Hiroko Yamanaka vs Cyborg Santos?

While female MMA in the US is not really flourishing, it's doing quite well in Japan.
And one of the reasons it's doing well is fighters like five foot eleven, 143 pound Hiroko Yamanaka.
Hiroko is currently 12-1-0 with her last fight being a win over Bolormaa "Esui" Erdenebileg (2-2-0) at Jewels - 15th Ring on July 9th, 2011 in Tokyo, Japan.

Why am I mentioning Hiroko now?
Since Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos has re-signed with Strikeforce, they are probably gonna want someone good for her to fight.
As in not get killed instantly.
I think Hiroko fills that bill.

Like I said she is 12-1-0.
8 of her wins were by decision, 2 by submission and 2 by TKOs.
MMARising has Hiroko ranked number two in the featherweight division, right behind Santos.
The "Incomplete Queen" (I have no idea what that nickname means) is not only trained in MMA, but also in submission grappling (1-2-0) and shoot boxing (2-0-0).
She was the final Smackgirl Open Weight Champion and she won the Super Gals Mix Cup Open Weight Tournament.

One problem here is logistics.
Hiroko is in Japan and Cris is in the US.
There are actually rumors that Strikeforce offered Hiroko a bout with Cris earlier this year, but travel issues killed it.
If the travel issues could be resolved, maybe Strikeforce could make this happen.

Another problem is...well...to put it nicely...who cares?
Hiroko is a Japanese star and Cris is popular here.
Like I said earlier, female MMA in the US seems to be treading water.
How would they generate buzz for a fight between Cris and Hiroko?
Well that's a game for the publicists and I wish them well.

Meanwhile, female MMA fans can speculate and hope that somehow this match turns into reality.

UFC Buys Strikeforce - What Will Happen to Female MMA?

 Saturday afternoon, Dana White announced that Zuffa, the parent company of UFC, has purchased Strikeforce.
What does that mean to female MMA?
Well we all know that Dana has said that women will never fight on a UFC card.
But he did at least say that Zuffa will honor Strikeforce's current contracts.

Does that mean that after the current contracts are finished, we will see a mass exodus of female fighters to Bellator?

Face it, White thinks MMA is a man's game pure and simple.
Rather than trying to promote and cultivate the female mixed martial artists out there, he would rather say that there is not enough depth of talent in the female ranks.
I think it's basically because he doesn't want women in the sport.
Which is fair really.
It's his promotion, he doesn't have to do what he doesn't want to.
You can take your ball and go home if you don't like it.

Then you can watch and attend other MMA promotions that do back female fighters.

So will Bellator now become the home of fighters like Miesha Tate, Cristiane Santos, Sarah Kaufman and Marloes Coenen?
Personally I'm thinking yes.

But White has said that Strikeforce will be a totally separate entity, so I guess we will just have to wait and see.

The Top Ten Female MMA Fighters of 2010

While doing some work on my female MMA lenses over at Squidoo (RIP) I came up with a list of the most searched for female mixed martial artists on the net.
Now you have to keep in mind, these are actual fighters, not people that are inactive like Gina Carano.

Actually Gina would STILL be number one by a wide margin, but she hasn't competed since the Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg fight when Cris beat her by TKO at 4:59 in the first round.
Gina has made no indication that she is coming back into the ring so far.

So here are the top ten most searched for female MMA fighters on the net right now.....

1. Miesha Tate (11-2-0)
2. Cristiane Santos (10-1-0)
3. Marloes Coenen (18-4-0)
4. Sarah Kaufman (12-1-0)
5. Amy Davis (1-2-0, 1 NC)
6. Megumi Fujii (23-1-0)
7. Zoila Frausto (10-1-0)
8. Carina Damm (15-5-0)
9. Lisa Ward (14-6-0)
10. Roxanne Modafferi (15-6-0)

You may notice that in this list, all of these women are really fighters.
With the exception of Amy Davis, they are all in the ten plus fight range and seven of them are ranked in MMARising.com's "Top 15 Women’s Pound-For-Pound MMA Rankings".
This leads me to believe that female MMA fight fans are actually going for talent and not looks.

I mean c'mon, would Gina have been as popular as she was were she not as hot as she was?

