Official Women's MMA Discussion Thread #9

[JarlSkuld]

@Thirdpres: True, you follow a lot of local promotions all over the world, so maybe you don`t see it as a problem. I`m not knocking those promotions or their fighters, but this environment of - just take a fight, any fight, whenever you can - is kind of like how it was 10 years ago. You mentioned Smackgirl; the thing that made that promotion fun and memorable was not the funky pink gloves or the 30-second ground rule, it was that Smackgirl made an effort to gather the best fighters and have them fight each other to determine a champ. I was genuinely interested in who was better, Megumi Yabushita or Erin Toughill, so I liked the early Smackgirl events a lot. This is the opposite of taking any fight you can find in any local promotion that will have you.

As an all-female fight organization, Invicta had done the same thing (as Smackgirl) until last summer. It helped get away from the "journeyman" feel of women`s MMA and helped give it a sense of legitimacy of a major sport, with rankings, competitive matchups, and a goal for every fighter (become the champ/get the belt). Now, Invicta is dropping the ball and failing in this "responsibility" (maybe not the best term, but for now it`ll do). You know Alyona Rassohyna and I`m sure she`s decent fighter who tries her best...but should she be fighting Katja Kankampaa? Does she have much of a chance against Kankampaa? I`m not interested in watching Katja beat a local fighter...any more than I would be interested in watching, say Carlos Condit show up at a local promotion in Osaka and whoop on some local guy. Katja has beaten Juliana Lima and gave Joanne Calderwood a good fight. Shouldn`t she be fighting someone at least in the top 10? Her taking this fight is a step backwards, in my opinion. But she has to..Why? Because of Invicta`s lack of events.

I see you also posted a bit about Faith Van Duin. I was excited when I heard she signed with Invicta. I thought she would add some much needed depth to the somewhat shallow 145lb division. I`m sure she was thrilled too, going from local Kiwi/Aussie promotions to fighting some of the top-ranked fighters in the world. But now, she`s saying she`s "looking for work" more or less. She`s contemplating a move to a new weight, and to the UFC...this perfectly illustrates what I said about fighters desiring the stability and goals (belts) of a fight organization like the UFC (and like Invicta used to be). There have been what? half-a-dozen female fights in the UFC this year, but Faith Van Duin (apparently) still considers this better than waiting around for Invicta or fighting in local promotions. Again, Invicta is to blame for this, in my opinion.

Jarl

 

[Thirdpres]

@Thirdpres: True, you follow a lot of local promotions all over the world, so maybe you don`t see it as a problem. I`m not knocking those promotions or their fighters, but this environment of - just take a fight, any fight, whenever you can - is kind of like how it was 10 years ago. You mentioned Smackgirl; the thing that made that promotion fun and memorable was not the funky pink gloves or the 30-second ground rule, it was that Smackgirl made an effort to gather the best fighters and have them fight each other to determine a champ. I was genuinely interested in who was better, Megumi Yabushita or Erin Toughill, so I liked the early Smackgirl events a lot. This is the opposite of taking any fight you can find in any local promotion that will have you.

As an all-female fight organization, Invicta had done the same thing (as Smackgirl) until last summer. It helped get away from the "journeyman" feel of women`s MMA and helped give it a sense of legitimacy of a major sport, with rankings, competitive matchups, and a goal for every fighter (become the champ/get the belt). Now, Invicta is dropping the ball and failing in this "responsibility" (maybe not the best term, but for now it`ll do).

I already pointed out that it is better to have Invicta FC actually having fights. I already agreed with the idea of something to work for, like a belt and have said as much in previous threads on that subject.

However I am not all that upset with Invicta FC either. The fighting promotion business is a rough one and the women has enough trouble as it is so I don't see a reason to go on and on with the fact that they haven't had an event in a while other then to say it is too bad. At least Invicta allows its fighters to fight. When other fighting promotions have gone down who had women fighters many of them were stuck doing nothing for a whole year.

The bottom line is the situation for women in MMA is much better then it used to 10 years ago. The fact that there are several promotions giving women bouts on a regular basis is a good thing. The UFC, CWFC, XFCi, DEEP Jewels, and others continue to develop their weight classes. Lacking Invicta having events these past six months sucks but the situation is much better then the old days when only the rare Smackgirl event took place.

I just don't see that there is as much commonality as you do. I do understand what you are getting at, you'd like Invicta FC to be holding events and doing what Smackgirl did back in the old days. I don't think Invicta can do what Smackgirl did in the past. Regardless of what Invicta does the fact that the UFC has women fighting in it will always pull ambitious fighters away from smaller, lower paying, organizations. This happens with male fighters in different organization all of the time, for the most part women won't be any different in my opinion.

