Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg was held at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California on August 15, 2009. The event aired live on the Showtime cable network and marked the first time two women headlined an event in Strikeforce history.
Below are the results for the event:
Preliminary Card
Alex Trevino def. Isaiah Hill by submission (keylock) at 3:56 of Round 1
James Terry def. Zak Bucia by TKO (head kick and punches) at 1:23 at Round 1
Justin Wilcox def. David Douglas by submission (rear naked choke) at 3:16 of Round 3
Scott Lighty def. Mike Cook by TKO (punch to the Body) at 2:05 of Round 1
Jay Hieron def. Jesse Taylor by unanimous decision
Main Card
Fabricio Werdum def. Mike Kyle by submission (guillotine choke) at 1:24 of Round 1
Gilbert Melendez def. Mitsuhiro Ishida by TKO (punches) at 3:56 of Round 3 to retain the Strikeforce Interim Lightweight Champion
Gegard Mousasi def. Renato "Babalu" Sobral by TKO (punches) at 1:00 of Round 1 to become the new Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion
Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos def. Gina Carano by TKO (punches) at 4:59 of Round 1 to become the new Strikeforce Women's Champion
Meet Norm Turner a.k.a. Satan, the strength and conditioning coach behind Gina Carano! Watch as Satan puts Gina through a series of grueling exercises to test her endurance.
Two long-awaited fights, Gina Carano (picture) vs. Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos and Gilbert Melendez vs. Josh Thomson, will happen at Strikeforce on August 15.
Strikeforce announced the fights during Saturday's "Lawler vs. Shields" broadcast on Showtime.
Fans have been asking for Carano (7-0) to meet Santos (7-1) since the two began to make their mark in women's MMA through the EliteXC promotion. Santos has won her last seven fights. Santos last victory was over Hitomi Akano in April, in a fight where she came in seven pounds overweight. Carano's fight was a unanimous decision over Kelly Kobald at EliteXC: Heat last October on CBS.
Josh Thomson (16-2) won the Strikeforce Lightweight Championship over Gilbert Melendez (14-2) but has yet to defend it due to injuries. They were scheduled to meet in April, but Thomson suffered a broken leg. Melendez won the interim title at the event and he'll receive his chance to unify the titles in August.
"We're going to continue supporting women's MMA and we're going to be inviting Gina to come fight on April 11. And we've already got confirmation from Cyborg that she is available if we can put that match together. We will be supporting women's MMA in Strikeforce," said Strikeforce President Scott Coker.
Coker has been working feverishly behind the scenes to put together what would be seen as the biggest fight in the history of women's MMA, a matchup between undefeated media favorite Gina Carano (picture) and the highly skilled Brazilian Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos.
Coker announced last week that Santos had signed with the promotion with the intent of facing Carano. And sources have indicated that the company is working hard on securing the fight for it's first Showtime event this April 11.
The show looks to add Carano versus Cyborg to previously announced match-ups featuring former UFC Champion Frank Shamrock going up against Nick Diaz and Scott Smith facing off against Benji Radach.
According to an SEC filing (a public companies' financial statement or other formal document submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission) by ProElite, Inc. on Thursday, the company is refusing to close its doors without a fight.
On October 31, the company received a notice from Showtime Networks announcing the sale of ProElite assets at a public auction. On November 4, the cable network made an SEC filing announcing the sale and placed ads on several MMA websites advertising it. Showtime's Senior Vice President of Sports and Event Programming, Ken Hershman, also sits on ProElite's board of directors.
In line with a recent letter to fighter managers promising a return in early 2009, ProElite said it would do everything in its power to stay off the auctioning block.
"The Company plans to take all appropriate measures to prevent the sale from occurring," the filing states. "Such measures may include raising additional financing, filing a lawsuit enjoining the sale, filing a bankruptcy petition or negotiating a settlement with Showtime. There can be no assurances that the company will be successful in any of these actions."