And speaking about that, Miesha Tate needs to watch out for that trap.
She's 11-2-0 and ranked number 11 on the top 15 pound for pound, but a lot of people are looking to her as the new "Face of Female MMA".
She hasnt fought since Strikeforce - Challengers 10 back on August 13th, 2010 when she beat Hitomi Akano by unanimous decision.

Of course all that will change when she takes on Strikeforce women’s 135-pound champion Marloes Coenen for the title, probably some time in March.

Then we'll see if she's the new "Face".



The Top Ten Female MMA Fighters of 2010, posted to http://femalemixedmartialartists.blogspot.com/ on January 9th, 2010

Who's Next for Cristiane Santos?

Well as pretty much everyone expected...Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos beat Jan "Cuddles" Finney at the "Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum" event at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.
And hey, Jan did go more than one round; you have to give her credit for that.

So who is the next victim...I mean opponent for Cris?

Probably the most popular choice is Erin Toughill.
Erin has had some problems with Strikeforce before, but that may all be in the past.
At least for now.
Strikeforce could probably bill this as a "The Beauty vs The Beast" match up and really rack up if it was promoted correctly.

But who are some other worthy opponents out there?

Cris already taken out Marloes “Rumina” Coenen and Gina “Conviction” Carano.

How about Hiroko Yamanaka?
Hiroko is five foot eleven and weighs169 pounds, so she actually has the height and weight advantage over Cris.
Her record is also 9-1-1.

Another possible opponent is Cindy “Battlecat” Dandois.
Cindy is 5'7, 145 pounds and has a record of 4-0-0.
One of her biggest wins was a unanimous win over Marloes Coenen at BOTE - Beast of the East in 2009.

Another good possibility is Amanda “Lioness of the Ring” Nunes.
Amanda is 5-1-0 but one important thing to me here is that she holds a victory over Vanessa Porto, the woman that defeated Cristiane Santos back in 2005.
Of course 2005 was 5 years ago.....

You could also add to this list Shana “Rock Solid” Olsen (4-0-0), Jamie Seaton (2-1-0), Yoko Takahashi (14-11-3) and Emily “Timebomb” Thompson (3-2-0).

And of course the woman that Cris said gave her one of the toughest fights of her life...Vanessa Porto (10-4-0).



Who's Next for Cristiane Santos?, posted to http://femalemixedmartialartists.blogspot.com/ on June 28th, 2010

Cristiane Cyborg Santos vs Jan Cuddles Finney

The Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos vs Jan "Cuddles" Finney tonight is gonna be...
Well, one sided.
I'm sorry, but The Cyborg versus Cuddles?
Can you see the problem here?
Can we just rerun an old Mike Tyson fight where he creams his opponent in like 30 seconds?


Jan is five foot eight and weighs in at 135 pounds.
Her record is 8-7-0.


Cris on the other hand is five foot eight, 145 and her record is 9-1-0.

Of course Finney is the underdog but you have to remember this is MMA and almost anything can happen.
Despite the fact that Cyborg is bigger and more physically powerful than just about any other female mma fighter in the world, Jan could win.
To Jan's credit, she does have the attitude to face Cris, and has a habit of getting in her opponent's faces.

But this will most likely get her killed against someone that is bigger than her, stronger than her, and more skilled than her.
I.E: Santos

So we will just have to wait and see, but I'm saying Santos in the first round.



Cristiane Cyborg Santos vs Jan Cuddles Finney, posted to
http://femalemixedmartialartists.blogspot.com/ on June 26th, 2010.

Cristiane Cyborg Santos Defeats Marloes Coenen

Photo credit: Dave Mandel for Sherdog.com

Last night at Strikeforce: Miami, female mixed martial artist Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos defeated Marloes Coenen and successfully defended her Strikeforce women's lightweight championship.
Santos pretty much dominated the entire match.
I said Marloes needed to take her down, and she did try, but it almost looked like at times that she was trying to take down an oak tree.
Santos blocked every attempt.
The fight did go longer than the Cyborg / Carano fight, and a lot of people (including me) thought that "IF" Marloes could drag the fight out, she might have a chance.
This was not the case as Cris kept coming at her like her killer robot namesake.
The highlights for me.....
When Maroes was trying to take Cris down and Santos basically lifted her up and tossed her across the mat.
Remember what I said about power in the last entry?
And when Marloes nailed her with a punch, and Cris shrugged it off with seemingly no effect.
That punch landed and I thought "Whoa, this might be the beginning of the end".
Nope, it looked like it had no effect and it didn't.

