Hey everyone! This week I will be writing about Kim Couture, also known as “Sugar Free.” She was born in a small town named Walsenburg, Colorado on December 18th, 1975. When she was younger she grew up on a horse and cattle ranch in the middle of nowhere. When Kim was old enough to start school, the family decided to finally move into the city. She was a straight “A” student all through school. Kim was interested in basketball, volleyball and track. When she wasn’t playing sports, she was helping her family with a rodeo. A week after graduating, she married her high school sweetheart and ended up being pregnant with a boy. This marriage didn’t end up lasting very long. Kim had another relationship and got pregnant again with a baby girl. At the age of 21 she became officer of the law and got a job offer in Las Vegas. Not a year later she moved to Nevada.
In 2004, Kim began to train in mixed martial arts as just a way to stay in shape. She never thought she would make it as a career but in 2007 she made it happen. Gina Carano inspired her to fight. Kim is 5’7’’ and weighs 135. This is considered a welterweight fighter. Her record is 1-1-0. This mean she has won 1 of her fights and lost the other. She hasn’t had very many fights in her career but they were professional and not amateur. Her style of fighting is submission wrestling and boxing and fights with team is Xtreme Couture. Xtreme Couture is a gym that she and Randy Couture opened together. She met Randy at a party in 2005 and in 2006 they happily got married.
Kim’s first fight was against Jessica Cruz on August 5, 2008. She kept her hands held high and won her first fight! Watch the fight here! Two months later she had another fight against Kim Rose. This fight had 3 rounds that lasted five minutes, which is kind of a long time in the octagon. Kim had her jaw broken within the first few seconds of the fight. She was bleeding badly during all the rounds. This fight made people wonder if women should even be allowed to fight. I personally think that Kim is really tough and a good fighter. All these women mixed martial artists makes me want to fight as a profession.
Hey everybody! This week I will be talking about Liz Carmouche, also known as “Girl-Rilla.” She was born on February 19, 1984 in Lafayette, LA but was raised in Okinawa, Japan. In 2010, she began her professional career in mixed martial arts. Before becoming a mixed martial artist, Liz served in the United States Marine Corps for five years. She actually had to go on three tours in the Middle East. Liz is currently going to school for kinesiology. This is also known as human kinetics which is the scientific study of human movement.
Liz Carmouche competes for Strikeforce. She is 5’6’’ and weighs 135 pounds. This is considered a welterweight fighter. Liz’s fighting style isVale Tudo. Vale Tudo means “everything allowed” or “anything goes.” This is a style of fighting where there are very few rules. It became very popular in Brazil during the 20th century. Her mixed martial arts record is 5-2. This means she has won five of her fights and only lost two. Three of these fights were won by knockouts, one by submission and another one by decision. This isn’t a bad record at all since she is ranked 8th in the world according to Unified Women’s MMA rankings. The style of fighting Liz prefers is Judo, Kickboxing and Wrestling. Liz has a yellow belt in Kenpo and a blue belt in Jiu-Jitsu. She fights out of San Diego, California from her team, “Team Hurricane Awesome.”
The reason Liz started mixed martial arts was for a physical challenge and an outlet. She has never won a title or held a rank. She tells Strikeforce that “It is an honor. This means being considered the best in this sport.” Liz’s favorite grappling technique is an armbar and her favorite striking technique is the left cross. Strikeforce asks, “What do you consider to be the key fight is your career, and why?” She says, “Currently, I think the key fight in my career was my fight against Marloes Coenen. For me it was the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Hey everyone! This week I will be talking about Sarah Kaufman , another mixed martial artist. Sarah was born on September 20, 1985 in Victoria, British Colombia. She is a graduate from Claremont Secondary school and eventually attended University of Vitoria to become a Cardiovascular surgeon. Sarah has been a dancer pretty much all her life. When she was 17, a mixed martial arts class opened next to her dance class. She attended a women’s muay thai class and ever since then she was a fighter.