You know Alyona Rassohyna and I`m sure she`s decent fighter who tries her best...but should she be fighting Katja Kankampaa? Does she have much of a chance against Kankampaa? I`m not interested in watching Katja beat a local fighter...any more than I would be interested in watching, say Carlos Condit show up at a local promotion in Osaka and whoop on some local guy. Katja has beaten Juliana Lima and gave Joanne Calderwood a good fight. Shouldn`t she be fighting someone at least in the top 10? Her taking this fight is a step backwards, in my opinion. But she has to..Why? Because of Invicta`s lack of events.

Rassohyna has as good a chance as most of Kankampaa's opponents. She is 9-2 with some good wins against decent opponents. At what point does it become unreasonable to get those fighters who have been fighting for years a chance to get some recognition? To get fights that might get them into the top ten convincingly? I feel Rassohyna deserves a shot. I'm not convinced she will defeat Kankampaa but she ought to make a good fight of it.

If you want Kankampaa fighting someone else, in the top ten, you'd have to get her a fight in DEEP Jewels or XFCi at the moment. The UFC has most of the rest of the top ten and those more recognizable.

Also getting Kankampaa a fight against someone outside the top ten but with a good record is pretty normal for someone who is coming off a loss. Juliana Lima is an unproven commodity at strawweight, as her previous fights and her last fight were all at flyweight. She has some good wins but the important ones took place back in 2010 and 2011 against opponents who were also pretty new to MMA. (Serio, Novaes, Silva.) Trolezi, Nery, and de Farias have not so good records, combined 3-7-1. After Lima lost to Kankampaa she fought a debuting Trolezi.

If it is okay to castigate Kankampaa's fighting Rassohyna now Lima ought to have been given even worse grief. At least Kankampaa is actually fighting someone who is seen as a quality opponent who has fought in ProFC and M-1.

I see you also posted a bit about Faith Van Duin. I was excited when I heard she signed with Invicta. I thought she would add some much needed depth to the somewhat shallow 145lb division. I`m sure she was thrilled too, going from local Kiwi/Aussie promotions to fighting some of the top-ranked fighters in the world. But now, she`s saying she`s "looking for work" more or less. She`s contemplating a move to a new weight, and to the UFC...this perfectly illustrates what I said about fighters desiring the stability and goals (belts) of a fight organization like the UFC (and like Invicta used to be). There have been what? half-a-dozen female fights in the UFC this year, but Faith Van Duin (apparently) still considers this better than waiting around for Invicta or fighting in local promotions. Again, Invicta is to blame for this, in my opinion.

Jarl

Faith Van Duin would prefer to fight at 145. I have some doubts she actually wants to actually stay at 135 but do a single fight at 135 or 140 (preferred) as cutting down to 135 would be extremely tough for her to do.

I've posted some other thoughts that deal with this subject in my previous comments.

You're welcome to your opinion of Invicta but I just don't see the point in railing about it to the extent you are but that is your right.

I just don't see the point in it. Invicta will either get it together or they won't. It is not fun to wait for them to get their TV deal going and get their events coming to us but blaming them for everything not working out perfect just doesn't work for me.

The fight promotion business is brutal and I would rather Invicta get things right. I'd rather them not join the ranks of Fatal Femmes Fighting, Valkry, Jewels, Smackgirl, etc.. If they do fail will someone else try to pick up the pieces?

Maybe the UFC will eventually but most of the women fighting want to end up there eventually anyways.

--
On a historical note there were 120 or so active women in MMA 15 years ago with the numbers climbing upwards of 150 to 170, if memory serves about 6-7 years ago.

Today there are upwards of 900 women fighting in MMA at the professional level. It is much harder to get the best of the best together in one place unless you have serious resources available.

 

[prometheus]

Just a brief word on the topic going on in the above posts.

Thirdpres, I really enjoy the fact that you spend so much time looking for and discussing the lesser known fighters and orgs.

While I've watched (and greatly enjoyed) all Invicta events to date, I really don't see any point in going over and over when they will or will not have another event, when it might be, who might be involved etc

Much better imo to wait for an announcement and to spend the intervening time looking around at events that are actually happening and discussing fighters that are actually fighting

Side note, I'm really looking forward to seeing Alyona against Katja

Undoubtedly she could well lose convincingly but i wouldn't be surprised if she made it a very difficult fight for Katja

Oh well, we'll soon find out

Carry on all Lol

 

[prometheus]

Thirdpres

Thanks for the Crisano fight
How bizarre
Thought she was actually being given the victory following the powerbomb
Strange finish and outcome

 

[Thirdpres]

Just a brief word on the topic going on in the above posts.