So who can stop the Cyborg?
Erin Toughill?
I'd love to see that...but after last night, I have my doubts.
I really think the only way someone is gonna beat Cris is to take her down and submit her.
With 12 wins by submission, Marloes was a good...make that great...contender for that, but it didn't happen.
I seriously think the only way anyone is gonna take Cris out is get her down, get behind her and clamp a RNC on her.
That or a baseball bat....

Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos vs Marloes "Rumina" Coenen

On January 30th, 2010 the Bankatlantic Center in Sunrise Florida will host the female mixed martial arts version of Tyson vs Holyfield as Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos takes on Marloes "Rumina" Coenen.
This fight may not have the glitz and glamor that the Santos vs Carano match-up had, but something tells me it's gonna be a better fight.

So what's gonna happen?

On one hand you have pure power in the form of Cristiane Santos.
She is 8-1-0, with 6 TKOs and two decisions.
Her only loss so far was to Brazilian Erica Paes back in 2005 via a kneebar.
And that may be the point here....

Marloes has a record of 17-3-0, with 12 of those wins coming via submission.
She took out Roxanne Modafferi, Yuuki Kondo, Asci Kubra, Majanka Lathouwers and Yoko Takahashi with armbars, Megumi Yabushita, Romy Ruyssen, Magdalena Jarecka and Keiko Tamai with rear naked chokes, and Becky Levi with a flying armbar.

So if Cris can keep her upright and pound away at her, using her strength to her advantage, she has a really good chance of winning.
But if Marloes can pull her down and clamp on a submission hold, will she be able to make Cris tap out?

I don't think you'll see another one round fight here like the Santos vs Carano match.

This fight will show everyone what female MMA is really all about.

Who do I think will win?
That really is a hard one and I think the fight could go either way.
But....I really have to go with Santos.
I'd love to see Marloes win, but to me Santos just has that early "Tyson" feel about her.

Here is an interview with Marloes Coenen by Danny Acosta for FIGHT!


You can see more female MMA here:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Female-MMA-Female-MMA-Fighters

Female Mixed Martial Arts Updates, 11-15-09

Several female MMA fighter updates.....

As you probably already know, Marloes Coenen dismantled Roxanne Modafferi in sixty five seconds at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers event on November 7th.
She submitted Roxanne with an armbar, avenging her loss to Roxanne back at K - GRACE 1 in May of 2007.
Now the Dutch mixed martial artist has her sites set on Strikeforce's 145-pound women’s champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos.
The word is that the title fight may go down as early as the January 30 Strikeforce event in Miami, Florida.

Now what about Santos and Coenen?
I say if Cris keeps her upright and pounds away, she'll win being the better striker and more powerful.
But if Marloes can take her down, she might have a chance at submission.

And speaking of The Cyborg, both she and her husband Evangelista are expected to fight at Strikeforce's December 19th show at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.
No...not against each other.

The upcoming video game, EA Sports MMA may or may not have female MMA stars in it.
The game is due out in 2010, and I'm thinking that if they had any female mixed martial artisits lined up, we'd know it by know.

And now the feud between TNA Knockout Tara (formerly WWE Diva Victoria, Lisa Marie Varon) and Kim Couture is really on?
I thought this had the look of a pro wrestling angle when I first heard about it, but after their run in at TNA's Bound for Glory PPV, I'm pretty sure we're getting a "work" here.
(Even though Kim and Tara both told MMA websites that it was a "shoot" and not planned.)
The bad thing about this is that no matter how much I love female pro wrestling, you should not mix it and female MMA.
In a female MMA match, we know that the person that wins...really wins.
In a scripted pro wrestling match, the winner is already determined.
MMA does not need the idea that any of its bouts are fixed. There needs to be a wide, clean line between MMA and wrestling.
Now some pro wrestling showman ship wouldn't hurt any, but leave it there.

Kim will be taking on Kerry Vera on November 20th at the Strikeforce Challengers card in Kansas City Kansas.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say Kerry will win.

And finally from the British TV show GMTV, here is an appearance by female MMA fighter Rosi Sexton...



posted to http://femalemixedmartialartists.blogspot.com/ on Nov 15th, 2009

WAMMA's September Female MMA Rankings

WAMMA's September female MMA rankings are out, and rather than waiting till October to do a top ten list, I thought I'd go ahead and go over the Featherweight rankings now.
Mainly because for the first time since they started doing female MMA rankings, there is a new number one.
Can you guess who it is?



