Anyone Catch Gina vs Cyborg Last Night?

[Phog Allen]

Good afternoon gents. Well, I was finally able to watch the much ballyhooed match up between Gina Carano and the Cyborg girl from South America. What a doozy. I have never really cared for womens sports too much but I have to admit that Gina is such a tough little cookie that it is hard not to get excited about her MMA fights. Besides, she is America's sweetheart in MMA and I really felt for her in the loss last night. It was obvious the Cyborg had the strength advantage but Gina has the hands and speed. I felt if she could have just gotten past the first round she would have stood a great chance of winning. Cris Cyborg expended a LOT of energy in the first round. It was obvious when Gina clocked her a time or two and gave her one of her patented front kicks that Cris knew she couldn't just wade through the punches. She had to use her strength to get Gina off her feet and she did. I kept saying to myself; just get up baby girl. If you get to your feet you can weather the round and out box her the rest of the way. It was not to be. ONE bloody second from the first round bell the fight was stopped. I am not blaming the ref. I doubt he was looking at the clock. He was making sure Gina didn't get hurt too badly under the flurry of punches. Cris Cyborg is really tough. I hope there is a rematch. These two are something else.

Regards, Todd

 

[Leche]

Gina needed to stay on her feet. Cyborg, whom I've never seen fight, is obviously very talented on the ground. Gina is still beautiful though.

 

[Legion]

No. Sadly MMA's doesn't get any airtime here in Australia. Hopefully some nice American will put it on you-tube for me soon.

 

[tlanning]

When Cyborg got her down in the last 4 or 5 seconds she was like a pile driver, good power unbelievable technique. Gina, although very good, was way over matched in this fight.

 

[ouch]

Oofah.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW6aLvF0vRc[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Mejnoon]

Gina needed to stay on her feet. Cyborg, whom I've never seen fight, is obviously very talented on the ground. Gina is still beautiful though.

The first few times the fight went to the ground Gina was able to take top position in the scramble...as long as she stayed on top she was fine. Gina has excellent submission defense (watch the Maxwell fight), I don't think Cyborg has a good enough sub game to get it done...but her ground and pound was ridiculous.

When Cyborg got her down in the last 4 or 5 seconds she was like a pile driver, good power unbelievable technique. Gina, although very good, was way over matched in this fight.

I don't think she was way overmatched. She could have won that fight, if she'd kept to her game and not played in to Cyborg's strengths. Her movement wasn't there, she wasn't setting up her strikes...she could have beaten Cyborg on her feet if she'd been a little smarter about it. She defended terribly when she started getting hit too.

The rest of the card was decent. I was stoked to see Melendez convincingly beat Ishida. I was very impressed by Mousasi, though I'm a Babalu fan and I wish he could have made it a fight. A friend of mine (Mike Cook) got destroyed on the undercard, that was pretty dissapointing.

I want to see Mousasi/Nick Diaz at 185...I think that would be a ridiculously entertaining fight.

 

[Legion]

Thanks for that Ouch. That was a great fight. (Not too happy about the result, though.)

 

[SRock]

They are probably the two greatest female fighters in the sport right now. I think Gina would have had a chance had the fight gone to round two, but either way it was going to be a war. Strikeforce is a small company struggling to survive off of two names, Fedor and Gina. There will be a Carano/Cyborg rematch if Fedor's salary doesn't bankrupt Strikeforce the way it did Affliction.

 

[TimmyBoston]

Good fight, I'd never seen a women's mma match before. Though talk about Beauty and the Beast. That cyborg, man, is she tough.

 

[SRock]

Good fight, I'd never seen a women's mma match before. Though talk about Beauty and the Beast. That cyborg, man, is she tough.

No pun intended right, !

 

[Baloosh]

That was an old fashioned schoolyard beatdown from Cyborg.

Standing toe to toe, she dominated Carano.

Ground work, she dominated Carano.

At the end, Gina was just trying to stay alive. Good call by the ref.

It was easy to tell Cyborg's not very skilled at submissions, by that botched ankle lock at the beginning of the match. But it looked like she didn't need it this time. Looking forward to a rematch.

 

[SRock]

That was an old fashioned schoolyard beatdown from Cyborg.

Standing toe to toe, she dominated Carano.

Ground work, she dominated Carano.

At the end, Gina was just trying to stay alive. Good call by the ref.

It was easy to tell Cyborg's not very skilled at submissions, by that botched ankle lock at the beginning of the match. But it looked like she didn't need it this time. Looking forward to a rematch.

You got that right.

