Women's MMA at UFC 202 - Diaz vs. McGregor 2

At UFC 202 - Diaz vs. McGregor 2, there were two women's MMA fights.

Raquel "Rocky" Pennington (8-5-0) defeated Elizabeth Phillips (5-4-0) by Decision (Unanimous).

Cortney 'Cast Iron' Casey (6-3-0) defeated Randa Markos (6-4-0) in the first round via an armbar submission.

Marloes Coenen vs Julia Budd Cancelled

On May 20th, 2016, at Bellator 155: Carvalho vs Manhoef at the CenturyLink Arena in Boise, Idaho they were supposed to have the inaugural Bellator MMA women's featherweight title between Marloes Coenen and Julia Budd.

However, Julia had to pull out due to injury and now former UFC fighter Alexis Dufresne will have a 3 round non-title bout against Coenen.

Marloes is 23-6 and is the former Strikeforce women's bantamweight champion.
She has constantly ranked number two on the Unified Women’s Mixed Martial Arts Rankings, right behind Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino.

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.

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.

Female MMA - The State of the Art

In the aftermath of the Gina Carano-Cris Santos fight, I was looking around for inspiration for today's entry.
Here is a sample of the headlines I ran across.....

Do women belong fighting in mixed martial arts?
Baltimore Sun

Does women's MMA have a future?
Baltimore Sun
(Do I sense a pattern with the Baltimore Sun here?)

Carano's loss to 'Cyborg' hurts women's MMA
FOXSports.com

Strikeforce postmortem: Is Santos' win good for women's MMA?
ESPN

Though growing, women's MMA not equal to men's
Florida Today

Female MMA is far from accepted yet.
I keep hearing terms like "not as good as the guys", "lack of depth", "women shouldn't be fighting each other".
And of course "she's ugly, she looks like a man, I don't like her."

Wow.
I thought we had outgrown that kind of thinking.
No Cris Santos is not gonna get in the cage with Brock Lesnar.
Just like Laila Ali has no business in the ring with Mike Tyson.
But that doesn't mean Santos isn't great in her division.
Maybe the WWE and their Diva division has poisoned the minds of sports fans to where they think that a woman cannot be just as good as a man.
(perhaps Lisa Marie Varon will change that idea)

These ladies work just as hard as their male counterparts and should be treated with the same respect.
I'm not saying we should praise sloppy execution in either division.
The women should be (and from what I have seen are) held to the same standards.
But no matter how good some female MMA stars are, they will be judged less than the guys and thats just not right.

Female MMA: 3 Minutes or 5 Minutes?

I mentioned in a post awhile back about changing the three minute rounds in female MMA to five minute rounds.
Well it seems that over at MMA Junkie and Watch Kalib Run there has been an ongoing discussion of this which I just caught the last part of.
You can go to their site and read all of the articles here:
http://www.watchkalibrun.com/2009/7/2/935763/peer-reviewing-dr-benjamins-ideas

It now seems the Carano - Santos fight will be five minute rounds.
That's something I wondered about when the fight was announced.
(Dang! I was gonna try to go a whole week without saying Carano or Santos!)

So what do you think?
Should female MMA be five minute rounds?

To me, and this is totally unscientific, saying female MMA should be three minute rounds and male MMA should be five minutes is like saying Danica Patrick can only drive 250 laps at the Indy 500 cause she's a girl.

Female MMA Reality TV Show "FightLife"

FightLife is an upcoming female MMA reality show from Warm Springs Productions.

From the website.....
"FightLife bases a group of eight professional female fighters in one house where they live, breathe and make their money off the sport of Mixed Martial Arts fighting. The series will focus on the girls’ real lives – hardcore partying, the drama, catfights, relationships, owning and operating fight shop, intense physical training led by Ken Shamrock, and their professional MMA fights."

If you want to find out more about the show, you can visit their website, read more and see an extended video trailer for the show.
http://www.warmspringsproductions.com/details.cfm?id=7

I couldn't find out anything on when or where it will air.

Of course this isn't the first female MMA reality TV show.
Oxygen did Fight Girls back in 2007 and Ultimate Women’s Combat is set to air on NBC in 2009 or 2010.

BTW, UWC has a MySpace page set up so you can keep updated with their production here:
http://www.myspace.com/pennyjo20

It seems female MMA may be picking up more than a little steam huh?

What’s next for Gina Carano?

It looks like I'm not the only one wondering what Gina Carano is going to do next.
This female MMA fighter is building up a pretty varied resume.
MMA Fighter
Gladiator "Crush" on American Gladiators
She starred in the cult film Ring Girls
She was a mentor to female fighters in the Oxygen reality series Fight Girls
And she's in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 as Natasha

What’s next for Gina Carano?
Now that EliteXC is dead, a plethora of MMA free agents will be hitting the market soon, one of the most prominent being Gina “The Conviction” Carano.
Gina Carano quickly became the face of women’s MMA. Coming from a successful muay thai career, Carano made a quick and successful transition into mixed martial arts. Carano is undefeated, and has defeated all of her opponents in exciting fashion during her reign with ProElite. EliteXC spent a lot of money marketing her, and she is the most recognizable personality in women’s MMA.
http://mma.lohudblogs.com/2008/10/31/what%E2%80%99s-next-for-gina-carano/