1. Cristiane Santos
Yes the "Queen" was finally unseated.
Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos is the new number one female MMA fighter.
The Strikeforce Women's Lightweight Champion will be fighting next at Strikeforce: Fedor vs Rogers on November 7th, 2009.
Who will she be fighting?
Hopefully one of the following ladies.

2. Marloes Coenen
One of the women that actually stand a chance against Chris is this Dutch female mixed martial artist.
Marloes is 16-3-0.

3. Erin Toughill
Another lady that could hold her own with the Cyborg is Erin Toughill.
Erin beat Marloes Coenen back in 2004, and since her loss to Megumi Yabushita in 2004, she has been on a winning streak.

4. Gina Carano
Gina finally slipped down to number four.
And now the "Face of Female MMA" may just be looking at a Hollywood career.

5. Kelly Kobold
I did an entry on Kelly way back in April of 2007, so I feel pretty good about showcasing a lady that is now number 5 in the MMA world.
Although her last three fights were losses (Gina Carano, Julie Kedzie and Tara LaRosa) this 16-3-1 fighter is still a force to be reckoned with.

6. Yoko Takahashi
No not the singer.
The Japanese female MMA fighter Yoko Takahashi has a record of 15-10-1 and her last fight was a loss to Cristiane Santos by Unanimous Decision at EliteXC - Heat, 0n October 4th, 2008.

7. Cindy Dandois
Cindy "Battlecat" Dandois is a Belgian female MMA fighter with a 1-0-0 record.
I think the reason this lady came in at seven is because her one win was a Unanimous Decision over number two Marloes Coenen.
That's no small feat.

8. Ediane (Ediene) Gomes
Ediane "India" Gomes is a 4-0-0 fighter from Brazil.

9. Revelina Berto
Revelina "Nana" Berto has a fight record of 3-0-0.

10. Emily Thompson
3-2-0 female MMA fighter came in at number 10.


For the whole list of female MMA rankings, you can go to the WAMMA site here.
http://www.gowamma.com/Rankings

BTW...if anyone has any info on what happened Saturday night at “FEMALE FURY II” let me know.
I have looked everywhere for the results.


WAMMA's September Female MMA Rankings, posted to http://femalemixedmartialartists.blogspot.com/, on Sept 22, 2009

Female MMA Rankings For August

I haven't done this in awhile, so here are the top ten female MMA fighters on this blog, and how they ranked at WAMMA.
Now WAMMA ranks their fighters on six different points all having to do with fighting, and all I rank mine on is popularity.
So you'll see some wide differences in the two lists.
Except of course for the number one position.....



1. Gina Carano (7-1-0)
Of course Gina came in at number one on my ratings and the WAMMA ranking.
Is anyone surprised?

2. Karen Williams (3-3-0)
Even with 3 losses in a row, Karen Williams still came in at number two here.
I didnt see her at all on the WAMMA rankings.

3. Latasha Marzolla (9-3) Muay Thai, (1-0-0) MMA
Latasha Marzolla came in third here, but again, I didnt see her on the WAMMA page at all.
Of course with only one pro MMA fight, you wouldnt think she would show up on their rankings.

4. Cristiane Santos (8-1-0)
You would think the champ would come in at number one wouldnt you?
But she came in fourth here and third on the WAMMA.
In all fairness though, the WAMMA rankings came out before the Carano - Santos fight.

5. Emily Thompson (3-2-0)
Emily Thompson came in fifth here, and tenth at WAMMA.

6. Erin Toughill (10-2-1)
One of my favorite female MMA fighters Erin Toughill came in sixth here, and fourth at WAMMA.

7. Alexis Davis (6-2-0)
Another female mma fighter that came up ranked here, but not on WAMMA.

8. Jessica Aguilar (5-3-0)
Jessica Aguilar came in eighth here, and sixth in the Flyweight division at WAMMA.

9. Lisa Ward (12-5-0)
Lisa Ward came in ninth here and fifth in the Flyweight division as WAMMA.

10. Yoko Takahashi (15-10-1)
Yoko Takahashi rounded the list out here, but came in sixth in the Featherweight division at WAMMA.

