Cyborg vs Carano and Women's MMA

[Mr. Miyagi]

I didn't see the fight live, but I read about it the following morning. Everything I read sounded really bad, so I managed to track it down on the web and watch it. It was just like most people described it. I haven't found women's MMA to be the least bit interesting, but the hype on this fight made me curious.

The success of women's MMA was wrongly based around Carano. The marketing idea by Strikeforce is probably that most of the people who watch MMA and Strikeforce in particular are males between the age of 20 and 35, and that this audience would cater to Gina Carano.
Carano's attractiveness is similar to that of Jennifer Capriati...cute face, strong body. I wouldn't call her a raving beauty. She has no ground skills at all, and her kickboxing is mediocre.
Cyborg's shots definitely did a lot more damage than anything Gina was throwing. It seemed like Cyborg didn't take Carano's power very seriously, she would eat a few shots and just wade in, because she could. I believe Cyborg botched two takedowns very badly and ended up on the bottom with Gina in the mount! Gina did not capitalize from this at all and Cyborg escaped both times.

If these two women are the best women's MMA has to offer, that is pathetic. Absolutely terrible, by both of them. Cyborg isn't that great, but Gina "the face of women's MMA" didn't even belong in the ring with her. And the announcers were talking about these two buffoons like they are some kind of world class athletes. It was a joke to hear announcers taking the fight seriously, if you told me that the announcers were Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller playing a joke back there, I would have believed it.

I can't remember which female kickboxer said it in an interview, but she said that she can't kick men's asses because women (even trained athletic women) just can't swing as hard as men. Women can be awesome grapplers, but striking just isn't their thing.
I think women's MMA will always look like an amateur freakshow. Trying to package it with a pretty face was a stupid idea.

I feel like Strikeforce went too far and created a sham, in their quest to offer up something that the UFC didn't have. Luckily they had a couple of other good fights in that show despite their clownish ending.
Do the rest of you guys actually like watching women's MMA? You can see hot girls in a maxim magazine or in a movie, so it definitely shouldn't be for that purpose.

[Mr. Miyagi]

And one more thing. I was really disappointed with some of the nasty things said about Cyborg on the internet; comments after an article and stuff on Sherdog. What did she do? She trains in MMA and is dedicated to it, is a purple belt in bjj, and won a fight against an American who has sex appeal. Cyborg is NOT a man, she does not have male sex organs, and she wasn't competing in a beauty pagaent.

[Laura]

I didn't see the fight live, but I read about it the following morning.

Wow....for someone who didn't watch it, you certainly have a lot of opinions about it. Although I can't claim to be a fan of women fighting, either of them could have handed my behind back to me...you really need to lighten up....

[Mr. Miyagi]

Wow....for someone who didn't watch it, you certainly have a lot of opinions about it. Although I can't claim to be a fan of women fighting, either of them could have handed my behind back to me...you really need to lighten up....

I can see you didn't read my post either. I didn't watch it live, I didn't watch it live, I didn't watch it live. Shall I say it again?
I saw it online, I saw it online, I saw it online.
I was hoping for a discussion from someone a bit sharper than you. "for someone who didn't watch it"....you truly are a moron.

[thaiboxer67]

first, cyborg had crap takedowns or was very over confident. to give up position like that speaks volumes. or Gina had been working to get that top position. i do suspect cyboeg has some chemical enhancement, but i also suspect she worked her ASS off for that fight. i wanted Carano to win, but i don't begrudge Cyborgs win.second, if they were buffoons, would YOu like to get in the ring with them? comparing them to men is like comparing bantam weights to heavys... no Gina's kickboxing ain't mediocre, she faced a very strong opponent, ever done that? i have and it can be hard to weather that storm and get your angles and attack. cyborg didn't do too much on the ground for being a purple belt, keep in mind the stress, the action and such but she is not a campion bbj artist YET and i stress YET. if you saw Crano vs. Kedzie, those two women threw for the bleachers all thru that fight. they made the men on that card look like sissies, and rightly so all women in MMA must do 4 times what a mediocre male fighter does to be called shit. and for those taht think a womans place isn't in a fight, watch Carano vs Kedzie. and hey they werwe doing 5 5 min rounds that is a first.

[shumaiwarrior]

Watching Women's MMA is like watching women go into combat in war. Many people just aren't comfortable with that, but that shouldn't disallow a female from doing what she wants. Your disinterest is your issue.

Gina Carano is gorgeous and it's not her fault that she was born a beauty and happens to enjoy challenging herself physically. Surely there are other beautiful fighters who are less known, but contract-less. It doesn't hurt either to have been known as "Crush" in the American Gladiator series. The fact that Carano went into the fight undefeated is something that should not be denied however. She wanted to test herself specifically against Cyborg and I absolutely respect that. Carano didn't win, but that should only make her train harder. Isn't that why we all take up challenges...to find where we are weaker and use what doesn't work to find a better method?

