Sarah Kaufman vs. Roxanne Modafferi at Strikeforce

[malcrk]

This was for their 135 lb. women's championship Friday night at Strikeforce Challengers.

[cowboyronnie]

Great elevation, great slam downwards. Eee!

[El Hardee]

Nastiest finish in a female fight I've ever seen.

[Cammo101]

Nastiest finish in a female fight I've ever seen.

Took the words right out of my mouth. Too bad Kauffman and Cyborg are so much better than their competition right now, because both put on great fights.

[malcrk]

Nastiest finish in a female fight I've ever seen.

Took the words right out of my mouth. Too bad Kauffman and Cyborg are so much better than their competition right now, because both put on great fights.

This was a pretty even fight before. They split the first two rounds and the third was a toss up until the slam. Kaufman's striking was leagues ahead of Modafferi's, but Modafferi did a lot of work on the ground. I think if Marloes Coenen can get down to 135, that would be a good matchup for Kaufman. Zoila Frausto is looking like a beast. Hopefully in Belator's tournament she ends up against Megumi.

[singh_shady]

Awesome slam, Rampage like

[Walt Cronkite]

Holy crap

[kdawg32086]

Kaufman isn't anywhere close to Cyborg. They're literally hand feeding chicks to Kaufman where as Cyborg is effing up the **** of the top women in her weight class. It's not a coincidence that Cyborg gets on big shows and Kaufman doesn't. Sarah Kaufman was boring as fugg in that fight before the slam.

[cowboyronnie]

IDK, man. Her physical strength is awesome. I watched the preview journals on YouTube, and she is a really thick chick.

And I don't see how the excitement of the fight reflects anything about her talent. Because of the match of skills, the two of them ended up clinching on the fence for most of the fight. That's no reflection on whether or not she's a good fighter.

She needs to throw something other than 1-2s. No woman is anywhere close to Cyborg. Granted.

[malcrk]

Modafferi was number 2 in the weight class according to most rankings. She had just came off a win over Tara Larosa who was number 1 at 125 and was ranked 2 at 135, and was considered right at the top of p4p rankings with Cyborg, Kaufman and Megumi Fujii.

Kaufman's record is just as credible as Cyborg's.

The main issue with both fighters is the lack of depth in their weight classes. Cyborg vs. Kaufman would be a good fight, but it would be yet another fight with someone from a weight class lower and Cyborg would likely win (although I would not be surprised if Kaufman won - Cyborg's not much in the way of defense.) I['m almost glad that Coenen beat Modafferi to face Cyborg because Cyborg would have outweighed Modafferi by probably 30+ pounds.

Hopefully with Belator and Strikeforce both starting to hold women's tournaments, we'll see a deeper talent pool start to grow. And maybe Erin Toughill can get down in weight and fight Cyborg, although that appears unlikely as she looks almost as big as Fabricio Werdum here:

[kdawg32086]

IDK, man. Her physical strength is awesome. I watched the preview journals on YouTube, and she is a really thick chick.

And I don't see how the excitement of the fight reflects anything about her talent. Because of the match of skills, the two of them ended up clinching on the fence for most of the fight. That's no reflection on whether or not she's a good fighter.

She needs to throw something other than 1-2s. No woman is anywhere close to Cyborg. Granted.

She's Tank Abbott with boobs...

[Cammo101]

Kaufman isn't anywhere close to Cyborg. They're literally hand feeding chicks to Kaufman where as Cyborg is effing up the **** of the top women in her weight class. It's not a coincidence that Cyborg gets on big shows and Kaufman doesn't. Sarah Kaufman was boring as fugg in that fight before the slam.

I'd like to declare shenanigans on this whole post. This idea that Cyborg is mowing through elite fighters and Kaufman is fighting bums is nonsense. In Strikeforce, Cyborg has fought...

Hitomi Akano
Gina Carano
Marloes Coenen
Jan Finney

Of those 4, only Carano was truely elite in that weight class. Akano is a very good fighter, but a good ten pounds too small for Cyborg. Coenen and Finney are journeyman fighters. Cyborg has still not fought Erin Toughill or Tara Larosa, two elite fighters about her size. The problem here is that neither Cyborg or Kaufman have a lot of interesting matches out there, but IMO both have fought roughly the same level of fighters. Cyborg just gets all the hype.

Kaufman's wins over Modaferri, Hashi, Baszler, and Tate are no worse than Cyborg's last four wins.

[kdawg32086]

Kaufman isn't anywhere close to Cyborg. They're literally hand feeding chicks to Kaufman where as Cyborg is effing up the **** of the top women in her weight class. It's not a coincidence that Cyborg gets on big shows and Kaufman doesn't. Sarah Kaufman was boring as fugg in that fight before the slam.

I'd like to declare shenanigans on this whole post. This idea that Cyborg is mowing through elite fighters and Kaufman is fighting bums is nonsense. In Strikeforce, Cyborg has fought...

Hitomi Akano
Gina Carano
Marloes Coenen
Jan Finney

Of those 4, only Carano was truely elite in that weight class. Akano is a very good fighter, but a good ten pounds too small for Cyborg. Coenen and Finney are journeyman fighters. Cyborg has still not fought Erin Toughill or Tara Larosa, two elite fighters about her size. The problem here is that neither Cyborg or Kaufman have a lot of interesting matches out there, but IMO both have fought roughly the same level of fighters. Cyborg just gets all the hype.

