Does anyone really like women’s MMA or is it more of an equality thing? Because all the fights are not very good.

If Carano loses to Cyborg the first time in close fashion. Then a rematch can occur.

During this period (should take us to the end of the year) then hopefully a challenger can emerge.

I only care to see Carano/Santos. I really don’t care if womens MMA survives. If it does, keep it on the undercard.

I like it when you and Zack go at it….you two should do a podcast together. lol Seriously

Alright, I’m going to break this down in succession.

1) Cyborg’s Popularity

Now I’m not doubting Santos’ ability in any aspect, but her popularity is most comparable to Houston Alexander. In his first two fights, he was able to come in and destroy his opponents in impressive fashion. This created and immediate buzz about Alexander. Now for most fighters, female and male, this isn’t the case. So it isn’t so much Cyborg’s talent, as much as it has been her results. It won’t be nearly as easy, unless another female fighter puts on similar performances, for Strikeforce to find marketable fights.

2) Meisha Who?

I’m a relatively dedicated MMA fan, but I’m admittedly not a dedicated Female MMA fan. It’s nothing against the division, it’s just hard to when there are so few fights. Off the top of my head I can name you Gina, Santos, Larosa, Young and Kedzie as the only female MMA fighters I know of. Now when you take into account most people watching these fights, who subsequently are the people MMA promotions market themselves towards, are not dedicated MMA fans, I’d imagine they know about 2/5 of those fighters. As previously stated, Santos only became well known for her fights. So one could argue that unless there is another Santos type fighter to captivate the fans, there won’t be a marketable challenger for quite some time.

3) When, Where and How?

Unless there is a televised or well known promotion willing to show 2 to 3 female fights per card, this discussion is just null in void. On top of all of that, we are already speaking about a division so thing that MMAth freaks can go on a field day with their winner projections. Looking through some of the female fighters resumes, it seems most of them have already fought each other at some point. You might as well just call the division “Six Degrees of Gina Carano,” if she were to defeat Cyborg.

I know a lot of these problem are just being rehashed, and I for one would love to see the division explode, but it just doesn’t seem feasible within the next 2 years for that happen. Not enough opportunity for exposure and a relatively small stable of fighters make it nearly impossible for the division to succeed short time in my eyes. I’d love to be proven wrong, but I just don’t see it. Now if the division is truly important to Strikeforce, why not hold a complete Female card, and stream it for free on the internet?

Most casual fans aren’t even excited to think about a 135 vs 145 bout between male fighters, much less female.

Once female fighters stop being awarded main card events based on their myspace sexy pictures then perhaps their identity in the sport will evolve as well.

I think the foundation exists in some places, but I do not think there is the substance to warrant a general appreciation for the female version of the sport at this point, only the denouement of overall skill that seems to be lacking in the female division.

There are not many female fighters, even fewer that have interesting characters or stories or backgrounds and even fewer than combine all that and have exciting fights for fans.

Overall, they are in no shape to be considered a mainstream sport alongside male MMA, not because of their lack of skill at a high level, but because the average skill amongst all female mixed martial artists is low and there is a huge skill difference between your Ginas, LaRosas and Santos’ compared to the rest of the pack.

They are still in the birth of their entire sport, whereas they are being compared to the male version of their sport that has undergone 3-4 generations of evolution. It is not a fair comparison and I agree that there is “plenty left” for women’s MMA, but we may not know what that is for years to come.

this thread needs more Julie Kedzie, dammit.

There’s a Ton of World Class Women MMA fighters out there, that US promotions can use in their events, there’s Megumi Fujii,Miku Matsumoto,Yuka Tsuji,Rin Nakai,Roxanne Modafferi,Yasuko Tamada,Ana Michelle Tavares,Sarah Kaufman,Rosi Sexton,Satoko Shinashi,Marloes Coenen,Jessica Pene,Jessica Aguilar,Lana Stefanac,Kanako Takeshita,Yuko Yamanaka,Lisa Ward,Amanda Buckner,Carina Damm