The Glowing Edge

Tag: strikeforce

  • Cyborg Defeats Coenen

    This was one of Cris Cyborg’s best fights yet. The savage beauty of her power-hand hammers dropping from standing and partially in-guard positions is undeniable. These are the blows that ended the Cyborg-Carano fight so quickly last summer. I am impressed that Strikeforce challenger Marloes Coenen withstood so many of them before the fight was called.

    The few serious blows Coenen was able to score did not even seem to phase Cyborg; it was as if they didn’t exist and never connected. Cyborg was a moving mountain, a force of nature. The forums are already bursting with misogynistic comments about Cris Santos’s gender; but when I look at her I see an powerful and irrefutable woman. Nobody ignores Cris Cyborg Santos.

    The conversation now should begin to revolve around Erin Toughill as the next contender; Toughill’s background as a pro boxer should bring to a Cyborg-Toughill match a stand-and-strike game to relish.

  • Cris Cyborg to Fight Marloes Coenen on Strikeforce Miami This Saturday

    Cris Cyborg to Fight Marloes Coenen on Strikeforce Miami This Saturday

    Christiane “Cyborg” Santos is on an eight-fight winning streak and plans to take down Marloes Coenen in Miami this weekend just as quickly as she took down Gina Carano in San Jose last August. Cyborg has an incredible strike game (look for one-hit knockout power) and you can expect her to dominate on the ground. Coenen is no slouch on the mat either; her armbar on Roxanne Modafferi in November (see video below) was no fluke.

    This is going to be an awesome match-up, and I plan to be glued to Strikeforce’s Showtime stream this weekend making sure I get to see every second. I’ll be tuning in this Saturday, January 30th at 10 pm ET on sports.sho.com or EASportsMMA.com or wherever I can get the channel for the livestream.

    Currently I’m favoring Marloes Coenen (17-3) over Cyborg (8-1), but this is going to be such a good match that I’m hesitant to declare loyalty one way or the other. But I will anyway; I like to cheer for the underdog.

    Here’s the broadcast card:

    Championship: Nick Diaz vs. Marius Zaromskis
    Championship: Cristiane Santos vs. Marloes Coenen
    Melvin Manhoef vs. Robbie Lawler
    Herschel Walker vs. Greg Nagy
    Bobby Lashley vs. Wes Sims

  • Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Santos Might Pose for Playboy

    Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Santos Might Pose for Playboy

    Cris Cyborg Santos is an incredible MMA fighter who replaced Gina Carano as the top woman in the cage in ’09. Now she will defend her title against the very skilled Marloes Coenen in a Strikeforce fight scheduled for January 30th. This fight is expected to once again catapult women’s fight sports — and MMA in particular — to the forefront of the nation’s attention.

    And now Sherdog reports that Cyborg is considering posing for Playboy.

    Ugh, I hate this.

    Women’s fight sports have had an uphill battle on their hands to gain any kind of serious and official attention in the past 20 years. Women boxers have only had official sanction since the 90’s (and just this year gained admittance to the 2012 Olympics and celebrated the first woman ever inducted to the Boxing Hall of Fame), and female MMA fighters as well as boxers have struggled mightily against the sexist, misogynistic influence of fight sport leaders like Dana White.

    While posing naked for Playboy will certainly bring media attention to women’s fight sports, it brings the wrong kind of attention.

    We don’t need for the top women fighters in the world to be thought of primarily as objects of sexual fantasy; this makes it just that much easier to dismiss them as minor players — trivial creatures rather than real women who have spent years of hard work and discipline on their sport.

    What would be better is more promoters ready to put women on their fight cards, more media outlets ready and willing to cover and broadcast women’s fights (thank you, Showtime), and more event hosts who enable fans to create and share their own media (I HATE the no photos, no video policies at so many fights).

    Cyborg: For the sake of women fighters everywhere, please, please say “No” to Playboy. And keep kicking ass in the cage. You are an incredible fighter, and that’s how the world should know and remember you.

  • Cris Cyborg Santos vs Marloes Coenen: January 2010

    Cris Cyborg Santos vs Marloes Coenen: January 2010

    This week Strikeforce finally announced the title bout women’s MMA fans have been waiting for: champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos (8-1) will follow up on her August 2009 TKO of Gina Carano with a match on January 30, 2010, according to MMA Junkie.

    It’s expected that her opponent will be Marloes Coenen (17-3), who recently defeated Roxanne Modafferi (13-5) in the first 63 seconds of a match on the Strikeforce Fedor vs Rogers card in early November.

    Brazilian fighter Cyborg has been out of the cage since the Carano match, recovering from a shoulder injury.

    I’m still annoyed that CBS didn’t give airtime to the Coenen – Modafferi fight, but I’m hopeful that we’ll get to see the January match. C’mon, Strikeforce, affirm Coenen and let us watch it!

  • Modafferi vs. Coenen Pre-Fight Interviews

    Assuming the main card runs short and CBS airs it, we’ll get to watch Roxanne Modafferi fight Marloes Coenen live at 9 pm on the East coast (delayed for the Pacific coast, who will probably see it sooner on YouTube) on CBS.com.