According to some sources, ProElite's first tactic may be to sue CBS Networks over gate revenue produced by its third show, "Heat". The embattled company could argue the network forced them into default on a one million dollar loan from Showtime by misrouting the funds from the Sunrise, Florida, show.
A condition of Showtime's loan, dated June 18, said ProElite's assets could be sold or taken over if it did not maintain $550,000 in cash reserves.
"CBS took the gate revenue directly from Miami, and it was contracted to go through ProElite first," a source said. "If that had happened at the time that (Showtime) called in the note, there would have been enough money that they couldn't have called in the note. So there's a legal argument there."
"ProElite's claim would be that they could have raised the money in that time, but once Showtime called in that note, publicly, it ruined any chances of raising money."
An SEC filing on December 9 detailed an agreement between CBS and ProElite where CBS would cover all costs associated with the show, and "receive" all revenue from the event, though details on how that would occur were not specified.
The question now is whether ProElite can afford to go to battle with CBS in a civil court.
Requests to CBS and ProElite representatives asking for comment were not immediately returned.
The auction, however, could possibly determine the futures of fighters like Kimbo Slice, Gina Carano, Jake Shields, Robbie Lawler, Frank Shamrock, Nick Diaz, Cristiane Santos, Yves Edwards, Wilson Reis and many others.
The organization, whose last show featured a 14-second fight, calls it quits after losing $55 million.
It looks like Elite XC, the upstart mixed martial arts organization featuring Kimbo Slice, is down for the count.
ProElite, Inc., Elite XC's Los Angeles-based parent company, plans to file for bankruptcy, said T. Jay Thompson, an Elite XC executive consultant, whose Hawaii-based MMA organization was purchased by ProElite last year.
Elite XC has also informed fighters, office staff and others of immediate layoffs and has canceled fight dates, including a Nov. 8 card in Reno, Thompson said.
In an SEC filing Tuesday, ProElite said that Showtime Networks said it was in violation of a debt covenant because the MMA firm doesn't have enough cash on hand. ProElite has reported $55 million in net losses since January 2007, according to SEC filings.
Several ProElite executives declined to comment Tuesday.
"If I had to point fingers why this thing went bad, I'd have trouble, because I only have two hands," said Thompson.
ProElite, which opened two years ago, appointed boxing promoter Gary Shaw as president and he designated his son, Jared Shaw -- known by the nickname "$kala" -- a key executive with matchmaking powers.
Gary Shaw, who saw his role change from president to consultant this year, said Tuesday he "wasn't even a consultant anymore. I have no comment. I don't know anything about it. I don't know if they're done."
In another SEC filing, Pro- Elite acknowledged significant deficiencies in how it was operated, including wasteful spending by management and a finding that contracts it entered into were not adequately reviewed.
Thompson said he believes the company's fate was sealed when Slice, its biggest star, was knocked out in 14 seconds of the main event of a CBS show Oct. 4.
Slice was supposed to fight MMA veteran Ken Shamrock. Instead, a late injury replacement, Seth Petruzelli, was put into the cage. Petruzelli alleged in a later radio interview that Elite XC promoters told him he'd earn extra money by fighting a stand-up style that favored Slice's strength as a street fighter. A Florida commission is now investigating that claim.
Meanwhile, instead of gaining an investment by Showtime Networks that ProElite officials had said was vital for its survival, Showtime sent ProElite a default notice for $6.3 million last week, according to an SEC filing. "ProElite officials have advised us that they will not be able to put on the EliteXC event scheduled for exhibition on Showtime on Nov. 8," Showtime spokesman Chris DiBlasio said in a statement. "In view of Showtime's leadership role in sports programming, including boxing and mixed martial arts, we intend to explore other opportunities."
Thompson railed at what he called a cycle of wasted money by ProElite officials. Pro Elite would over-staff its fight cards with employees, bringing in "35 people who were running around, quite comically" at shows, he said. "It was mind boggling."
Earlier this year, in San Jose, a Pro Elite card generated a live gate of $1.2 million. Thompson, with 15 years of fight-promotion experience, said he advised ProElite officials to bring only a few employees north to maximize profits. Instead, he said, 23 employees worked the event.