 

[Phog Allen]

Thanks for the input gents. As I said, I don't normally follow this stuff but when I had the chance to watch a Carano fight, I had to tune in. You guys pretty much confirmed what I was thinking. Gina coulda/shoulda/woulda been very competitive or won that fight if it would have went more rounds. Cyborg threw it all at her in the first round. Gina was a bit tentative and did not chuck that front kick at her near enough. Her boxing skills are superior as too. I thought she looked apprehensive as well. I think a rematch may be a real donneybrook.

Regards Todd

 

[Left Coast DJ]

 

[Kratos]

That was an old fashioned schoolyard beatdown from Cyborg.

Standing toe to toe, she dominated Carano.

Ground work, she dominated Carano.

At the end, Gina was just trying to stay alive. Good call by the ref.

It was easy to tell Cyborg's not very skilled at submissions, by that botched ankle lock at the beginning of the match. But it looked like she didn't need it this time. Looking forward to a rematch.

Schoolyard is right. I think I saw lunchmoney flying about. Carano spent way too much time in the "duck and cover" position. More experience will do her some good.

 

[ouch]

That was an old fashioned schoolyard beatdown from Cyborg.

Standing toe to toe, she dominated Carano.

Ground work, she dominated Carano.

At the end, Gina was just trying to stay alive. Good call by the ref.
It was easy to tell Cyborg's not very skilled at submissions, by that botched ankle lock at the beginning of the match. But it looked like she didn't need it this time. Looking forward to a rematch.

Nice commentary.
I agree with the ref's call- the instant you stop defending yourself the fight is over.

The Meldrick Taylor / Cesar Chavez fight is the classic example.

 

[The Nid Hog]

I think that conditioning was a problem too. Gina obviously looks great and she didn't seem to have any problems making weight this time. Still, her energy seemed to wane as the round went on. Whether it was the extra two minutes or ring rust, who knows.

I know that they're talking tournament, but I'll bet that Scott Coker is trying to find out how to get Gina a couple of high-visibility fights with some convincing tomato cans en route to a rematch. In the meantime, they're probably looking for a good stylist for Cyborg. After getting Gina in Maxim, they probably don't want to settle for a feature on Cyborg in Iron Horse.

 

[Erebos]

Gina looked like she gave up after that first flurry. Her striking was sloppy, she gave up the mount, and she got dominated. She looked like it was her first fight, I expected more from her.

 

[Mejnoon]

They are probably the two greatest female fighters in the sport right now. I think Gina would have had a chance had the fight gone to round two, but either way it was going to be a war. Strikeforce is a small company struggling to survive off of two names, Fedor and Gina. There will be a Carano/Cyborg rematch if Fedor's salary doesn't bankrupt Strikeforce the way it did Affliction.

Strikeforce will be fine, Scott Coker is an astute business man. He's avoided the problems that have plagued most upstart mma promotions for a few reasons:

1) He keeps his payroll under control - he pays market rates or less, and doesn't try to snipe from or get in to bidding wars with the UFC.

2) He's got a loyal stable of local fighters that reach in to a few different demographics and essentially guarantee a gate sufficient to cover his expenses at every show. I'm talking about Shamrock and his guys, Cung Le and his guys, AKA (Javier Mendez is his matchmaker), and the Caesar Gracie guys (Diaz, Melendez and Shields).

3) He's realistic about the niche he's carved out in the industry - he's not trying to be, or to beat, the UFC. And he sticks to what works...he did a show in Fresno a couple of years ago (Tank/Buentello I think) that bombed, and so he's stuck to SJ/HP Pavillion since - he knows he can sell the place out.

The deal he cut for Fedor is $1m/fight guaranteed, with Showtime/CBS covering half. He gets a piece of the back end as well I'm sure, but thats not important unless/until they're in the black on a particular event. Add to that the co-promotional relationship with M1...M1 will be covering some of his expenses. Essentially he's adding a few hundred grand to his bottom line but bringing in a promotional partner to help offset those costs. He may end up making less than he has on other shows as a result of having to cut M1/Fedor in on the back end, but theres very little risk that he'll lose money.

He knows whats up...he signed Fedor for 3, exactly the number of fights remaining on his M1 contract. He knows where Fedor is going after those 3 fights, and he won't try too hard to keep him. He was able to lock up the best fighter in the sport at a bargain rate, with very little risk and huge potential upside (which is ultimately constrained by/dependant on his distribution deals)...this was a no-brainer for Coker.


Did anybody else watch the rest of the card?

 

[Phog Allen]

Yes Chris, I did. I don't remember his name but the Iranian sounding chap put a real arse whipping on Babalu. He looked like a scared kid when he entered the ring. Then went straight to work. Machine like I would say.

Regards, Todd