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As many people in the MMA world know by now, Elite XC has gone bankrupt and will never see the light of day ever again. Most people associate famed fighter Kimbo Slice more with Elite XC than any other fighter, outside of maybe one fighter. That fighter is the dubbed “face of women’s MMA” Gina Carano, who helped bring female mixed martial arts to the forefront of MMA.
During her battles with Kelly Kobald, Julie Kedzie, Tonya Evinger and Kaitlin Young, Gina Carano was easily stealing the show with her exciting fights and action packed encounters. It did not take long for many fans to start asking UFC honcho Dana White if female fights would occur in the UFC. Initially, Dana White stated that female MMA wasn’t deep enough with talent to have it featured in the UFC.
Then, after the closure of Elite XC, Dana White started to change his tune about women’s MMA and in particular with Gina Carano. Now, it seems that there may be a bigger stage for Gina Carano and women’s MMA in general, not in the UFC, but in the UFC sister promotion, the WEC. If it were to come to fruition, this would easily be the biggest stage for women’s MMA inside of the United States.
I must acknowledge there are many talented female competitors in mixed martial arts, but Gina Carano is like the pendulum of female MMA in a sense, because the more successful she becomes, the more female MMA gets to shine, where if she fails, there aren’t many other female fighters who could take her place.
It could all actually come down to the long awaited dream fight between Gina Carano and Cristiane Santos, which most believed would actually happen in Elite XC. Dana White has already stated that he would be interested in bringing the Gina Carano versus Cristiane Santos super fight to a potential WEC card. Which, if it really happens, could be the biggest break thus far in the history of women’s mixed martial arts.
Now, if the fight were to be a success, I would bet every dollar I’ll ever have that the WEC and maybe down the line, the UFC, would be featuring women’s MMA division. With Zuffa potentially behind it, there would be enough to finance the push of Gina Carano and the ability to bring the best talent from MMA to establish a full fledged female division in the WEC.
On the opposite side of the fence, if Gina Carano were to fail in potential fights in the WEC, it would be all to easy for Dana White to pull the plug on the female MMA experiment. Which, if it were to happen, could essentially destroy female MMA on a large stage like the WEC or UFC, effectively ending it as a big time attraction.
While Gina Carano is certainly not the only talented female fighter in MMA, with other fighters like Tara LaRosa out there. However, Gina Carano is the most known fighter in female MMA, thus the weight of the future of female MMA could be resting on her shoulders.
One easy question to examine is this, why would Dana White ever pass on the opportunity to feature Gina Carano in the WEC?
If you look at Gina Carano outside of her current MMA career/achievements, she was a cast member on the American Gladiators program and was featured in the video game, Command & Conquer III: Red Alert. Plus she is an extremely hot person for female MMA, so her marketing ability would be through the roof for the WEC and maybe the UFC.
Whatever side of the fence you are on concerning Gina Carano and women’s MMA, one thing will be for certain. Until Gina Carano or any other female MMA competitor steps inside the WEC octagon, there will always be questions of whether or not female MMA will be able to survive in the biggest MMA stage of them all.
You can contact David Tees at bigtees360@yahoo.com
