Ronda Rousey vs Miesha Tate is the first female MMA bout to headline a Strikeforce card since Gina Carano's massive fight against Cris "Cyborg" Santos in 2009. While this is clearly an exciting time for women's MMA there are many issues around the fight's origin and promotion that are to the detriment of the growth of the female divisions. There are many disappointing things about the making and marketing of this fight including the timing, the reasoning and promoting the fight based on looks. As well as the sport and fans missing out, Sarah Kaufman is the clear victim of Strikeforce (and their parent company ZUFFA) grabbing some quick cash from one big fight, rather than carefully and fairly building a sustainable, competitive division.

Timing

Ronda Rousey is an undeniably talented fighter with a background as an elite athlete elsewhere. Her leap to fightMiesha Tate is not as astronomical as it would be for most fighters with a 4-0 record against mostly lower level opposition. However, she has previously only fought at 145 pounds and it is pretty reasonable to expect her to either fight for the title in her own division or spend some time paying her dues and climbing the ranks in her new division. This is not just about what is fair, but also what it means for the division.

135 pounds is generally considered the strongest division in women's MMA. With Rousey cutting weight to join it and Cyborg Santos sure to follow when her suspension is complete, as well as new talent coming through, it promises to become even stronger. There is a division there to build. By catapulting Rousey through the rankings of her new division, Strikeforce have sent the message that there is no real female 135 pounds division. There are no internal rankings, contender spots nor progress to be made. They have indicated that women's MMA is good for one off super fights that draw big numbers, but not worthy of being promoted properly.

The Rousey vs Tate fight is a good fight. Both combatants have exciting styles and are top athletes. But you ought not to rush a fighter into contendership, you should build them up, nurture them, test them against better opposition and when they have proved ready, you can give them a title shot.

Promotion of looks over skills

As Ronda Rousey spent her time pushing for this fight, she spent most of it openly drawing on the looks of her and her opponent as the selling point. She was worried the fight may never happen and, since a fight between two pretty girls is very marketable, she wanted it to happen as soon as possible. For the future of women's MMA, this seems pretty damning.

As a female fighter, it seems very short sighted to reduce your division to a beautiful sideshow. I understand why Ronda feels the need to make the most out of her career while she can, it just does not reflect well on her female colleagues. There is a great division of fighters there. Tate and Rousey are great athletes, each with their own story and representing wrestling and Judo respectively. That is already marketable.

Finally, it is terrible for the future of the weight class, not to mention astonishingly unfair, that the decision over who gets promoted in a division is based on looks. Unless this is soon put right, no female fighter will know what they fight for from bout to bout, unsure as to whether a prettier girl will take her place. It also means that female MMA will get bogged down deeper in this mire of dependency on looks as women play more and more on their beauty to get noticed.

Sarah Kaufman's Title Shot

Sarah Kaufman was very much in line for a title shot before Ronda Rousey pushed her way to the front of the queue by doing her best Chael Sonnen impression. Kaufman was on an impressive twelve fight win streak, including a win against the current 135 pounds champion Miesha Tate, untill she was beaten by Marloes Coenen. Since then she has won two in a row, the most recent against highly ranked Liz Carmouche. In light of her record, her bouncing back with two wins and her history with Tate, there was a clear reason to give her a title shot. The disappointment for Kaufman when it became clear that Rousey had taken her spot, must have been extraordinary. Here is what she thinks about it all:

Kaufman and Davis' Place On the Card

Adding insult to injury, Kaufman found herself on the same card as the championship bout, but as a preliminary fight. Can you imagine if, upon missing out on his shot at Georges Saint-Pierre, Carlos Condit had fought Josh Kosheck on the undercard? There would have been uproar.

This is not just unfair on Sarah Kaufman. Strikeforce has become the most prominent US promotion for women's mixed martial arts. Its men's divisions are rapidly becoming devalued as, before ZUFFA negotiated a new deal with Showtime, it ferried a lot of the top talent over to the UFC. What Strikeforce has left are some top male fighters in some very shallow divisions and an under promoted but potential-rich female division at 135 pounds.

Having made the decision to put together the Tate vs Rousey fight, Strikeforce had a golden opportunity to showcase a couple of other great fighters from that division and build a new contender for the winner. Instead, they have shown their intention to milk as much as possible from a one off fight between Rousey and Tate and buried another potential star on the preliminary card. This does not show a great commitment to female MMA and that is disappointing. It is also particularly short sighted since Women's MMA could well be Strikeforce's biggest asset going forward.

If you are not sure that these two fighters will put on a show worthy of the main card, check out the videos below.

Sarah Kaufman vs. Roxanne Modafferi KO Body Slam (via MMAMatosinhos)

Alexis Davis vs Amanda Nunes full fight (via Chinoandharykrakhead)

Sarah Kaufman was the most obvious choice to challenge Miesha Tate for the Strikeforce 135 pounds title. Ronda Rousey has cleverly talked her way into title contention. Rousey is clearly a great athlete and will probably prove to be a tough and talented fighter. But her quick ascension to title contender in a new weight class is not a good move for the future of her division. Moreover the treatment of Sarah Kaufman then and previously, has shown Strikeforce to be decidedly short sighted, not to mention unfair.