A few Elite XC fighters, including champion Jake Shields, Robbie Lawler and Nick Diaz, may land at the top MMA organization, Ultimate Fighting Championship.
But Elite XC stars Slice and female fighter Gina Carano probably will have to look for fights elsewhere.
UFC President Dana White was not available for comment. But White's spokeswoman said he has previously insisted he wasn't interested in adding Slice to his stable of fighters because he didn't want to diminish the sport as "a freak show."
Carano's publicist did not return messages left for her, but the unbeaten female fighter, who has also performed as "Crush" on NBC's "American Gladiators," appears headed for a second-tier organization if she continues in MMA.
UFC's White has said that there isn't enough of a talent pool to start a women's fight league.
From day one of Elite XC's existence, White predicted a doomed effort.
"No one in that business has a clue how to do MMA," he said in December 2006. "These guys don't know the difference between MMA and thumb wrestling."
Brazilian female mixed martial artist Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos recently told Brazilian magazine "Tatame" that a deal is currently in the works to have the dangerous Muay Thai striker take on undefeated fighter Gina Carano at an EliteXC event in February next year. Both fighters are coming off of impressive victories at EliteXC: Heat on October 4th.
"I think it'll be in February, and it'll be cool. Everybody wants to see this fight, we both (fought) on the last event and won, and it'll be great," Santos told Tatame.
To keep things interesting and exciting, Santos expects it to be a stand-up war, "I'll stand with her, and I think she likes it too, so why not? It'll be a huge fight and someone is going down."
If the bout is put together, it is expected that the winner would be crowned the new and first EliteXC women's champion.
The life of an MMA fighter has changed dramatically since the sports' inception some years ago. From movie roles to commercials to photo shoots to interviews, the daily routine for a fighter is anything but routine these days and no one knows that better than EliteXC women's star, Gina Carano.
As a part of the first main stage women's fight during the EliteXC inaugural show, Carano proved that female fighting can be just as exciting and tough as what the men do.
She also opened up a giant door for more opportunities as soon after her fighting career took off, including her current 2nd job as "Crush" on American Gladiators.
Carano admits that her new found fame and lifestyle are a big switch, but when given the chance to reach out to new avenues in life, who wouldn't take the job?
"Anybody who gets a good opportunity would take it," said Carano. "I get a lot of flack from people who are like 'oh she's not serious about fighting' and that's not it at all. I'm just open minded. I'm not just a fighter, like I'm not just a female. I'm a bunch of things, I have a lot of interests."
The new job at American Gladiators, combined with interviews and other job opportunities have forced Carano to get the right people working on her behalf and staying focused on making it to the top of her chose sport of MMA.
"I'm really looking forward to after this fight just sticking to a routine and a program," commented Carano. "I'm just getting a handle on it, I think that's why I've slipped up in certain areas, missing weight, I've been all over the place, cause I didn't have any stability or anything."
The stability has come in the form of a full training camp, something she didn't have for her last fight in EliteXC against Kaitlin Young. Never one to make excuses, Carano is happy to have her focus back on fighting.
"I'm going to say that just in the last two months have I calmed down and started living normally and training normally," she stated. "I'm really liking just going in the gym, training for a fight. Cause I've been completely like chaos for the last year it seems like or even longer. I've been all over the place."
Having better people to surround her for business and promotion has freed Carano up to work solely on her fight skills while not missing a step on other projects either.
"I'm going to be a better fighter for it," Carano said of the recent changes in her professional life.
Ultimately, Carano can be whatever she wants to be because she is simply that talented, and she's enjoying the life she's led so far.
"I've been having a lot of fun with my life. I'm 26 years old and I've just had a good experience so far you know?"
Mixed martial artists Randy Couture (picture) and Gina Carano was among the names announced today by EA Sports for its upcoming "Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3" video game.