    Roxanne Modafferi is my favorite to win, although a little part of that simply has to do with her incredible charm and geeky affability. But I’ve watched her fight and anyone who underestimates her is in for a shock. Despite a long-ago win by decision against tonight’s opponent Marloes Coenen, Modafferi is somewhat the underdog here, having been invited to replace Erin Toughill for this match with only a week to spare.

    She will certainly have a serious job to do tonight, and it’s really too soon for her even to think about the possiblity of a December Strikeforce match against world champion Cris “Cyborg” Santos if she wins. (I’m free to consider it, though, and I’d almost prefer to see Coenen matched against Santos… I know, conflicted.)

    Clearly, Coenen wants Cyborg and I want her to. While Roxanne seems to be running on skill topped with the excitement of the opportunity, Marloes Coenen comes across as a woman of serious ability and quiet, deadly confidence. I would still favor Cyborg in a matchup with Coenen, but more than anything I want to see the fight.

    Prepare for fireworks.

  • Cristiane Cyborg Santos Gets Strikeforce Fight for December 19th

    Strikeforce is making some more headway in showcasing women’s MMA by scheduling Cris “Cyborg” Santos’s next fight for December 19th. The date is not yet confirmed, but Five Ounces of Pain reports that Cyborg’s husband Evangelista will also be making his 17o lb debut on the same card.

    Cris’s opponent won’t be Erin Toughill (who defeated Santos by TKO the last time they fought), since she’s out due to an undisclosed medical situation, so presumably Santos will face the winner of the November 7th Marloes Coenen v. Roxanne Modafferi match in Chicago. Coenen, who is 28, has 16 career wins and Modafferi, age 27, has a six fight winning streak going in a career that boasts 13 wins so far.

    I couldn’t find a way to catch the Coenen/Modafferi fight anywhere, guess we’ll have to wait for the news reports.

    Strikeforce has been smart so far in recognizing that giving Santos airtime is a moneymaker; the Gina Carano – Cris Santos fight proved that without a doubt. I hope they will broadcast the December 19th fight and give us the chance to show our support again.

  • Cyborg Defeats Carano in First Round

    Cyborg Defeats Carano in First Round

    The “Muy Thai Machine” and “Baddest Woman South of the Equator” Cris Cyborg Santos definitely earned her title in the single round she fought with reigning favorite Gina Carano.

    Cyborg is known as an explosive, powerful fighter with perhaps less technical control and ability than Carano, and this proved accurate in the Strikeforce fight. I think Gina wanted to play a longer game; draw out the fight for more rounds, but she didn’t take advantage of at least one major opportunity to return massive fire from a dominant position in that first and only round, instead getting up to draw Cyborg into a stand up fight. Carano’s standing game looks very good, but Cyborg was having none of it, and made four take down attempts to Carano’s zero, and was successful in two of them.

    The last was the fateful one; Cyborg got on top and although Carano had leverage against the cage for a little while, she lost that and Cyborg began raining power rights against Gina’s face, almost none of which were blocked or defended. I counted 13 driving rights to the face in a row before the ref shouldered Cyborg off and called the fight as the horn to end the round sounded.

    Initially I felt bad for Carano, who I think would have gone a second round with Cyborg, but after seeing the damage on her face (while Cyborg’s face looked untouched) I wondered. Gina just didn’t have the same kind of almost manic energy Cris was putting out there. This wasn’t her game, and in order to win I think Carano needed to stop thinking about going distance, and instead think about punching some of the wind out of Cyborg’s sails. Easy for me to say, of course.

    Still, it was an incredible match, and the eyes of the world will be on Cyborg to see what she does next.

  • Fiiiight! Gina Carano and Cris Cyborg

    This Saturday it happens. Gina “Conviction” Carano (7-0) and Cris “Cyborg” Santos (7-1) will become the first women in MMA history to headline a major MMA fight card. I don’t know if you watch boxing or MMA, but if you watch women’s sports at all this is going to be a groundbreaking event across the board and I plan to put another notch in my lipstick case (*note to self: purchase lipstick and case) for women leading the way.

    Oh, and eat light: this is gonna be a brutal fight. Although it’s true that I say that about all MMA fights; they just seem so much less civilized than boxing. To each her own.

    If you’re interested in a full write-up of each fighter’s strengths and weaknesses, I recommend the Bleacher Report. And even though most of the news sites I’m following favor Carano, there are also plenty of people betting on Santos, too. I think it will be a good match up.

    You may also enjoy this video of Gina training with Norm “Satan” Turner. I found it incredibly inspirational. There’s something you just gotta love about working that hard, training that intensely; it radiates passion and engagement in a way that you don’t see every day. But damn, I hope my own dungeon master — woops, I meant trainer — doesn’t see it. If she does I will know YOU told her and I may have to unfriend you on Facebook. Either that, or I will get in better shape really fast.