This was originally posted at JIMMA. Click below for more from me about WMMA.

Women's Flyweight (115lb) Division - Who's who?
MMA: There's nowhere to hide from gender equality

They roll/grapple at the end of the video. 59:14

Ronda-centric highlights in this long-ass video.

1:14 : Backstage at the Joe Rogan podcast with HONDA HOUSEY

39:43 : Ronda in a 2010 grappling match... good shit.

40:15 : Renato Laranja(this dude is pretty funny) making Ronda hot for him

46:47 : Another Ronda 2010 grappling match... more good shit

57:57 : Ronda ... grappling... 2010. Wooooo.

In between time slots are Eddie Bravo teaching his students(Ronda being one of them). He really is passionate and inspiring. Very enthusiastic teacher.

Após 6 anos de dedicação ao amor e ao felicidade do casamento, gostaria de informar que desde o mês de dezembro de 2011 eu e Evangelista Cyborg estamos vivendo nossas vidas separadamente.
Gostaria de agradecer todos os amigos pelas palavra de carinho e apoio neste período.
Por mais que pareça difícil nunca abandone seus sonhos ou desacredite no amor!
Um abraço,
Cris

In English:

After six years of dedication to the love and happiness of marriage, I would like to inform you that as of December 2011 Evangelista Cyborg and I are living our lives separately.
I would like to thank all friends for their words of love and support during this period.
As hard as it may seem never abandon your dreams or stop believing in the power of love!
Xx
Cris

I once heard some feminist give a quote that was quite relevant to the female divisions in MMA:

When put in the context of MMA, we’re left to ponder if women can afford to be boring. Do female fighters have to be more exciting than the men in order to get noticed?

I’d have to say yes. Strikeforce only has one female fight every other card most times, which simply isn’t enough to get a feel for whether women or exciting or not.

When tuning into a UFC ppv people see 5-10 fights. Not all of them are exciting. There are some unfortunate events where entire cards are snoozefests. Of course no UFC fan watches a bad card and proclaims all of MMA to be boring. They just got unlucky with a bad night of fights.

Most UFC fans haven’t even seen 5-10 women’s fights. To see the same amount of fights on one UFC card a fan would’ve had to watch a year of Strikeforce. Here’s been their last 10 women’s fights

December 17, 2011 Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Masvidal — Cyborg vs. Yamanaka. It lasted 0:16.

Strikeforce Challengers 20 — Rousey vs. Budd. It lasted a fun 0:39.

Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov — Davis vs. Nunes. A scrappy but average fight.

Strikeforce Challengers 18 — Rousey vs. D’Alelio

Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson — Coenen vs. Tate. A boring fight with a fun finish. Also Davis vs. Kedzie

Strikeforce Challengers 17 — Carmouche vs. Kaufman

Strikeforce Challengers 16 — Randamie vs Budd

Strikeforce: Feijao vs. Henderson — Coenen vs. Carmouche

January 29, 2011 Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg — Randamie vs. Webber

As you can see, most fans only get to see 10 womens fights in almost a year, whereas they’ll see 10 fights on a single card in the UFC.

If an entire 10 fight UFC card is boring, you’re disappointed but there’s another one on in a week or two. Pretty soon you’ll see some good fights. But in women’s MMA, you could conceivable go an entire year without seeing an exciting women’s fight. No wonder so many people have the vague impression of women’s MMA not being as exciting.

With such a small amount of exposure it’s vital that women put on exciting and memorable fights. As it stands, each fight is going to have a lasting impression on fans, and so until women are put in the UFC and have a couple fights every show, people aren’t going to go out of their way to watch female fights if the last one they saw was boring.

Original post at blog here

Hey folks, it's here! The Southpaw Striking Guide is my commitment to putting together the most comprehensive free material on fighting as or against a southpaw.

With the growing number of southpaws coming to kickboxing, boxing and MMA it is unacceptable that their is such a dearth of material available on the web or in print and www.fightsgoneby.com is committed to changing that.

http://www.fightsgoneby.com/2012/01/southpaw-striking-guide-part-1-advanced.html

Please head over and if you like it:
- Bookmark Fights Gone By
- Recommend Fights Gone By on Facebook, Twitter, Google plus and so on.
- Use our brand new DONATE button to help make my mission to bring the best analysis and instruction on the net for free easier!

As always, all feedback is welcome and encouraged!

Cheers,
Jack Slack

Hey ladies (and some gents I'm sure),

Am currently reworking my site, so it's a little messy at the moment, but I wanted to advertise my newest post a little. It's basically a reading list for strikers, only the first part mind you - there is plenty more to be said. You might have read all of them but I would love to hear in the comments how you feel about my first choices, and what you would recommend to a young beginner or a veteran striker alike.

http://www.fightsgoneby.com/2012/01/strikers-reading-list-part-1.html

Also, please notice my swanky new domain name www.fightsgoneby.com

Bookmark me and add me on twitter @JackSlackMMA

Cheers,

Jack

Congratulations are in order to Nick Nolte, who received a Best Supporting Actor Nomination this morning for his performance as Paddy Conlon in the MMA movie "Warrior."

