Issue 087

April 2012

To put it bluntly, there has never been a more critical time in the history of women’s mixed martial arts. The former “face of women’s MMA,” Gina Carano, is currently focusing her energy on Hollywood and has thus far refused to commit to a future in the sport. Whilst female MMA’s Mike Tyson, Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Santos, is on the shelf for 12 months after testing positive for a banned substance. In short, the two most recognizable faces in the game are nowhere to be found.

Enter Strikeforce female bantamweight champ Miesha Tate and the woman who quickly became her nemesis, Ronda Rousey. “This is the most highly anticipated female match-up since the Cyborg vs Carano fight, and that fight had some great ratings on television and a great attendance,” Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker told Fighters Only, prior to the pair’s early March bout. “I think if you talk to Ronda and Miesha, they genuinely don’t like each other.”

It simply had to be an entertaining contest. UFC president Dana White has long expressed his concerns regarding a perceived lack of depth in the women’s game. In truth, if he’s not entirely accurate in terms of talent, he’s certainly correct in regards to the lack of recognizable, marketable female fighters. Yet Strikeforce relied on two such females, Tate and Rousey.

In many ways, it was a sink-or-swim proposition for female fighting on a national stage. For her part, Rousey said she believes the female game is primed for a new revolution. “I think this is a big opportunity to prove that women’s MMA is not dependent on one or two individuals,” Rousey said in the weeks before the showdown. “It is an actual sport with a pool of very high-level athletes that people want to watch fight. It’s not that people want to watch Gina or people want to watch Cyborg. It’s that people want to watch women. I feel like there’s a little more added pressure in that we have to put on a great performance to prove that point.”

Rousey was a big reason why the fight garnered more attention than past female championship bouts. Just four fights into her career (albeit four extremely impressive first-minute wins), Rousey channeled her internal Chael Sonnen with a bevy of trash talking barbs and carried herself with an air of intense braggadocio. 

“I’m very proud that I was part of making this happen, but the work’s not done yet,” Rousey said. “I want women to be able to headline fights on a regular basis, not every three or four years.”

Meanwhile, Tate did little to hide her contempt for the fast-rising newcomer. And while she originally lobbied for a fight with former champion Sarah Kaufman, she eventually embraced the opportunity for what it meant, stating her belief it was “going to be the biggest women’s MMA fight to date” and how they had “more opportunity to get this fight out there and show people what the women are really made of.”

In order to drive the card to success, the onus falls to the females at the top of the bill, and during this critical time in the female sport, Tate and Rousey used the opportunity to elevate their own status, as well as that of their peers.

“The beauty about the Showtime relationship is we’re going to keep building new stars,” Coker said. “I think that Miesha proved herself last year against Marloes Coenen, who was an amazing champion. That proved to be another fight that was a big ratings deliverer for Showtime. The female fight actually spiked higher than the main event on that fight card. 

“I think Showtime likes the female fights. I think there’s a fanbase out there for it. When you look at these two girls, they’re not just beautiful, but they’re dangerous athletes.” For Showtime, for Strikeforce and for all of women’s MMA, they also have to be box-office stars.

By John Morgan, former World MMA Awards ‘Journalist of the Year’