Kaufman is 5’5” and weighs in at 135 pounds, this is considered a bantamweight. Her mixed martial arts record is 14-1. This means she has won 14 fights and only lost one. That is a really good record! 10 of the fights were won by knockout, 4 by decision and 1 by a submission. I would not want to get in the octagon with this girl! She fights out of Zugec Ultimate Marital arts and she is ranked a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
On June 1, 2007, Sarah went up against Valerie Letourneau winning in the second round by TKO. TKO mean technical knockout. This was the first female mixed martial arts fight in promotion history. Watch the video here! She got the Hardcore Championship Fighting Women’s Bantamweight by defeating Ginele Marquez on October 19, 2007. In 2008 Kaufman defended her title against Molly Helsel before the promotion folded.She became a star in Strikeforce after fighting a talented wrestler, Miesha Tate. Sarah won by unanimous decision and that’s the first time she had gone the distance with her career in mixed martial arts. Five weeks later she fought Shayna Baszler, a submission specialist. Again, she won by unanimous decision. This was the first fight that had 5 minute rounds. Usually the women would get 3 minute rounds, which I think would be a lot easier than 5. Sarah dominated Takayo Hashi all 5 rounds winning the Welterweight Women Championship. In my opinion I think Sarah Kaufman is an excellent fighter and I would love to see her in the octagon live!
Hey, its Ariyan again! Last, week I talked about Gina Carano so this week I will write about her rival Cris Santos also known as “Cyborg”. She was born July 9, 1985 in Curitiba, Parana which is located in Brazil. Her husband is Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos, also a mixed martial artist. He is always by the cage cheering her on no matter what. Santos weighs in at 144 lbs and is 5’8”. This is considered being in the lightweight class. Her record is 10-1. This means she has won 10 of her fights and lost 1. That is a pretty good record! The style of fighting she is into is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai. She earned her purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in 2009. Cris fights out of San Diego, California with her team at Chute Boxe Academy.
Santos made a name for herself in Mixed Martial Arts in 2008, against Shayna Baszler. She won in the second round by TKO. TKO means technical knockout. Cyborg was scheduled to fight a Dutch submission specialist but backed out and signed a contract with Strikeforce. Her fight against Gina Carano took place on August 15, 2009. Santos won 4:59 of 5:00 in the first round by TKO. Santos says she thought this fight would be hard and trained five years!Cris was stalking her in the cage when the first bell rang. Gina Carano managed to escape but Santos was right behind her throwing hit after hit. After the fight Santos hugged Carano and said it was an honor to fight her and had great respect towards her. Santos contract expired with Strickforce on June 26, 2011 but then renewed it on August 25, 2011.
Cris states that she only trains with men because it is more comfortable for her. She says “She is afraid of hurting the women.” She inheritated her nickname from her husband. It means half human and half machine. Cris loves this name and it’s more of a last name to her.
Hi, my name is Ariyan! For, a couple months I am going to be blogging about Women Mixed Martial Artists. I am really interested in this topic because I train in mixed martial arts too. People think that guys should only do this sport, but their wrong. Women are just as tough as men. When I watch women fight in the octagon, it really inspires me to want to get in on the action.
This week I am going to talk about Gina Caranoalso known has “Conviction”. In my opinion, Gina does not look like she would fight. I think she looks like a model more than a mixed martial artist. She was born on April 12, 1982 in Dallas, Texas. She is 5ft 8in weighing at 143 pounds. 143 pounds is considering a middle weight fighter. Carano started fighting out of Master Toddy gym is Las Vegas. She is now training under Team Jackson where she is becoming a better mixed martial artist.
Gina is a professional in Muay Thai with a record of 12-1. This means she has won twelve of her matches and lost one. Her MMA record is 7-1. This means she has won seven of her fights and lost one. On, February 10, 2007 she fought a “fight of the night” against Julie Kedzie and defeated her. This was the first female fight televised on Showtime! Carano had a big match with Cris Santos. Carano was defeated and everyone was shocked about it. Strikeforce was hoping to see her come back and in February 2011 she announced that she will be back for a fight in June. Mysteriously she was pulled from the match. They say that she failed her pre-fight medical examination and could not fight. Rumors say that she was pregnant. No one really knows how or why she failed the test. Gina then announced that we will be seeing her fight sometime in 2011!
