Elite XC damages Female MMA?

I had to post this because I love Command and Conquer and Gina Carano.

Here's an excellent article by David Mayeda over at FightTicker.com lamenting the loss of EliteXC and what it will do to the female mma fight scene.....

What Pro Elite did that no other MMA organization could accomplish was put female mixed martial arts on a national platform, and when it came to the competitions, they did this in top fashion. In fact, in a recent FightTicker poll, voters concluded that EliteXC should promote Gina Carano more than any other fighter with the Kimbo Slice era closing. This was the right choice.
Over the course of EliteXC’s three televised fight cards on CBS, the company consistently highlighted quality women’s matches. Gina Carano vs. Kaitlin Young kicked off the focus on women. Sure there were hiccups in Carano not making weight and their fight being stopped prematurely. However, the match itself was arguably the best match on the card and attracted 5.5 million viewers, making it the sixth most watched MMA match in U.S. history.
http://www.fightticker.com/story_1021081546_the_pro_elite_debacle_a_loss_for_womens_mma

Female MMA Moving into the Spotlight?

It's a bit early to say, but I think the Gina Carano / Kelly Kobold fight may have finally been the event that has pushed female MMA into the spotlight.
The amount of articles referencing women in MMA has picked up considerably.
Here's just a couple of examples......

First, this article at MMA Funhouse by Michael David Smith....
Gina Carano's Toughest Fight: Getting Recognition for Women's MMA
Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin was honored at the Women's Sports Foundation's annual Salute to Women in Sports on Tuesday night in New York City. So was softball player Jessica Mendoza. Dozens of female athletes from sports ranging from basketball to skateboarding were lauded from the podium.
And Gina Carano sat in the audience, wondering if her fellow athletes even know that her sport exists.
http://mma.fanhouse.com/2008/10/15/gina-caranos-toughest-fight-getting-recognition-for-womens-mm/

And this article at SFGate by Kelly Mills....
Women taking their place in kickboxing ring
At the Best of the Bay kickboxing event Aug. 16 in San Francisco, there were three women in the ring for one bout, and no one batted an eye. One of the women was the "ring girl," scantily dressed and wearing heels, who walked along the ropes with a sign signaling the round number. The two other women were fighters, dressed in traditional satin muay Thai shorts, tank tops and boxing gloves. As the bell went off, the ring girl teetered off the canvas, and the two fighters emerged from their corners, trading ferocious punches and kicks. The crowd cheered as one fighter landed a hard right cross, while the other threw a whiplike kick aimed at her rival's head. When the bell rang again, the two women returned to opposite sides of the ring, sweaty and slightly bloodied, awaiting coaching from their corners, as the ring girl picked up her sign.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/17/LV8P13GQHV.DTL

Sometimes it's difficult to even find anything on female MMA fighters, but now that seems to be changing.