Sherdog.com's Loretta Hunt recently spoke with Strikeforce president Scott Coker about promoting women's MMA in 2010. One bit of new information he offered was that, in addition to the women's 145lb title fight scheduled for January 30th between Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos (8-1) and Marloes Coenen (17-3), Strikeforce is planning a 135 lb. women's title fight "sooner rather than later," "February or March" was mentioned as the likely time frame. Coker went on to say that Victoria, B.C. based knock-out artist Sarah Kaufman (10-0) is considered the front runner for that title fight along with Japanese fighter Takayo Hashi (12-1), who is 8-0 since 2005.
Kaufman, who trains at Zugec Ultimate Martial Arts (ZUMA) in B.C.'s provincial capital, began her professional MMA career with eight consecutive (T)KO victories in less than three years between June, 2006 and April, 2009. In May of 2009, Sarah moved up to Strikeforce's women's division, one of the toughest and deepest in the world, to fight the well-rounded Miesha Tate (8-2). They met at Strikeforce Challengers - Series 1, and the bout ended with Sarah Kaufman scoring a unanimous decision to hand Miesha Tate only her second career defeat. Sarah quickly followed that victory up with another convincing decision win over Shayna Bazler (9-6) at Strikeforce Challengers - Series 2 in June of 2009. Since that time Sara has been patiently awaiting her next fight and it now sounds as if that match will be a world title bout with Strikeforce.
Congratulations, Sarah Kaufman.
Scott Coker also announced that Strikeforce plans to hold two eight-woman tournaments at 135lbs. and 145lbs. that will determine the next title challengers. The winners of those tournaments will face the winners of the confirmed Santos vs. Coenen (Jan. 30th, 145lbs.) and the likely bout of Kaufman vs. Hashi (135lbs.).
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Check out this highlight package of Sarah Kaufman available on Youtube.com and her official site:
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