To see WAMMA's full female MMA rankings go here:
http://www.gowamma.com/Rankings


posted to http://femalemixedmartialartists.blogspot.com/ on Sept 4th, 2009

Female MMA News and Updates

In my last entry, I asked what was next for female MMA champ Cris "Cyborg" Santos.
Well it looks like Elaina Maxwell wants to be the next thing.....

Top 10 MMA Pro Female Fighter Elaina Maxwell, a Student of Cung Le and Randy Couture, Calls out Strikeforce Champion, Cris Cyborg
Cyborg, a Strikeforce phenom, beats a crowd favorite in Gina Carano in complete dominance, yet Elaina Maxwell is not impressed. In fact, when Elite Broadcast Media interviewed Elaina, she told us this, "I saw many holes in Cyborg's standup, and if she fights me, she will get knocked out." Elaina has over 24 titles and championships in the fighting world, trains with the best in the world, and feels it is her time to end the hype, and start a new one. Elaina, goes on to say, "I have much respect for Gina and Cris. It is not about them, it's about me. To be honest, I am sick of only training with the best, I want to fight the best."
You can see the whole press release here

And in other female mma news ( yes there are other female mma fighters besides Carano and Santos) Jennifer "Visegrip" Martin will face Priseilla Cuevro at the first female mma bout in New York.
Don't get too excited, MMA events are still banned in New York.
They are getting around the ban by having the match at the Jo Jo Redeye Building on the Seneca Nation reservation in Salamanca.
You can read more about this here

And finally, here is an article from MMA Fanhouse by David Whitley titled " MMA Is No Breakthrough for Women".
"On a practical level, I doubt the Carano vs. Cyborg was the fighting equivalent of the 19th Amendment. When it comes to female fighters, the MMA still has less depth than Paris Hilton. Carano was its Danica Patrick, and now she's been beaten by Ivan Drago."

You can read the whole article (and comment, the comment section seems very spirited) here.

Yes Another Gina Carano/Cristiane Santos Update

Well I keep trying but all I seem to come up with these days is Gina Carano/Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos stuff.
Maybe I should just quit fighting and give into the hype.
After all, it's only 12 days till showtime.
(That wasn't a pun...really)

Anyway, word has come out now that Cristiane Santos is the odds on favorite to beat Gina on August 15th.
And adding to that is Carano's ex-boyfriend Kit Cope coming out on MMAJunkie Radio saying that (to put it nicely) Gina is gonna get beat if she keeps training at (as he puts it) "Xtreme Fashion" with Shawn Tompkins and Randy Couture.
Randy, by the way, will be in Gina's corner at the fight, but not long time friend Kim Couture.
This has lead to the totally unfounded (as far as I can tell) rumor that Gina is seeing Randy.
But think about it realistically a minute.
You're in the fight of your life, who do you want in your corner?
Mixed martial artist, Greco-Roman wrestler, former collegiate wrestler, and only five-time champion in UFC history Randy?
Or 1-1-0 Kim?
I'd go with Randy.

Female MMA - Erin Toughill

One of my favorite female MMA stars won't be making her debut with Strikeforce on August 15th.
Erin Toughill was originally slated to appear on the card, but now she is being held in reserve in case (okay, I know, I mention them every entry now....) Gina Carano or Cristiane Santos gets injured before their match.

Erin is 10-2-1 in MMA and also 8-2-1 in boxing and what an incredible break it would be for her to step into that match and win.
We could actually see a new star made right before our eyes.
Of course I am not wishing anything bad on Gina or Cristiane, that IS the fight everyone wants to see.

And according to Strikeforce, Erin just might get a shot at the winner of the Carano-Santos fight.



Female MMA - Erin Toughill, posted to http://femalemixedmartialartists.blogspot.com/ on 7-31-2009

Gina Carano Versus Cristiane Cyborg Santos Is Set

As most of you probably already know, the No. 1 and the No. 2 females fighting in the world, Gina Carano and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos will finally face each other Aug. 15.
This has been brewing since EliteXC went under a little over a year ago.
The fight will be for the Strikeforce 145 lb Women's Championship.
Gina should have little problem making the 145 pound allowance, but Cristiane has had trouble making it before.
The bout will be five rounds, and unless something changes between now and then, they will be three minute rounds.
I'd like to see five minute rounds, but we'll see.
The bout will air live on Showtime on Saturday, August 15th, at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, CA.