The attempt to discredit Carano's ability is a bit strong. Carano IS a dangerous striker - it's scientifically proven: YouTube - Gina Carano chokes out tv host

As for Cyborg, she definitely appeared stronger and seeing the final result, she did train harder and seemed more focused. Overall, I would just say that Cyborg was much more powerful with her aggressiveness. Carano fought hard and definitely loss the advantage when she didn't follow through while she had a dominant position. I don't know if that was just her way in that match out of generosity or if it was because she didn't want to get caught up in another ankle tie-up. If Cyborg had extended the same courtesy near the end of the first round, there would have been a second round. Everything is determined in the cage between those fighters and what they bring into it.

On another note, the earlier fight that night between Babalu Sobral and Gegard Mousasi was impressive. Wow, Mousasi!

[Sagacious Lu]

I didn't see the fight live, but I read about it the following morning. Everything I read sounded really bad, so I managed to track it down on the web and watch it. It was just like most people described it. I haven't found women's MMA to be the least bit interesting, but the hype on this fight made me curious.

The success of women's MMA was wrongly based around Carano. The marketing idea by Strikeforce is probably that most of the people who watch MMA and Strikeforce in particular are males between the age of 20 and 35, and that this audience would cater to Gina Carano.
Carano's attractiveness is similar to that of Jennifer Capriati...cute face, strong body. I wouldn't call her a raving beauty. She has no ground skills at all, and her kickboxing is mediocre.
Cyborg's shots definitely did a lot more damage than anything Gina was throwing. It seemed like Cyborg didn't take Carano's power very seriously, she would eat a few shots and just wade in, because she could. I believe Cyborg botched two takedowns very badly and ended up on the bottom with Gina in the mount! Gina did not capitalize from this at all and Cyborg escaped both times.

If these two women are the best women's MMA has to offer, that is pathetic. Absolutely terrible, by both of them. Cyborg isn't that great, but Gina "the face of women's MMA" didn't even belong in the ring with her. And the announcers were talking about these two buffoons like they are some kind of world class athletes. It was a joke to hear announcers taking the fight seriously, if you told me that the announcers were Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller playing a joke back there, I would have believed it.

I can't remember which female kickboxer said it in an interview, but she said that she can't kick men's asses because women (even trained athletic women) just can't swing as hard as men. Women can be awesome grapplers, but striking just isn't their thing.
I think women's MMA will always look like an amateur freakshow. Trying to package it with a pretty face was a stupid idea.

I feel like Strikeforce went too far and created a sham, in their quest to offer up something that the UFC didn't have. Luckily they had a couple of other good fights in that show despite their clownish ending.
Do the rest of you guys actually like watching women's MMA? You can see hot girls in a maxim magazine or in a movie, so it definitely shouldn't be for that purpose.

Misogynistic much?

[Mr. Miyagi]

No, not a mysoginist. Just being honest...and the two fighters happen to be women.

First, everyone seems to have a double standard. It's ok to criticize Cyborg, it's ok to suggest that she may use performance enhancing drugs without a shred of evidence, and it's ok to crap on her skills. But to criticize Gina in any way whatsoever gets people all riled up. I wonder why.

Yes, for those of you who watched the fight, you have to admit it looked like a backyard brawl. You have to admit Gina was gassed after two minutes. Yes, and Cyborg's takedowns into that lead into being mounted twice were a joke too.

For Gina to have absolutely no grappling skill, to gas from 2 minutes of flailing type strikes, and to get $125k for that freakshow is a joke. Oh, now you guys will say that I'm jealous of her paycheck.

As far as women's MMA goes, there are some good fighters in Japan as well as here. Sarah Kaufman is good too. There are a lot of advanced bjj female grapplers that could probably clean up the sport too. Hopefully, it will get better if it's going to stick around and they won't need to sell it based on a fighter being "hot".

[Sagacious Lu]

I can't remember which female kickboxer said it in an interview, but she said that she can't kick men's asses because women (even trained athletic women) just can't swing as hard as men. Women can be awesome grapplers, but striking just isn't their thing.
I think women's MMA will always look like an amateur freakshow.

Do the rest of you guys actually like watching women's MMA? You can see hot girls in a maxim magazine or in a movie, so it definitely shouldn't be for that purpose.

I don't have a problem with your criticism of either fighter, or this fight. Actually, I agree that Carano has been over-hyped. However, I feel like the tone of your post (especially the above) is just disrespectful to female fighters in general. I like watching womens' bouts (I like watching fights period) and I think it's absurd to suggest that "striking just isn't their thing". I think it's insulting to call women's MMA a "freakshow" and even more so to suggest that it's just another way to exploit their sex appeal. The small number of women who compete in MMA makes it difficult for promoters to make good matches for fights. That doesn't change that fact that those that do compete train hard and deserve to be respected as athletes, as opposed to being branded freaks.