Kaufman's wins over Modaferri, Hashi, Baszler, and Tate are no worse than Cyborg's last four wins.

Not a chance. Cyborg finished Baszler, Kaufman didn't. That "journeyman fighter" Marloes Coenen submitted Modaferri in the first round and Kaufman had her hands full. Akano may be lighter but by that same logic, we should discredit anyone with a win over BJ Penn at welterweight and anyone with a win over Randy Couture at heavyweight because they are clearly much smaller than the guys who beat them. The only crap fighter on that list of Cyborg's latest victims is Finney. People can say Cyborg isn't good because she hasn't fought Larosa or Toughill but Erin Toughill has already agreed to fight her and then backed out once. Rumor has it that Toughill isn't anywhere close to making 145 right now so we'll see if that fight ever happens.

[Cammo101]

Kaufman isn't anywhere close to Cyborg. They're literally hand feeding chicks to Kaufman where as Cyborg is effing up the **** of the top women in her weight class. It's not a coincidence that Cyborg gets on big shows and Kaufman doesn't. Sarah Kaufman was boring as fugg in that fight before the slam.

I'd like to declare shenanigans on this whole post. This idea that Cyborg is mowing through elite fighters and Kaufman is fighting bums is nonsense. In Strikeforce, Cyborg has fought...

Hitomi Akano
Gina Carano
Marloes Coenen
Jan Finney

Of those 4, only Carano was truely elite in that weight class. Akano is a very good fighter, but a good ten pounds too small for Cyborg. Coenen and Finney are journeyman fighters. Cyborg has still not fought Erin Toughill or Tara Larosa, two elite fighters about her size. The problem here is that neither Cyborg or Kaufman have a lot of interesting matches out there, but IMO both have fought roughly the same level of fighters. Cyborg just gets all the hype.

Kaufman's wins over Modaferri, Hashi, Baszler, and Tate are no worse than Cyborg's last four wins.

Not a chance. Cyborg finished Baszler, Kaufman didn't. That "journeyman fighter" Marloes Coenen submitted Modaferri in the first round and Kaufman had her hands full. Akano may be lighter but by that same logic, we should discredit anyone with a win over BJ Penn at welterweight and anyone with a win over Randy Couture at heavyweight because they are clearly much smaller than the guys who beat them. The only crap fighter on that list of Cyborg's latest victims is Finney. People can say Cyborg isn't good because she hasn't fought Larosa or Toughill but Erin Toughill has already agreed to fight her and then backed out once. Rumor has it that Toughill isn't anywhere close to making 145 right now so we'll see if that fight ever happens.

I'm not saying Kaufman is better, she is not. I am saying, that both have fought roughly the same level of opponents.

[malcrk]

Coenen fights in Cyborg's weight class. Modaferri had to gain 8 pounds to fight Coenen (who cuts to 145 and came in at 146) on a week's notice and had beat her several years prior. Coenen has always been near the top of the weight class, not really a journeyman. LaRosa fights two weight classes lower where Modaferri normally is. Carano actually probably had the easiest schedule out of all of these fighters. The problem is that these are the best fights available for Kaufman and Cyborg (outside of Toughill who can't even get under 155 anymore,) they're beating everyone.

With the lack of crossover from Japan except to grab someone to fight a few weight classes up as well as the weight class jumping in general, it's hard to tell where the overall picture is. I mean, look at the Rosi Sexton - Zoila Frausto fight. Rosi Sexton was right at the top p4p and she fights a clearly bigger prospect in Zoila Frausto and gets KOed. That's the state of female MMA right now.

Strikeforce is putting together a tournament to decide the next challenger for Kaufman. No idea who they're going to feed to Cyborg. I hear Jens Pulver is available...

Bellator's 115 lb. tournament should be really telling of that weight class and hopefully they find a niche/audience there and become an organization with a deep enough female roster to have fighters fight against equal opponents in their own weight class. All signs seem to indicate that this is their intention and they seem to be off to a good start. Hell, any time you get the best fighter in women's mma history into your first tournament, you're doing something right. Speaking of which, if you don't know who Megumi Fujii is, I suggest watching this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cBHXb977Vs[/youtube]

additionally, these are the Unified Women's Rankings as of the beginning of July:

[cowboyronnie]

How do you know so much about female MMA, malcrk?

[malcrk]

I don't know if it's that I particularly know as much. I think it's like if say, someone watched every game of the WNBA playoffs. They would likely know more about the WNBA than 99.5% of the people on any non-specifically WNBA related forum. I've always liked the women's side of individual sports, and MMA happens to be my favorite sport alongside basketball and baseball (I do not follow women's softball/baseball or the WNBA.) It's also very interesting for me to watch a sport develop. I mean, it was like ten years ago that MMA as a whole was on the verge of being banned in our so-called progressive country. Now we have female fighters headlining and co-headlining nationally strea... televised events. It's quite remarkable. It doesn't hurt that I grew up around lesbians and had to hear about how Cheryl Miller beat Reggie Miller 1-on-1 every time the Bulls played the Pacers.

tl;dr: I follow MMA like crazy.

[REDDzone]

Good. This is a good board, but we need more active posters here.

[Cammo101]

It is sick how weak Cyborg's division is compared to Kaufman's.