Here is the announcement:
The cast of Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 follows (in alphabetical order by last name): Gemma Atkinson (the UK's Hollyoaks), Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Hunt for Red October), Andrew Divoff (LOST), Kelly Hu (X2, The Scorpion King), Jenny McCarthy (Scream 3, former Playboy Playmate of the Year), Ivana Milicevic (Casino Royale), Jonathan Pryce (Pirates of the Caribbean), J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man, Juno), Autumn Reeser (The OC), Peter Stormare (Prison Break, Armageddon), George Takei (Star Trek, Heroes), and two of the most recognizable names in competitive mixed martial arts Randy "The Natural" Couture (former UFC Heavyweight champion) and Gina "Conviction" Carano (Undefeated Elite XC fighter, American Gladiators).
"This is by far the most exciting cast we have in over 13 years of shooting live-action movies for Command & Conquer," said Chris Corry, executive producer at EALA. "The caliber of the performances we received, both individually and collectively, have really raised the storytelling bar for the franchise. We are really excited that we will be delivering such a high quality production that is on par with movies and television shows."
"Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3" is slated to hit the stores in the Fall for PC and Xbox.
Kaitlin Young may have lost her fight to Gina Carano on EliteXC's debut show on CBS, CBS-EliteXC Saturday Night Fights, but she has nothing to be ashamed of. Once again, the women put on a fantastic show and again propelled women’s mixed martial arts to another level.
Gina Carano, who is widely seen as the face of women's MMA, had struggled to make weight again. She weighed in four and a half pounds over the contracted weight due to her lack of time to train because of prior obligations with "American Gladiators". Even though she may have struggled to make the weight, Young expected Carano to be as tough as she was.
"I wasn't surprised," explained Young in a current interview with MMAWeekly Radio. "She's been fighting for a while. The girl clearly knows where she needs to be for a fight. I have a hard time believing that she wouldn't come prepared to fight. I felt that way beforehand, so I wasn't really surprised.”
The one thing that did surprise Young a little bit was the effectiveness of Gina Carano's front kick. "I was a little surprised. I think she had said after, that she had fought a Thai boxer too, a girl built exactly like me. The foot jab doesn't hurt necessarily, it's really frustrating. I would over commit and then she would set up her shot."
Young held her own in the fight and even stung Carano a few times with some stiff punches. Unfortunately for Young, it didn't seem to really affect Carano too badly.
"It didn't really surprise me," she commented. "I'm not really known for my hands. But she's a tough chick."
During the second round, Young's face seemed to swell pretty badly under her eye. However, that wasn't caused by a punch.
"I do remember getting elbowed. I think that's what did the majority of the damage," she said.
After the conclusion of the second round, the controversy began. The doctor had stopped the fight, much to Young's displeasure. While her face did look swollen, the swelling was located under the eye. Typically, in most fights, as long as the cut or swelling doesn't impair the vision of the fighter, they are allowed to go on. This is what caused the controversy in the fight. Young explained to MMAWeekly what happened in the corner.
"I've talked about this so much. The first doctor was going to okay me. I could see fine. I answered all of her questions fine. I was obviously coherent because I was arguing about the stoppage as soon as I heard it was stopped,” said Young.
"I continued to argue the whole way back even though the female doctor was checking my face. I was like 'I'm fine. Leave me alone.' I just want that to be over. I've said it before, I'd say it again. I don't think they should have stopped the fight. I don't think the stoppage was necessary."
Even though she may have lost the fight, the fans were extremely supportive of her efforts in the fight.
"I do hate dealing with a loss. You kind of put your heart and soul into it. It is hard to deal with. I think it was good for the people to see. The exposure was really good and the fans have been outstanding. They were all really cool and really supportive."
EliteXC has been one of the few organizations to really push their women's division since its inception. Even though Gina Carano has been the face they have been pushing, Kaitlin Young will return to fight under the EliteXC banner for at least two more fights.
"I'll be out there again. I signed a three-fight deal with them. Hopefully October or November."
Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg was held at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California on August 15, 2009. The event aired live on the Showtime cable network and marked the first time two women headlined an event in Strikeforce history.