Thirdpres, I really enjoy the fact that you spend so much time looking for and discussing the lesser known fighters and orgs.

While I've watched (and greatly enjoyed) all Invicta events to date, I really don't see any point in going over and over when they will or will not have another event, when it might be, who might be involved etc

Much better imo to wait for an announcement and to spend the intervening time looking around at events that are actually happening and discussing fighters that are actually fighting

Side note, I'm really looking forward to seeing Alyona against Katja

Undoubtedly she could well lose convincingly but i wouldn't be surprised if she made it a very difficult fight for Katja

Oh well, we'll soon find out

Carry on all Lol

Thanks you're welcome and agreed.

I'm really hoping that Alyona vs. Katja is a barn burner. Alyona is very active and, unlike some other Ukrainian and Russian fighters, will ground and pound pretty hard before going for a submission so she is less likely to make a dumb mistake.

Here are the fights that should be taking place next week:

5-16 135 Valerie Letourneau (4-3-0) CA (US) vs. Jazmin Quezada (1-3-0) US at AFC 20(?)

5-16 120 Sarah McLeod (0-0-0) US vs. Shawna Lang (0-0-0) US at Prize Fighting Championship 6 //See pic below: //(I've seen this fight listed anywhere from 115 to 135 at the moment. I need to check some primary sources out to be sure now.)

5-16 Intense Cage Fighting 13:
105 Liz McCarthy (1-1-0) US vs. Cassie Robb (0-1-0) US
115?Emily Corso (0-0-0) US vs. Lynnell House (2-1-0) CA
//115 Amy Cadwell-Montenegro (3-0-0) US likely TUF 20
125 Katie Howard (2-1-0) US vs. TBD/Robin Woods (0-0-0) US (Woods reported out.)

5-17 121 Karolina Kowalkiewicz (4-0-0) PL vs. Jasminka Cive (5-1-0) AT at KSW 27

5-17 Lappeenranta Fight Night 10
115 Katja Kankaanp

 

[Thirdpres]

Thirdpres

Thanks for the Crisano fight
How bizarre
Thought she was actually being given the victory following the powerbomb
Strange finish and outcome

Agreed. Very strange. I think they will protest and look for an overturn. The referee claims Crisano kneed her opponent but you can see in the video that doesn't happen.

This is being reported from Crisano's coaches, camp, and herself. I hope this gets worked out properly.

I hate seeing stuff like this and it makes it very tough to do my Women's MMA by Weight Class rankings. I am tempted to alter the current rankings a little bit, again, to account for this but I always prefer the official ruling on a fight's outcome to be the dominant determiner to what and how I make the rankings in the list.

I agree fully with this post, and Thirdpres's post above it. So muc time and energy being wasted on anger at Invicta. I desperately want them to come through, and they either eventually will, or they won't. Either way, wmma is a lot better now than before them.

Thanks and agreed.

--

 

[leto1776]

Just a brief word on the topic going on in the above posts.

Thirdpres, I really enjoy the fact that you spend so much time looking for and discussing the lesser known fighters and orgs.

While I've watched (and greatly enjoyed) all Invicta events to date, I really don't see any point in going over and over when they will or will not have another event, when it might be, who might be involved etc

Much better imo to wait for an announcement and to spend the intervening time looking around at events that are actually happening and discussing fighters that are actually fighting

Side note, I'm really looking forward to seeing Alyona against Katja

Undoubtedly she could well lose convincingly but i wouldn't be surprised if she made it a very difficult fight for Katja

Oh well, we'll soon find out

Carry on all Lol

I agree fully with this post, and Thirdpres's post above it. So muc time and energy being wasted on anger at Invicta. I desperately want them to come through, and they either eventually will, or they won't. Either way, wmma is a lot better now than before them.

 

[chatham101]

Thirdpress rocks!- great info/great insight. I actually checked out the twitter sights of Amy M @Cadwell_amy, Ould @michelleouldmma and our canadian girl Markos @randamma - looks like they are training for something

I guess, we all should find out soon - but keep it coming Thirdpress

 

[Thirdpres]

Thirdpress rocks!- great info/great insight. I actually checked out the twitter sights of Amy M @Cadwell_amy, Ould @michelleouldmma and our canadian girl Markos @randamma - looks like they are training for something

I guess, we all should find out soon - but keep it coming Thirdpress

You're welcome. Happy to help.

--

Action and traction!

Cassie Crisano versus Beatriz Zambonini Mired in Controversy
By MarQ May 13, 2014

You may have noticed some changes in the results of the fight between Cassie Crisano and Beatriz Zambonini the past day. The fight itself has driven some controversy and from we can gather, it was declared a disqualification by the referee after the fight, with Zambonini winning, but Crisano is stating it was changed to no contest after the promotion saw the video Monday.