My prediction right now (this is subject to change) is a win by Gina by decision.
I'm not seeing any kind of blow out here.
I think it will go the distance and whoever wins, it wont be by a huge margin.
I also think that how this bout goes will have a major impact on female MMA bouts in the future.

WAMMA Female MMA Rankings For April

The World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts has released its female fighter rankings for the month of May.
The list has a new weight division (115 pound weight class) and a few other changes.
For brevity's sake, I have only listed the top five fighters in each catagory.
You can see the whole list here:
http://gowamma.com/Rankings

Featherweight
1 Gina Carano
2 Marloes Coenen
3 (tie) Cristiane Santos / Erin Toughill
5 Kelly Kobold

Bantamweight
1 Tara LaRosa
2 Takayo Hashi
3 Roxanne Modafferi
4 Shayna Baszler
5 Sarah Kaufman

Super Flyweight
1 Rosi Sexton
2 Carina Damm
3 Rin Nakai
4 Aisling Daly
5 "Windy" Tomomi Sunaba

Flyweight
1 Megumi Fuji
2 Yuka Tsuji
3 Ana Michelle Tavares
4 Lisa Ward
5 Miku Matsumoto

Miesha Tate, Kim Couture, Gina Carano, Cristiane Santos and More

Here are several articles dealing with female MMA.
If you notice, all the articles reference Strikeforce, who seems to own the female MMA scene at the moment.
I'm glad the female fighters have a place to show their skills, but any kind of a sports monopoly makes me nervous.

FightHype has a really good interview with Miesha Tate about her upcoming fight with Kim Couture.
You can read the article here

It looks like the Gina Carano vs. Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos Strikeforce title bout is targeted for August.
Here's an in-depth article at MMA Junkie.com about it.

And according to Fanhouse.com, Josh Barnett is still a little more than upset with Mrs. Santos about the Hitomi Akano fight.

MMA Updates, Gina Carano, Kim Couture and More

It looks like the Gina Carano / Cristian "Cyborg" Santos fight could happen in August at the Strikeforce show.
If it happens, the fight will most likely air on Showtime or CBS.

Kim Couture will be on the May 15 "ShoMMA: Strikeforce Challengers," acrd facing an undetermined as of yet opponent.

Kyra Gracie won the Absolute and Lightweight divisions last year at the 2008 Womens Brown/Black Belt World Champions.
She is said to be competing at the April 18th New York International Open Jiu-Jitsu Championship in New York, but I haven't seen confirmation of this yet.

At the April 11 in “Extreme Beatdown” at Apache Gold Casino, Michelle “The Karate Hottie” Waterson will be facing MMA and boxing star Elena “Baby Doll” Reid in a special female 112-pound catch-weight attraction bout..

I don't know if I mentioned it before or not, but Erin Toughill has a website at http://www.erintoughill.com/

And Tara LaRosa won her MMA fight with Sally Krumdiak at Atlantic City's Trump Marina with a third round submission.
Tara's next fight is tentatively scheduled for May 30 in Atlantic City or June 14 in Birmingham, Alabama.

MMA News: Cristiane Santos versus Hitomi Akano

Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos (6-1) of Brazil will be facing “Smack Girl” Champion Hitomi “Girlfight Monster” Akano (14-5) of Japan at the "Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Diaz " event on April 11th at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.

I think this will be a very interesting match up, because the two women are almost polar opposites.
On the one hand you have Santos' Muay Thai striking and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills, and on the other hand you have Akano's submission skills.
Cristiane is of course the co-holder (along with Gina Carano) of the number one ranking in the WAMMA.
So what would a loss to Akano do to that standing?
And what would that do for Akano?

Hitomi was the very first lady I profiled on this blog back in February of 2007.
She has won 11 of her 14 fights with a submission. 10 of them were armbars and 5 were in the first round.
She beat fellow female MMA fighter Hari Hari in 38 seconds in the first round with an armbar.

Cristiane has won 4 of her fights in the first round, and 2 of those were by corner stoppage, her opponents corner men threw in the towel after the first round.
But the only loss she has had was via a leg lock submission, and submissions are Hitomi's bread and butter.
All of Hitomi's losses were by decision.

Cristiane has the height, weight and age advantage, but in MMA, sometimes that doesn't mean a lot.