Andrea Lee - MMA Fighter

Female MMA fighter Andrea Lee was born on February 11, 1989 in Atlanta, Texas.
She currently fights for Invicta FC in the Flyweight division.
But at the moment, she is on a nine month suspension.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission gave her the nine month suspension after she tested positive for diuretics after a submission loss to Sarah D’Alelio at Invicta FC 16 on Mrach 11th, 2016.
Nine months is not bad since the standard suspension for drug violations is two years.
But the suspension is retroactive to the date of FC 16 which means she'll be eligible to fight again on December 11th, 2016.

Her current MMA record is 4-2-0.

Ronda Rousey Wins Again

The evidently unstoppable Ronda Rousey won again last night.
She defeated Alexis Davis at UFC 175 in sixteen seconds of the first round via KO.
She hit Alexis so hard that she busted open her hand and had to have nine stitches to close it.

Left hook, knee, headlock, throw to the mat, pound, game over.
Sixteen seconds.

Whats next?
Unfortunately it looks like knee surgery.
But it appears to be very minor and hopefully all will be well.

Barb Honchak - MMA Women

It's been awhile since I did anything on female mixed martial arts fighter Barb "Little Warrior" Honchak.
The last time I mentioned her she had a 5-1-0 record, but now that has jumped up to 8-2-0.
And now Barb is the #1-ranked Flyweight (116-125 pound) female fighter according to the WMMA Rankings.
Barb was born on August 30th, 1979 in Edwardsville, Illinois and fights out of Miletich Fighting Systems in High Ridge, Missouri
She is five foot four, fights at 126 pounds and besides MMA she is trained in kickboxing and jiu-jitsu.

Barb made her pro MMA debut on November 28th, 2008 at KOTC - Horsepower
So far she has defeated Vanessa Porto, Aisling Daly, Bethany Marshall, Roxanne Modafferi, Nina Ansaroff, Amber McAvoy, Felice Herrig and Monica Lovato.
Her only two losses were to Angela Magana and Cat Zingano.
On April 5th, 2013 Barb defeated Vanessa Porto at Invicta FC 5: Penne vs. Waterson to become the first Invicta FC Flyweight Champion.

Outside of MMA, Barb has a Master's Degree in both Ecology and Genetics and a Bachelor's degree in molecular biology.

Milana Dudieva - MMA Female Fighters

Female MMA Fighter Milana Dudieva was born in Vladikavkaz which is the capital city of the Republic of North Ossetia - Alania in southern Russia.
She is five foot five, 140 pounds and has a current MMA record of 8-1-0.
Her only loss so far was in her debut fight against Julia Berezikova at fightFORCE - Day of Anger back in February of 2009.
Milana's latest win was over Danielle West via TKO (Punches) on April 1st, 2012 at ProFC - ProFC 40 at the Russia Sports Station in Volgograd, Volgograd Oblast, Russia.
She is currently ranked 4th on WMMA Rising's Unified Women’s Mixed Martial Arts Rankings for Featherweights.

Hiroko Yamanaka - The Best Female MMA Fighter In The World?

MMA Rising has it's April rankings out, and even though “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey (5-0-0) defeated Miesha Tate (12-3-0) at Strikeforce - Tate vs. Rousey on March 3rd, 2012 for the Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Championship, Ronda still comes in second on the Featherweight list.
For Ronda to take the top position there, she needs to defeat Hiroko “Cat’s Eye” Yamanaka .
Her current record is 12-3-1

This five foot eleven, 143 pound female mma fighter was born on October 24th, 1978 in Kisarazu, Chiba, Japan.
She not only does MMA, but Submission grappling and Shoot boxing as well.
Of course you may know her as the fighter that Cristiane Santos beat down in the first 16 seconds of her last fight.
But due to the drug test afterwards, that decision was over turned.
I have to wonder though just how Ronda would do against Hiroko.

    http://sports.sho.com/

Marloes Coenen Vs Liz Carmouche - Female MMA

Marloes "Rumina" Coenen (19-4-0) successfully defended her Strikeforce Women's 135 title against Liz "Girl-Rilla" Carmouche (5-1-0) at Strikeforce - Feijao vs. Henderson on Saturday night (March 5, 2011) at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
You may recall that the match was supposed to be Miesha Tate, but Miesha had to pull out due to a knee injury incurred during training.
So with just two weeks notice, Liz stepped up to take on Marloes.
Liz was the underdog going in, and wasn't really supposed to be much of a threat.
But Liz took it to Marloes with takedowns and spent a lot of time in control.
Marloes managed to lock on a triangle choke and secure a submission at 1:29 in the fourth round.

