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.

More on the Kim Couture, Miesha Tate Fight

I mentioned the upcoming Kim Couture / Miesha Tate fight in my last entry.
Here is an article from Beau Dure over at USA TODAY about the fight, and rumors of unrest between Tate, Couture and Cris "Cyborg" Santos......

Lacking stars, depth, women's MMA has yet to deliver a big hit
By Beau Dure, USA TODAY
Kim Couture has only two professional mixed martial arts bouts, but she's ready for a step up in competition after her last opponent.
"I don't know if you saw the last fight, but that's kind of what happens when I fight someone with an equal record," Couture (1-1) says of the first-round knockout of Lina Kvokov, who appeared to have stage fright.
Couture next fights Miesha Tate, who has a 6-1 MMA record and experience in international grappling competition. The bout on Strikeforce's Challenger Series card May 15 in Fresno features two fighters with an acute interest in pushing women's MMA forward after a couple of missteps (Showtime, 11 p.m. ET).

You can read the full article here

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.

Reid vs Waterson and Santos vs Akano Results

Elena “Baby Doll” Reid (3-0) beat Michelle "The Karate Hottie" Waterson (7-3) at Saturday's Extreme Beatdown event.
Elena won with a TKO 1:50 into the second round.

And Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos (6-1) defeated Hitomi Akano (14-5) in the third round.

If you missed it, you can see the fight here:

Elena Reid versus Michelle Waterson

Michelle Waterson

Elena Reid

I had mentioned earlier that Michelle “The Karate Hottie” Waterson will be facing MMA and boxing star Elena “Baby Doll” Reid at “Extreme Beatdown” at Apache Gold Casino on April 11th.
I haven't had an entry on Elena here, although I did do one on my female boxing blog back in 2007.

Elena Reid was born November 1, 1981 in Phoenix, Arizona.
And although Elena has found success in boxing, she started out in karate and kickboxing, winning an Arizona State Kickboxing Title at the age of 17.

Elena made her MMA debut on December 28, 2007 with a win over Tammie Schneider by TKO in the second round.
She has a 2-0-0 record in MMA, and a 19-5-6 in boxing.

Elena is more of a striker and Michelle is more of a ground fighter, so this match up should be interesting.

More Hitomi Akano versus Cris Cyborg News

I mentioned the Hitomi Akano versus Cristiane "Cris Cyborg" Santos match on April 11 in a previous post.
But now I hear that Josh Barnett will be in Akano's corner.
This would make sense since Akano is one of Josh's students.
Should an upset happen....what would happen to the anticipated Gina Carano / Santos fight?

The Akano / Santos fight will air on Showtime as part of their Strikeforce premier.
You can find out more about ths Showtime event here:
http://strikeforce.sho.com/

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.

Felice Herrig Updates

http://www.mmamadhouse.com/

I didn't know a lot about Felice Herrig when I did my first entry on her back in 2007.
Then she was on Oxygen's reality series "Fight Girls".
At the time she was a 22 year old, working at a salon in Wheeling, giving facials, manicures and pedicures.
Gina Carano mentored Felice and she won her first fight against Gina Reyes.
As one of the five finalists in Thailand, Felice won her fight against a champion Thai fighter.

She recently lost a three round, split decision to Iman "Mannie" Achhal at UWC 5: MAN "O" WAR in Fairfax Virginia.
But she is now looking forward to her next fight at XFO 29 on Friday April 17, 2009.

You can see more of Felice at http://chicagosmma.com/