Nolte's nomination wasn't a complete surprise, as he was nominated for a SAG award in the same category, but had not received recognition by the Golden Globes.

The movie "Warrior" is the story of two brothers who fight in a two day MMA tournament with a $5 million purse. Nolte plays the father of the two brothers, Brendan and Tommy Conlon (played by Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy) each with their own reasons for entering the tournament. Paddy Conlon is an alcoholic former boxer who trains Tommy for the tournament, but has unresolved issues with his older son, Brendan.

The movie ends in the tournament, with appearances from Anthony Johnson, Nate Marquardt, Roan Carniero and wrestler Kurt Angle as opponents, along with appearances by Jon Anik, Rashad Evans and Stephan Bonnar.

Nolte's performance is difficult to watch at times, as he struggles with alcohol and his relationship with his sons, but it really is an excellent performance in an overall well done movie. Not just a MMA movie, but a movie.

Check out the Trailer to Warrior. Congrats again to Nick Nolte! Let us know if you think he has a chance to win! MMA at the Oscars on February 26th.

From HeadKickLegend - head there to read the full article, including Nogueira, BJ Penn and Jose Aldo.

The Counter Jab is perhaps the most important punch in boxing and therefore in all around striking, it lands cleanly and often, and it is by far the safest counter punch to throw. Supposedly good strikers have been taken apart time and again by lesser strikers who counter jab often and accurately. There are many variations of the counter jab, but by far the most useful are the catch and pitch, and the dipping jab. The catch and pitch jab is a simple matter of using the right palm to catch an incoming jab while firing one's own jab simultaneously. The dipping jab is the act of slipping to the outside of the opponent's jab while simultaneously throwing one's own.

The former technique of catch and pitch is demonstrated here by the great Joe Louis

Notice how Louis initiates his jab immediately upon his opponent's front foot entering punching range. Louis was not a fast mover, and it really showed as most of his opponents spent the early rounds running in and out of range, so it was these kind of well timed pot shots at long range that Louis used to slow them down before stepping into range for his violent hooking and uppercutting combinations. Watch in this gif as he grinds down Mann, a fighter who had begun the fight by attempting to rush Louis. Louis brought Mann under his control with a counter jab every time Mann attempted to fight from long range.

Continue reading this post

Jack Slack blogs at http://fightsgoneby.blogspot.com/

And tweets at @JackSlackMMA

On September 16, 2010, Waterson announced that she was pregnant with her first child and recently engaged. She gave birth to a daughter named Araya on March 18, 2011. Last fighting on April 24, 2010 against Masako Yoshida. Handing Yoshida only her second TKO lost of her 38 fight career.

Perhaps more famous for her modeling work(as a google search would prove) than her fighting "The Karate Hottie" meets Diana Riel (3-1) at Jackson's MMA Series 7 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This will be contested at 105 pounds(straweight?).

Some Videos of Waterson's lead up to the fight:

You can purchase the entire event at jacksonsmmaseries dot com

Last night in the main event of UFC on FX: Miller vs. Guillard, Jim Miller and Melvin Guillard had a fight where both showed everything they were known for. Jim Miller showed there is no shot hard enough to stop him from searching for a submission, while Guillard showed dynamite in his hands and looked helpless on the ground against a superior grappler. No sooner had Miller taken Guillard’s back and locked-up the fight-ending rear naked choke than fans on the web the world over began tweeting and commenting with one main theme — "Why won’t Melvin just work on his jiu jitsu, already? He’s got so much wasted potential."

Well, that’s a load of BS.

Allow me to present a quick case study of two fighters.

Fighter A is a hard-nosed fighter. After every fight he diligently breaks down his performance to find holes in his game, win or lose, and spends his time working his ass off to fill those holes. This hard-working style works well and he grinds his way into the top half of the division in the UFC. Fighter A finds himself fighting for the title more than once, but ultimately he just does not have the physical tools to get over the hump and be the best, no matter how hard he works.

Fighter B is a physically gifted fighter. While his work ethic in regards to assessing his problems, learning from them, then drilling until they are no longer so glaring is often criticized, nobody can deny the natural gifts that Fighter B possesses. He fights with a speed and strength unmatched by anyone in the division, but ultimately fails to ever put together a long run at the top of the division as he finds his weakness exploited by top fighters every time he starts to sniff a title shot.

By the masses, Fighter A is considered somebody who maximized his potential, and just never was somebody destined to be physically capable of winning a title. Fighter B is bemoaned as a waste of talent, somebody good enough to win the title if he could just get his mind straight for a couple years in a row. For some bizarre reason, a fighter with a physical deficiency who achieves more is considered less viable as a true potential-champion than a fighter whose flaws are mental but has never reached the heights of his counterpart. Why is this?

Continue reading this post »