I think Liz really proved herself despite the loss.
This was Liz's first loss after a string of five wins and to lose to Marloes is no disgrace.
And Marloes showed us that she has the ability to come back and win.
By the way, Marloes was very gracious after the fight, say that "Liz is very, very talented, and she will be a champion someday,".
Of course the champ's bruised and battered face was also a testament to Liz's ability.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhe21m_marloes-vs-liz-pt-1_sport

Strikeforce pretty much says that Miesha Tate will be next up for Marloes.
And since there was some question of the legitimacy of Miesha's injury, the match up could be very interesting.
After the injury, Miesha said that in four to six weeks, with everything going right, she should be able to return to the cage.
Strikeforce has three events ShoMMA 15: Wilcox vs. Damm (April 1, 2011), Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley (April 9, 2011) and Overeem vs. Werdum (June 18, 2011) scheduled in that time frame, so hopefully the match-up will happen soon.

Female MMA - Strikeforce Challengers 10 Results

Miesha Tate, the next "Face of Female MMA"?

Last Friday (August 13th) at the Strikeforce Challengers 10 event they had the first women’s 135 lb tournament for the mixed martial arts promotion.
This tournament was to decide who would get a shot at the 135-pound belt currently held by Sarah Kaufman.

Hitomi Akano took on Carina Damm and won in the second round (1:48) with a triangle choke submission.

Miesha Tate got a descion win over Maiju Kujala after the second round (the semi final fights were two three minute rounds) with takedowns.

Then it was Miesha Tate versus Hitomi Akano in the final, with Miesha defeating Hitomi Akano via unanimous decision.

Now Miesha gets a crack at Sarah Kaufman's 135-pound title.

Well... that is after Marloes Coenen gets her chance.

To maintain momentum, I really think the Kaufman/Coenen fight should be held in September, with the winner taking on Miesha in Octiber.
But alas, this is not to be.
It looks like the fight will be "before the end of the year"....



Also at the Strikeforce Challengers 10 event, there was another female MMA bout with Liz Carmouche defeating Colleen Schneider via unanimous decision.

So after the smoke settled Friday night we were left with....
Hitomi "Girlfight Monster" Akano 16-8-0
Carina "Beauty But The Beast" Damm 15-4-0
Miesha "Takedown" Tate 11-2-0
Maiju "Maki" Kujala 4-2-0
Liz Carmouche 3-0-0
Colleen "The Beautiful Disaster" Schneider 0-2-0



Female MMA - Strikeforce Challengers 10 Results, posted to http://femalemixedmartialartists.blogspot.com/ on August 17th.

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

Female MMA - Roxanne Modafferi, Tara LaRosa, Sarah Kaufman and More

Roxanne Modafferi

First up, at Moosin: God of Martial Arts held on Friday, May 21, at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts, Roxanne Modafferi defeated Tara LaRosa via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28).
As you can see from the judges scores, this was not a one sided match.
This bout brings Roxanne to 15-5-0 and puts Tara at 18-2-0.
After the match, Sarah Kaufman (11-0-0) expressed interest in facing Roxie, so Moosin might have another good fight waiting in the wings.

In my last post I said that Megumi “Mega Megu” Fujii (19-0-0) would be fighting at Bellator 21 on June 10th.
MMARising.com is reporting that Megumi will be facing Sarah “White Tiger” Schneider (4-4-0).

And Bellator has added another female MMA bout, this time to their Bellator 23 event on June 17 at the Kansas City Power and Light District in Kansas City, Mo.
This time, Sarah's sister Tammie Schneider (3-9-0) will be taking on Lisa Ward (12-5-0) in a 115-pound women’s bout.

Since I havent done a top ten list in awhile, and for some reason WAMMA hasnt done an update on their female mixed martial arts rankings since October 2009, I thought I'd put up a couple of links to others that have updated their lists....

