Womens' MMA mega-thread

[sammy_scuffles]

Coenen's majorly on the outer with Zuffa because of her management team, I don't think there's much chance of her fighting in the UFC any time soon, so why not go to Japan and take the easy fights they'll dish up over there?

Muxlow's fought in tiny shows in Australia and New Zealand mostly. It's not the resume of someone you expect to fight people like Coenen. Very disappointing.

[crushed4life]

For your spanking viewing pleasure:

[DiabloNYC]

I'm a little late to the game, but here is more info on Invicta via PPV today:


Tonight, the Invicta FC will broadcast their women's MMA event via Pay-Per-View at 6 pm Central time.  The Pay-Per-View price for this event is listed as $7.95.

Go show this mainstream women's MMA event some love and purchase the PPV event!  Stream it to your computer (or other PPV viewing method?).  Here is the link to their site with full information:  http://invictafc.com/

The event is listed to be showing 13 all pro women's MMA fights. Go support!

[DiabloNYC]

The UStream company had some trouble processing payments for tonight's Invicta women's MMA fights, so the following was just released via the official Invicta twitter:

"Due to purchasing issues we are giving away #InvictaFC4 for FREE and will issue refunds"

"The Event is now Live & Free at http://www.ustream.tv/invictafc  everyone who paid will be refunded in full. #Invictafc4"

Here's the URL.  Going on until 11 pm Eastern tonight:  http://ustream.tv/invictafc

[jiminy]

A couple of interesting stories on mixedmartialarts.com

10 women fighters under UFC contract

Right now there are ten women fighters under UFC contract, the obvious ones being Rousey, Miesha Tate, Sarah Kaufman, Sara McMann and Liz Carmouche. They are said to be close to a deal with Cris Cyborg to come in at 135 (all the women under contract will be only fighting at 135). Tito Ortiz is her manager and that could make things entertaining. Cyborg, if she signs, would likely go for the title in her first match. While this doesn't always happen, the idea is that they try and give everyone under contract three fights, which means over the course of the year, about 15 women's fights or maybe one every other show. It's not just going to be Rousey defends and nothing else. It's a full division, probably along the lines of the flyweights.

Ronda Rousey trashes male boxer

Here's a funny story, probably certain to be denied, but there is actually video of it although for obvious reasons I don't ever expect the video to surface. Vic Darchinyan, a pretty well known boxer of Armenian descent who has held several world titles, was in a gym with Rousey, who trains judo with a number of Armenians including Karo Parisyan and Manvel Gamburyan. Somehow, this led to him claiming that no woman could ever throw him or armbar him. So they locked up and she launched him with throws one after the other and he had no way of stopping any of them. Then they went to grapple and it was seconds before she armbarred him and his people broke it up right away for fear she could hurt him with the move.

http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/news/435288/Report-10-female-fighters-under-UFC-contract/

Really hope a vid of this does surface.

[sammy_scuffles]

Darchinyan fights out of Australia and is generally pretty popular. He also doesn't tend to come across as an arrogant tool, so claiming to be un-throwable (which is ridiculouse for a boxer to say) would probably be fairly strange behavior for him. It's possible that he just wanted to get thrown around by Rousey, I hear some guys like that kind of thing. 

I'll keep an eye on the news here and see if the story pops up.

[Ronald_Frump]

  Vic Darchinyan, a pretty well known boxer of Armenian descent who has held several world titles, was in a gym with Rousey, who trains judo with a number of Armenians including Karo Parisyan and Manvel Gamburyan. Somehow, this led to him claiming that no woman could ever throw him or armbar him. So they locked up and she launched him with throws one after the other and he had no way of stopping any of them. Then they went to grapple and it was seconds before she armbarred him and his people broke it up right away for fear she could hurt him with the move.

Now THAT's what I'm talkin' about! 

[DR]

A few animated GIF's from Invicta FC 4. A combination of submissions and KO's:

Alexis Davis chokes out Shayna Baszler



Cassie Rodish KO's Stephanie Frausto



Laura Sanko submits Cassie Robb



Rose Namajunas submits Emily Kagan

[Ronald_Frump]

 

[jiminy]

Yeah so Alexis Davis beat Shayna Baszler rather convincingly. She is another one that still has a fight left on her Zuffa/Strikeforce contract, which could see her in the UFC.

