The Death of Women's MMA

Saturday night marked a historic event for Women's Mixed Martial Arts, as we saw them headline a major MMA promotion for the first time in history. It also may have been the last time it experiences that kind of publicity. The Strikeforce main event pitted the face of Women's MMA, Gina Carano, against Brazilian striker Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos. The fight was exciting and fast paced, lasting only one round. The referee stepped in and called the fight with just one second remaining in the first round, as Cyborg pounded Carano mercilessly on the ground. The fan favorite, Carano, fought hard, but was simply overpowered by the much larger Brazilian woman. After the fight, Cyborg was awarded the first ever Strikeforce Women's Championship belt. While Cyborg was the favorite going into the fight, this likely was not the result Strikeforce was hoping for.

There was a lot of publicity leading up to the fight and it was an easy sell, due in large part to Carano's involvement. Women's MMA has exploded over the past year because of the popularity and success of Carano. It is easy to like her. She is undeniably talented, as she showed while amassing a 7-0 record prior to Saturday night's defeat. On top of that, she is attractive; as proven by her several appearances in men's magazines, such as Maxim. She even managed to secure a role as "Crush" on American Gladiators. Gina was everywhere and people loved her. She became such a huge star, that she became larger than Women's MMA itself. There is no denying that the only reason Strikeforce was able to promote an event headlined by a women's bout was because Carano was a part of it.

After Saturday night, Strikeforce is left with a champion who is no where near as marketable. For starters, Cyborg is not as visibly appealing as Carano, and that's putting it nicely. In addition, she is Brazilian, and speaks little to no English. This will make it hard for Strikeforce to market her and sell her as a main event. Adding to the problem, Strikeforce spent so much time building Carano into a star that they have not developed any other contenders for the new belt. It is hard to imagine another Strikeforce event being headlined by Cyborg and one of the new contenders that nobody knows. It remains to be seen how Carano's popularity will be affected after the loss, but certainly some of the appeal to her was the fact that she was undefeated and considered the best. That is obviously no longer the case. There is the possibility that Carano will be given a rematch for the belt after a couple of tune up fights, but it is hard to envision a different outcome after witnessing Saturday's domination. Women's MMA reached a pinnacle on Saturday night and experienced an interest level that we are unlikely to see again for a long time.

SOURCES: http://www.strikeforce.com/fighters/GinaCarano.asp