Michael David Smith has his list of the top ten female MMA fighters up over at MMA Fighting.com.
And you an see that here

And over at Independent World MMA Rankings, they have a very detailed list put up for May 2010.
You can see that one here

By the way, WMR promises that the June 2010 Women's Divisional Rankings will be published on June 18, 2010, so you might wanna keep an eye out for that on their site.



Female MMA - Roxanne Modafferi, Tara LaRosa, Sarah Kaufman and More, posted to http://femalemixedmartialartists.blogspot.com/ on May 28th, 2010.

Female MMA: Tom Hill Photos

Jessica Aguilar by http://www.tomhillphotos.com/

This entry is a little different.
I was contacted by Tom Hill who runs TomHillPhotos.com, and he sent me a link to his website.

There are a LOT of really good MMA photos there, and a lot of good female MMA pictures there as well.

Tom has a pretty impressive list of credits which include:
American Top Team house photographer
Official photographer for the 2009 World Grappling Championships sponsored by USA Grappling Team, TapouT, Champion Nutrition, Dollamur, Asics and Century
NAGA Championships
Unconquered Martial Arts
Strikeforce
G-Force
Hard Rock – Fight League

It just so happens that one of his subjects, and friends, is WAMMA ranked female MMA artist Jessica Aguilar.
The pictures that he sent me that I am putting up are from the March 5th, Hard Rock fight night event, Rumble at The Rock II where Jessica took on Valerie Coolbaugh.
Jessica won in the second round via submission.






And no, Tom is NOT paying me to put this up...LOL
Like I said, he contacted me and when I saw his work, I thought some of you out there might really like it.
I know we have some promoters out there that read this blog as well, and if you haven't used Tom, you might wanna think about it.

So got take a look at this talented photographers work at his website here:
http://www.tomhillphotos.com/

And thanks to Tom for letting me share his work with everyone.

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 MMA-Lisa Marie Varon

Lisa Marie back in the WWE. Foreshadowing?

There seems to a little (okay a lot) of buzz surrounding pro wrestler Lisa Marie Varon and female mma fighter Kim Couture.
As you may know, Lisa was known as Victoria in the WWE and now Tara in TNA.

This all seems to have started when Lisa started talking to a agents regarding MMA endorsements and one of the promoters approached her camp about fighting Kim Couture.
But to sum it up in her own words, here is a link to the blog where Lisa eplains what happened.
http://blogs.myspace.com/victoria_lisamarievaron

You'll see the pro wrestler coming out in her in one comment...
"So Kim, I have a tremendous amount of respect for the heart you showed in your first pro fight. Tremendous. And you may be a nice stepping stone for me if I choose to drop down to 135."
"Nice stepping stone" I love Lisa Marie.
I always have.

But of course things didn't stop there.....

Kim shot back with...
"She better get her feet wet first in this sport because it's real and there is no scripting going on inside that cage. It's the real deal."
http://fighthype.com/pages/content5549.html

And in one of her latest Tweets on Twitter Lisa said...
"Just took Kettle Bell class last night and it was fabulous. Watch out Kim Couture, I'm getting stronger. Check out my blog on myspace"

Lisa has been putting herself deeply into her BJJ training.
And I keep reading about how Lisa will learn her lesson when she gets into the cage with a real MMA fighter.
Is this the same lesson UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar learned?
Or (4-0) Bobby Lashley?

Now I have said before I have no MMA experience.
But I do have 14 years of martial arts training.
And my instructors used to say that a person that could box, wrestle and knew martial arts was a hard person to beat in the street.

Lisa has a lot of experience in the squared circle. Shes been wrestling since 2000.
And even though the matches are scripted, the performers there take a real beating.
Kinda like stunt men.
Lisa's three older brothers became amateur wrestlers, and her oldest brother, Bobby Sole, won a gold medal at the 1983 Pan American Games.
And before wrestling or MMA, she was a fitness competitor, coming in first place at the Debbie Kruck Fitness Classic in 1999 (tall division), first place at the ESPN2 Fitness America Series in 1997, first place at the National Physique Committee's NPC Inland Empire in 1995 and she also competed in the 1998 Ironwoman Tri-Fitness.
So this lady is no stranger to physicality.
(Physicality? I sound like JR!)

So all I am saying is don't count Lisa Marie out just because she's a pro wrestler.
If anything, she may bring some missing showmanship to female MMA that it needs.
And no one will really know how good she is till after her first pro MMA fight will they?