Maybe Alexis Davis vs. Ronda next? That would be an interesting fight.

[jiminy]

Darchinyan fights out of Australia and is generally pretty popular. He also doesn't tend to come across as an arrogant tool, so claiming to be un-throwable (which is ridiculouse for a boxer to say) would probably be fairly strange behavior for him. It's possible that he just wanted to get thrown around by Rousey, I hear some guys like that kind of thing. 

I'll keep an eye on the news here and see if the story pops up.

Yeah but she's just a girl. Surely she couldn't rag-doll a top 10 ranked, former IBO world bantamweight boxing champion. Even if she is a little bigger than him, he has that all-important testosterone and man-power.

I like how the report makes a point of saying it took seconds for her to throw/arm-bar him. Not even a brief struggle first, she just owned him.

[Ronald_Frump]

Yeah so Alexis Davis beat Shayna Baszler rather convincingly. She is another one that still has a fight left on her Zuffa/Strikeforce contract, which could see her in the UFC.

Maybe Alexis Davis vs. Ronda next? That would be an interesting fight.

I think Davis was a fool to slug it out against Kaufman. She could have grapple-fucked her FTW.

As to Baszler, Davis et al, I honestly believe comparing them to Ronda is like comparing a "straight-to-DVD" movie to a "Blockbuster".

[jiminy]

I think Davis was a fool to slug it out against Kaufman. She could have grapple-fucked her FTW.

Agreed. Despite numerous clinches, she didn't even appear to try to take Sarah down until the third. When she did try, she tripped Sarah to the ground quite easily and once she had her down, it was total domination.

If Ronda can run through Davis like she has done everyone else so far, it would be a huge statement and it would definitely make me favour her in a fight against Cyborg.

[crushed4life]

Invicta FC President Shannon Knapp said she is not sure how much money the promotion lost from its pay-per-view glitch Saturday night.

by Ben Fowlkes, USA TODAY Sports

Published: 01/06/2013 11:02pm

Frustrated.

That's a word Invicta FC President Shannon Knapp used at least a half-dozen times during a phone interview with USA TODAY Sports Sunday morning when talking about what had gone wrong with the pay-per-view live stream of Invicta FC 4 on Saturday night.

Not surprisingly, it also describes the tenor of many of the Invicta-related tweets as fight night unfolded – or didn't – for fans of the all-women's mixed martial arts promotion.

Some said they spent a half-hour or more trying to get USTREAM to accept their $7.95 payment so they could watch the event. Others paid for a stream that wouldn't start or simply wouldn't stop crashing in the middle of fights. Knapp heard about it all as it was happening – don't forget, this is the fight promoter who gave her phone number out on Twitter – but Knapp said neither she nor her staff could get through to anyone at USTREAM to ask what the problem was.

"There was no one responding," Knapp told USA TODAY Sports. "And people don't get upset with USTREAM. They get upset with us because it's our commitment and our word."

Knapp did not have numbers on how much Invicta might have lost with the streaming failure, or how much it had to refund subscribers who paid but did not get the live stream. But she said her in-house streaming expert described it as "a substantial loss." She said she might know more about losses on Monday.

Knapp also was unsure of her legal options, but said she was talking to her lawyer.

On Invicta's end, Knapp said, the set-up was the same as it had been for the previous three events. Same on-site streaming company, same production people. The only difference on the scene at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kan., was at the broadcast table, where retired fighter-turned-commentator Bas Rutten took the place of veteran announcer Mauro Ranallo. Everything was in place for Invicta's first voyage into pay-per-view territory. Everything except the ability to reliably accept payment and deliver the product in return.

"When people can't pay, that's a problem," Knapp said. "And people wanted to pay. That's an even bigger problem."

The best laid plans of an upstart fight promotion, torpedoed by technology.

