The original plan for this was an eight-woman format that would have included Marloes Coenen, Carina Damm, Hitomi Akano and Maiju Kujala, plus four others. I first posted about that here a few weeks ago.
Now that it has switched to a four-woman format, Marloes Coenen is no longer scheduled to be a part of it and has been replaced by Miesha Tate. Strikeforce intends to hold a random draw on August 12th (day of weigh-ins) to determine the first-round matchups, but that hinges on approval from the Arizona State Boxing Commission.
Following changes made late this week, MMARising.com can exclusively report that the one-night Strikeforce 135-pound women's tournament will proceed on August 13th and all four participants are confirmed. A plan is in place to use a random draw format to determine first-round matchups.
As first reported here last month, Carina "Beauty But The Beast" Damm, Hitomi "Girlfight Monster" Akano and Maiju Kujala will all compete in the tournament. Miesha "Takedown" Tate has now stepped in to replace original participant Marloes "Rumina" Coenen, who will no longer take part.
Kudos for all your accurate and up to date reporting on this tournament. Even if UG News will never give you credit since you don't write for MMAJunkie or Yahoo
smoogy - Kudos for all your accurate and up to date reporting on this tournament. Even if UG News will never give you credit since you don't write for MMAJunkie or Yahoo
Haha, thanks. <3
StrikeAnywhere - So is Gina Carano done with MMA?
Here is the last update that I had on her contract status and situation in the promotion as of May 6th:
From Article - On a final note, Coker addressed the future of women's MMA postergirl Gina Carano, who is currently filming a movie and is said to be involved in a second big-budget film this year. "[Carano] still has a home here with Strikeforce and we look forward to her return," said Coker, who stated that he would reach out to Carano when she had returned home and taken some time off after filming had wrapped. "Cung [Le] waited about 18 months before he came back, so let [Carano] go be a movie star for now."
Contrary to reports that have suggested otherwise, Carano's contract is a multi-fight, multi-year deal that extends well beyond what some have speculated. Coker looks forward to Carano's return and believes that she will be part of the company’s bright future.
The whole situation seems to be kind of up in the air, but Gina's contract extends on for a long time. She can hang out and make movies right now, but she does still have a bunch of fights left on her Strikeforce deal. If she decided that she never wanted to fight again, I'm not sure how that would work out in terms of the contract. I imagine that it would be difficult for her to get out of it.
You don't have to watch it if you don't want to, sir, but some of us have been waiting just shy of one full year for this tournament to finally take place and have followed all of its many changes along the way. If you have zero interest in it, that's fine. Don't watch. Others will.
DixieNormus - Why do you social activists have to ruin everything that is good in this country? Absolutely no one looks forward to women's matches. It's always just the time to get up and get something to eat/fast forward through before the exciting matches come on.
DixieNormus - Why do you social activists have to ruin everything that is good in this country? Absolutely no one looks forward to women's matches. It's always just the time to get up and get something to eat/fast forward through before the exciting matches come on.
I think that she's probably the favourite to win it now. The other three fighters are also very good - including Maiju, though most people won't be familiar with her yet - but I can definitely see Miesha winning this tournament and earning a shot at the title.
If Marloes Coenen was still in this, I believe that she would have won it fairly handily, but it's going to be quite competitive now. I just hope that there's no cuts/injuries or anything that negatively affects the tournament after the first-round fights. One-night tournaments are sometimes a bit tricky because things can go wrong, but hopefully all will work out and we'll have a new title challenger.
DixieNormus - Why do you social activists have to ruin everything that is good in this country? Absolutely no one looks forward to women's matches. It's always just the time to get up and get something to eat/fast forward through before the exciting matches come on.
If by "no one," you mean the sampling of people you happen to know, I can only suggest you expand your horizons. There are people who like femma. You just aren't one. Cool.
That said, the defining characteristic of social activism is the attempt to coerce the moral code of one or more onto those with a differing set of values, often by marginalizing or trivializing dissent (e.g., making the claim that "no one" dissagrees). Your very objection here to femma is an act of social activism. The question is whether you have the stones (integrity) to realise your own failing, or if you are no different, if not worse, than the liberal propeganda machine you decry.
Freedom of opinion is not freedom of opinion if it is limited to those that agree with the speaker.
I've heard that they might have one on the unaired undercard, but I haven't confirmed that myself yet and I doubt that I'll hear anything back until at least the morning. If they do go ahead with one, my best guess would be that they would try to get Kerry Vera in there if she's healthy. Maybe they could reschedule the Vera vs Julianna Peña fight that was supposed to take place in May before Kerry was injured. Just a thought and pure speculation on my part, but we'll see.
WomensMMAfan - Why did Marloes drop out??
Still working on that as well. The last time that I spoke with her directly, she said that she had no problem with competing at both 135 and 145 and felt that she still had some unfinished business left at 145. It's possible that she'll stay at 145 now and maybe they'll have her rematch Cindy Dandois. I know that Cindy was supposed to be on the June 26th card before all of the visa issues with M-1 fighters, so a Coenen-Dandois rematch at 145 wouldn't shock me in the least.