DaMadeFerroMMA.com has made a full report (and has video) of what happened, but for those who don’t understand Portuguese, here is what we can tell you.

Click below for more and check DaMadeFerroMMA out. Of course you can see the video I already posted on it. Crisano's camp claims the fight has been turned into an NC but no confirmation on that quite yet.

http://wombatsports.wordpress.com/2...ersus-beatriz-zambonini-mired-in-controversy/

I hope this business get worked out properly.

 

[underdogftw]

Some news from Albu and the debut of strawweight division in ufc. Albu's manager recieved an offer for her to fight in july at 115 lbs. They haven't accepted yet afaik.

can she really make at 115 she is pretty muscular been body builder before?

 

[Arkain2K]

Some news from Albu and the debut of strawweight division in ufc. Albu's manager recieved an offer for her to fight in july at 115 lbs. They haven't accepted yet afaik.

Don't do it Stitch! You don't wanna lose your bread & butter lower body muscles!!!

 

[VolkHan]

XFC International Officially Signs 6 More Female Fighters to Roster

After announcing last month their signing top strawweight prospect Kalindra Faria, XFC International has inked deals with six more female fighters according to a press release.

Faria

 

[Thirdpres]

XFC International Officially Signs 6 More Female Fighters to Roster

PRESS RELEASE: XFC INTERNATIONAL

XFC INTERNATIONAL SIGNS 7 FEMALE MMA CONTENDERS

Sao Paulo Brazil (May 12, 2014) – XFC International today announces that it has secured exclusive agreements with seven new female mixed martial artists. These fighters joins a list of elite mixed martial artists from XFC International tournament fighters and SuperFight contenders to recently sign with the world’s fastest growing MMA promotion.

Click below for more:

http://xfcmma.com/xfc-international-signs-7-female-mma-contenders/

Still great news.

http://forums.sherdog.com/forums/f61/official-womens-mma-discussion-thread-9-a-2727405/index32.html

--

Don't do it Stitch! You don't wanna lose your bread & butter lower body muscles!!!

Stitch has the tools.

8)

--

I've read that Lappeenranta Fight Night 10 will stream on Fightnight.fi.

Here is the story on LFN 10.

Watch live on pay-per-view stream (appears on fight date):
WWW.FIGHTNIGHT.FI (7 EUR/whole event)
Event starts 6:00pm (EEST)


5-17 Lappeenranta Fight Night 10
115 Katja Kankaanp

 

[LMW87]

Is Yana Kunitskaya planning a return? She only had her child like a year ago so she's probably focusing on that too much to train, but worth asking

 

[Leek]

ICYMI...

Ana Julaton vs. Aya Saeid Saber

[YT]NiJv_OL8XEI[/YT]

 

[chatham101]

The thought of Felice more into her bikini contest competition's then the overall prep of fighting in the biggest org/tournament of her life is proving just how serious her training has been. She got splashed with a lot of money to sit out to wait for this opportunity and seems she has enjoyed it. I can see one of the new unnamed girls coming into the house hungry and having their way with her.

 

[BROKENSPROKET]

I agree fully with this post, and Thirdpres's post above it. So muc time and energy being wasted on anger at Invicta. I desperately want them to come through, and they either eventually will, or they won't. Either way, wmma is a lot better now than before them.

I am in agreement as well. I have spent much of this down time looking more into some of the UFC men's divisions. I sure hope Invicta does enough to pull me back. It could end up on channel I don't have like Showtime.

 

[BROKENSPROKET]

The thought of Felice more into her bikini contest competition's then the overall prep of fighting in the biggest org/tournament of her life is proving just how serious her training has been. She got splashed with a lot of money to sit out to wait for this opportunity and seems she has enjoyed it. I can see one of the new unnamed girls coming into the house hungry and having their way with her.

Having there way with her? I think Carla would get pretty jealous.

 

[flanellograf]

The 115 division is sure shaping up to be a great one. Perhaps it will finally put the "wmma sucks" discussion to rest. Well, somewhat, at least. Some people still bitch about the lighter weight classes in men's mma. What you gonna do?

 

[Leek]

Rosi Sexton ‏@RosiSexton 2h
2013 was tough. I knew it was going to be, fighting some of the best girls in the world, above the weight I normally walk around at.

I put everything on the line and did it anyway. I came up short, though I gave the next UFC title challenger a good run for her money...

...but what I took from those experiences is something money can't buy. It's always been about the journey and the challenge.

I'm still here; still learning, still improving. There's more to come. I'm not done yet.

Interested in what's next for her.