Give Knapp credit, though, for quick thinking. When she saw that the paid streaming option wasn't working, she instructed USTREAM to take down the pay wall and promised refunds to those who had already paid. She essentially gave up on the pay-per-view option – the one that was supposed to give Invicta the data it needed to prove something to potential TV partners – midway through the event. Instead of holding out hope that USTREAM would get it figured out in time, Knapp decided to give it away for free and abort the whole PPV mission shortly after it had begun.

That was the right call, but likely not an easy one to make. It comes down to choosing which failure you're more comfortable with. Knapp chose the one that would allow more people to see the fights, without leaving others feeling gouged by a company they were trying to support.

Knapp has said from the start she wants Invicta to be a fight promotion that's small enough to care about every one of its fans. Big companies can afford the luxury of remaining distant and deaf to the complaints of individuals, but Invicta can't. The fewer fans you have, the more desperate the need to keep each one happy.

In that regard, Invicta made the best of a bad situation on Saturday night, but now what? Knapp still isn't sure, she said. The next event is targeted for April, and, Knapp said, "if we don't have a (TV) partner by then, we'll be streaming in some capacity, whether we're giving it away or not."

Now Invicta finds itself in a tough spot. It has relied almost entirely on the power of the Internet. That's where it plugs upcoming events, where it broadcasts its fights, where it exists. Without the Internet, you'd have no clue Invicta even existed. How is a company like that supposed to make money if it can't do it over the Internet?

If anything, Saturday night's setback might have crossed one more option off Invicta's list. Pay-per-view streaming isn't impossible, but it's also not that reliable. Even if you can get your product from the venue to the computer screens of fans, who wants to pay to sit around in front of their laptop all night? Maybe this is a generational thing, but it seems like the Internet might be where we go to watch one or two fights we may have missed, maybe hear an interview or read a story, but TV is where we watch our sports. That's where all the good stuff happens. If Invicta is going to get in the game with the big shows, doesn't it need to be on TV eventually?

Probably, and Knapp knows it. Otherwise you wouldn't hear her say things like, "if we don't have a (TV) partner by then ..." This experience has to make her more eager to find such a partner, and Knapp admitted Saturday night's debacle "put a little more pep in (her) step" in terms of signing a TV deal."

"But if you act in haste and align yourself with a bad situation," she added, "we've all seen what that does."

Enough about the delivery, how about the product?

Assuming you found a way to finally watch Saturday night's event, you were reminded of what Invicta had already established in its first three events: you can usually count on some pretty good fights. Bec Hyatt made for a game opponent in a losing effort against Carla Esparza in the main event. Alexis Davis and Shayna Baszler earned a "Fight of the Night" bonus in a bout that saw Baszler seemingly run out of steam and into a surprising third-round submission. Tecia Torres continued to impress with a 115-pound win over Paige VanZant, who seemed far more composed under pressure than you'd expect from an 18-year-old fighter.

Invicta pitched this card as a great deal in the aggregate, which it was. The women's MMA landscape is such that you can rely on seeing so many of the knowns and the unknowns packed onto each card, if only because other opportunities to fight and get paid are still relatively rare. This was a card hit by injuries, and still it had plenty to offer in the end. But the problem with selling the whole package is that it usually means you're lacking stars.

Invicta needs fighters who can separate themselves from the pack and become a draw. There's potential for that within the existing ranks, but it hasn't happened yet. Right now Invicta is still going on the strength of the whole, rather than the drawing power of a few. That's a refreshing change in some ways, but in an individual sport like MMA, how long can it last?

Fowlkes writes for MMAJunkie.com

[sammy_scuffles]

I think Davis was a fool to slug it out against Kaufman. She could have grapple-fucked her FTW.

As to Baszler, Davis et al, I honestly believe comparing them to Ronda is like comparing a "straight-to-DVD" movie to a "Blockbuster".

You think that about everyone. Fact of the matter is we haven't really seen her fight any of the really recognized grapplers yet and a fight against Davis or Baszler (Or I'd settle for Coenan even) would be a good indication of how good Rousey really is. Davis is probably the fight you give her next if you're serious about testing her (and you can't get Cyborg to 135).

I haven't seen the Invicta fights yet. Hopefully I will be able to get some free time to see them tonight.

Davis confuses me as a fighter. She's clearly got a better ground game than most but she always seems more inclined to stand and bang.