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Women's MMA: Cyborg To Re-Sign? UPDATED
Strikeforce champion Cyborg Santos has been waiting on the sidelines for a year now to be resigned, and with the Zuffa purchasing the Bay Area company, the biggest question remains on if the champ will be resigned and if so, when.
Officially, Cyborg’s contract obligation ran out after the Jan Finney match in June of last year, and a lot of the reason why she was not resigned was because Strikeforce simply ran out of challengers. As the rest of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 came around, challengers have come out of the woodwork. Initially that was Julia Budd, then Amanda Nunes came on the scene. Germaine de Randamie, the kickboxing phenom, has signed with the promotion and has a great shot of matching Cyborg on her feet. So, lack of challengers is no longer an excuse.
When Zuffa came in, they didn’t resign all of the Strikeforce roster and roughly 4-6 of the fighters are under a Zuffa contract rather than their original Strikeforce contract. Zuffa is still on the fence about the women’s division, despite the fact that Strikeforce head Scott Coker stated the division will continue. The purse strings still lie with Zuffa, so it’s up to them to decide to resign Cyborg.
What is taking so long? A few theories have been floating around the internet. The first is that Zuffa isn’t interested in resigning Cyborg at all, because they don’t know what to do with her. Another is that she was asking for too much money. Personally, my theory is that Zuffa is still waiting for a proper challenger to get built up to face Cyborg, and it would be a waste of money to have her on the roster until then.
With Gina Carano’s delayed comeback, and the several matches scheduled to build both the 135 and 145 pound divisions, there are no slots available for the champ to defend her title. The best case scenario would be Sept. 10 with either the winner of Carano vs. D’Alelio (which is rumored for July 30) or the winner of the Julia Budd vs. Germaine de Randamie match on the June 24 card.
Until then, the women’s MMA fans will just have to wait.
** This article is courtesy and copyright of Wombat Sports. http://wombatsports.wordpress.com/ Wombat sports is dedicated to women in combat sports. Former news editor of “Fightergirls” MarQ Piocos has been covering Women’s MMA for over three years, having picked up coverage of wrestling, boxing, and grappling. It is his vision to bring some of the best coverage to help bring and promote the ever expanding popularity of women’s MMA, wrestling, and martial arts with some of the best writers and athletes.
UPDATED:
Courtesy of www.MMAjunkie.com
Strikeforce CEO on Cris "Cyborg" Santos negotiations: No deal but "we're dancing" by John Morgan and Dann Stupp on Jun 15, 2011 at 6:00 pm ET
DALLAS – Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos, who's arguably the top female fighter in MMA today, still is without a contract.
The management team for Strikeforce current women's middleweight champion hasn't been able to strike a new deal with company officials.
Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) he has no updates on the negotiations, but he's optimistic a deal will get done and the 145-pound champ will be back in the cage.
"The answer's no," Coker said when asked if there's any type of contract-status update. "But hopefully soon we'll come to some type of resolution."
Santos hasn't fought since she beat down Jan Finney in a title defense a year ago. It marked the Brazilian's 10th consecutive victory, which included a title win over Gina Carano and a title defense over Marloes Coenen. But because of a contractual quirk (Strikeforce acquired her deal from the now-defunct EliteXC), Santos actually fulfilled the terms of her contact with the Finney fight.
She now needs a new deal. At today's pre-event press conference for Saturday's "Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum" event, Coker told MMAjunkie.com the situation isn't unlike those with other fighters.
"It comes down to business," he said. "It's probably happened with every single guy in this room at one point or another. It maybe just was under the radar and they weren't talking to the media like 'Cyborg' did. But I don't blame her. She was frustrated, and we were frustrated.
"But there's a certain dance the promoter and the athlete do. ... And we're dancing."
Santos, whose value and pound-for-pound ranking was aided by Japanese star Megumi Fujii's recent Bellator loss, is one of the main cogs of Strikeforce's women's MMA division. Some thought that division might collapse with the UFC's recent acquisition of Strikeforce, but Coker again assured fans that's not the case. Even if UFC officials aren't completely sold on women's MMA, Strikeforce is.
In fact, Coker said, Showtime – which has garnered some ratings hits due its female fights – has pushed harder than anyone for the bookings. That's set the stage for a June 24 prospects bout between Julia Budd and Germaine de Randamie, a July 22 fight between ex-champ Sarah Kaufman and highly touted Liz Carmouche, and a heavily anticipated July 30 title fight between women's welterweight (135-pound) champ Marloes Coenen and Miesha Tate.
Additionally, Carano, one of the organization's biggest draws, had a featured slot on Saturday's card before her doctor denied her medical clearance. Coker hopes she'll return later this year and continue Strikeforce's efforts with women's MMA.
"Nothing has changed," Coker said. "It goes beyond just me being a fan. We have a network that loves female fights. ... Believe me, they're going to want those fights, and we're going to continue putting them on."
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