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.

Gina Carano Updates

Gina Carano is featured in the August 10th issue of ESPN the Magazine.
On page 26 there is an article titled " Six Things You Should Know About Being A Female MMA Fighter."
Also at http://espn.go.com/mma/ there are two videos up with Gina featured.

Rolling Stone (who rarely dose sports much less MMA) has an article in their August 6th issue called "Athletes Without Fear".
And Gina is on that list.

And if that's not enough Gina for you, she's hosting Carano-Cyborg Week on SHO 2, a series showcasing her past fights and those of her opponent Cris Santos.
Nice to see Cris finally get a mention.

Since Gina is such a media darling (I'm not taking anything from Gina, I think she's great), whats gonna happen if Cris demolishes her in Round 1?
Will Cris be propelled to superstar status?
Will you see Cris in ESPN, Maxim, Rolling Stone?

Kim Couture versus Miesha Tate

Kim Couture (1-1, the wife of MMA legend Randy “The Natural” Couture) and Miesha Tate (5-1) will be facing off at Strikeforce's May 15 ShoMMA show.

Kim won her last fight against Lina Kvokov in November, but the fight that most fans know her from is the brutal battle with Kim Rose. That fight proved Kim didn't know the meaning of the word quit.

Miesha's 5-1 record includes her one loss to Kaitlin Young, and victories over Dora Baptiste, Jessica Bednarek, Jamie Lynn Welsh, Elaina Maxwell and Jan Finney.

Rosi Sexton and The WAMMA Top Ten Rankings

Female Mixed Martial Arts fighter Dr Rosi Sexton (9-1-0) has signed a four fight deal with the US based Bellator Fighting Championships.
Rosi will fight in the inaugural Bellator Fighting Championships show at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida on April 3rd.
She will face the American Top Team fighter and fellow BodogFight veteran Jessica Aguilar (5-3-0).
For more info, head over to the Bellator Fighting Championships website here.


I mentioned a couple of entries back, that WAMMA was going to start ranking the top Female Mixed Martial Artists.
Well they released the list this week, and I really wasn't surprised at the rankings.
It didn't kinda surprise me that the number one position was a tie.....

1 (tie) Gina Carano
1 (tie) Christiane Santos
3 Kelly Kobold
4 Megumi Yabushita
5 Marloes Coenen
6 Erin Toughill
7 Karen Williams
8 Emily Thompson
9 Elaina Maxwell
10 Tonya Evinger

If you want to see more about the list and the people that created it, you can go here


I noticed no Rosi Sexton on the list.
At 9-1-0 shouldn't she be?
I mean is Tonya Evinger is 7-3-0......

Another Gina Carano Entry

Ask Men has a question and answer article with female MMA star Gina Carano.
I know, it seems like every other entry here is about Gina Carano.
Well female MMA is still struggling, and it's hard to find new info on the fighters sometimes.
But since Gina is such a "media darling" finding info on her isn't that hard.
I'd love to focus more on the lesser known fighters, but getting info on them isn't that easy.
Anyway.....
Here is the link to the article.
http://www.askmen.com/celebs/interview_300/305_gina_carano_interview.html

Russian Red Devil's female fighter, Julia Berezikova

Julia Berezikova is a Russian female mixed martial artist fighting out of the Russian Red Devil fight club.
She has defeated Megumi Yabushita and Song Lee Jin. Julia has lost to Rosi Sexton, Julie Kedzie and Tara Larosa.
Julia is teammates with MMA fighter Fedor Emelianenko.

Really nice article about her here:
http://www.m1mixfight.com/info/overviews/2008/1/27/Julia-Berezikova-profile/

And a video about her here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7XSkA0Urtk



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Is America Ready For Female MMA?

Is America Ready For Female MMA?

Ready or not, here it comes. Thanks to Elite XC, on May 31st, Gina Carano will face off with Kaitlin Young in a televised bout.

Yes, Gina Carano is on American Gladiators under the name "Crush". Before American Gladiators, Carano was a Muay Thai fighter, and a good one as well.

She now trains with Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas. If there ever was a good canidate for female MMA spokeswoman, Carano would be it. Intelligent, articulate, down to earth, and not too hard on the eyes. Okay, so she is super hot, we all know it.




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