Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
The reason that Strikeforce will be holding the tournaments is to bolster the credibility of their women’s division for the mainstream MMA audience. That is the true purpose of the tournament, because Strikeforce needs top female competitors to keep the divisions afloat. To the average MMA viewer, the two faces of women’s MMA are both Gina Carano and Cristiane Santos.
While both women (Gina Carano & Cristiane Santos) have helped female MMA gain the majority of its popularity over the past few years, the sport needs many more female competitors to grow in popularity to ensure that portion of the sports growth in upcoming years. Now, with Sarah Kaufman facing Takayo Hashi in February to crown a Strikeforce Women’s 135lb. division title, Strikeforce will have two champions and two separate divisions to build up.
Like I mentioned earlier in this column, Strikeforce has yet to announce any of the sixteen participants that will fight in the tournaments. However, rising and already important female MMA fighters like Erin Toughill, Tara LaRosa, Kerry Vera, Kim Couture, Shayna Baszler, Tonya Evinger, Kaitlin Young, Julie Kedzie and others could participate.
A question that must be raised is this, how will Strikeforce reward the winners of each tournament once it is all concluded? The obvious answer is to give the winner of each tournament a title opportunity at each champion when the tournaments are over. Which, I truly believe in the long run, will be the best way to handle everything once both tournaments are concluded.
A person that hasn’t been mentioned much in this column is Gina Carano, who most recently fought Cristiane Santos to crown the first Strikeforce Women’s 145lb. Champion. Now, one could make the assumption that since Gina Carano lost the fight to crown the first champion in that particular weight class, she could also be deemed top contender since the current champion doesn’t have many challengers.
I bring up Gina Carano in this time because if she is considered a top contender to the title, she could wait longer than a year before getting another title opportunity, that’s also being said with the consideration that she doesn’t fight in that time frame. Plus, without being hurtful to the other competitors in the tournaments, Gina Carano is arguably the most popular fighter that could challenge the champion.
In the long run and no matter who wins both of the tournaments, I truly believe that Strikeforce will succeed in creating a host of new stars for both of their women’s MMA divisions. Which, again no matter who leaves each tournament a victor, is the true purpose of putting both tournaments together in the first place and in the long haul.
To compare Strikeforce to professional wrestling at the moment, the Strikeforce women’s division is currently in the middle area between the lower form of women’s wrestling (WWE Divas) and the higher form of women’s wrestling (TNA Knockouts) , and this tournament will determine its wrestling-esque position in the grand scheme of women’s MMA.
You can contact David Tees at bigtees360@yahoo.com
