Jan Finney (8-7 MMA) there are (and should be) some serious questions asked about the way that women’s MMA works, how fights get set up, how promoters are structuring their divisions and what constitutes an acceptable title fight in a serious promotion like Strikeforce. Though I’ve got some strong opinions about the fight between Cyborg and Finney, what struck me last night was an interview with Miesha Tate (9-2 MMA, #7 IWMMAR).

Now, the reaction from some of my friends, seemed to be a level of frustration with Miesha in her decision to “call out” Tara LaRosa (18-2 MMA, #2/#2 IWMMAR). I honestly don’t consider myself a journalist, and I don’t do many interviews (though I did one with Miesha not too long ago), but even I know that its pretty unprofessional to instigate one fighter calling out another. There are journalists who do it, and that’s fine, but it makes me wince. I don’t particularly like the cultivation of synthetic rivalries, because it often leads to fights that really shouldn’t happen, and it makes MMA look more like professional wrestling than I’m comfortable with.

Still, what frustrates me is the decision that’s been made by many who are behind the scenes in women’s MMA to encourage cross-divisional competition. I’m not saying that we should discourage fighters from ever fighting outside of their division, but it does make setting up fights far more complicated when women are used to fighting across three or four different weightclasses. Now, when it’s someone like Tara LaRosa, who’s ranked second in two weightclasses, it’s understandable that Miesha should look to advance her position by fighting a top fight fighter. But if I had Miesha’s ear (which I don’t) I’d point out that the real goal for her should be putting herself in a position to get a rematch with Strikeforce champion Sarah Kaufman (11-0 MMA, #1 IWMMAR), and fighting top five women outside of Strikeforce is not going to help that.

Also, as a fan, there are people who make for better stylistic matchups for Miesha, and I’m sure she knows that. I’ve heard the name Tonya Evinger (6-3 MMA) thrown out as a potential opponent, and that Tonya’s happy to fight Miesha. That’s a good matchup for Miesha, though I’d like to see Miesha in the cage fellow Strikeforce fighter Shayna Baszler (11-6 MMA, #6 IWMMAR) or former title contender Takayo Hashi (12-2 MMA, #5 IWMMAR). Both of those fights can be easily organized by Strikeforce and would put Miesha in contention for a shot at Kaufman.

I’d point out to Tara that fighting Miesha, while it puts her in a good position to stay in the top five at 135, does nothing to advance her position in either the 135 pound division or the 125 pound division. Frankly, I’d rather see Tara spending more time at 125, taking on solid fighters in that weightclass and looking for a fight with Rosi Sexton (9-1 MMA, #1 IWMMAR). Given Rosi’s recent entrance into Bellator, that may not be possible, but it’d certainly be a tough fight, as any fight between the top two fighters in a division is. My understanding (limited as it is) suggests that there are issues with finding fights for Tara, though that’s probably just due to the incompetence of promoters, and not a lack of competition.

As far as a larger problem goes, I think that Cyborg vs. Finney is one of those issues of questionable matchmaking and promotional competence that gets women’s MMA into a position where putting on the best possible fight is next to impossible. After all, having Cris Cyborg fight Jan Finney is something like having Brock Lesnar fight Thiago Silva. That’s not to take anything away from Jan Finney, who’s on a four fight win streak and certainly looking to be in the best shape of her career, but Finney is unranked in her actual weightclass and is coming up in weight to fight Cyborg. I was frustrated enough by the disastrous matchup of Cyborg and Hitomi Akano (15-7 MMA, #4/#10 IWMMAR) and Akano was ranked at the time.

We’ll see how the Cyborg vs. Finney matchup goes, and having covered two of Cyborg’s last three fights (and probably this one, as well) I’m hoping Finney can make it as exciting as possible, but I have major doubts. As far as Miesha vs. LaRosa goes, I hope that both realize there are better things for their career and try to pursue those.