Fans not thrilled, but Sarah Kaufman a winner: "Sarah Kaufman won the title but not the crowd on...

Fans not thrilled, but Sarah Kaufman a winner:

"Sarah Kaufman won the title but not the crowd on Friday night in becoming the first Strikeforce women’s welterweight (135-pound) champion before what started out as a sellout crowd of 2,500 fans at the San Jose Civic Auditorium."

"It ended with a half-empty arena, as Kaufman (11-0) won a five-round decision over Takayo Hashi (12-2) of Tokyo in what was the second time a nationally televised MMA event was headlined by a women’s match."

"... The crowd started emptying the Civic Auditorium after the second round, when it seemed clear Hashi wasn’t offering much of a challenge but that Kaufman was being careful standing, technically controlling the fight but never going for the kill."

Full write-up at sports.yahoo.com.

-- photo via sherdog.com
Strikeforce Challengers: Kaufman vs. Hashi coverage

about 2 years ago Nick Thomas 8 comments 0 recs |

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I'm a little dissappointed in Sarah

However, this was the biggest fight of her career. I remember Gina and Cyborg were getting a lot of flak because their fight was pretty sloppy and it looked really amateurish. Sarah will turn it around once she gets used to the big spotlight.

by MMAGuard on Feb 27, 2010 10:29 AM EST reply actions

no offense

but why has virtually every women’s fight i’ve seen on strikeforce come off as “sloppy” and “amateurish”? i have nothing against women’s mma andi know that strikeforce has a problem putting together fights between well known and equally talented fighters, but considering they’re pretty much the only game in town for women’s mma they should be able to find high quality fighters with similarly effective skillsets. watching sloppy and one-sided fight after sloppy and one-sided fight is not going to do a whole lot in terms of growing the division’s fan base.

by K Krush on Feb 27, 2010 12:35 PM EST up reply actions

The crowd started emptying the Civic Auditorium after the second round

Ouch.

You have to be the man... you have to be very, like, alpha male with her. You know? Decide what you do and everything. So, show her who's the boss, you know? - GSP

by pud333 on Feb 27, 2010 11:43 AM EST reply actions

Sucks it was a snoozer. It goes both ways in that Hashi was constantly back pedaling and Kaufman could have turned it up. On the other hand, even Miguel Cotto was back pedaling against Pacquaio or how Diego Sanchez was against BJ Penn, but of course those were eventually finished in the final round (just making the point that even in the highest level when one fighter is the aggressor, it could still take a lot of time for the aggressor to finish someone who is constantly back pedaling). I do feel that when one fighter is back pedaling, it is very hard to finish, so I don’t fault Kaufman as much as Hashi.

by chrisbboy82 on Feb 27, 2010 12:37 PM EST reply actions