Toughest Women In MMA

While martial arts typically has been male dominated, there are many women competing professionally today that put the same effort and dedication into the sport as the guys. There are still purists who believe the sport is solely for men, but since Gina Carano\’s bout against Elaina Maxwell in 2006, women have continued to compete and are here to stay.

Strikeforce has been most groundbreaking organization in terms of promoting women\’s MMA fights. While some suggest that these bouts don\’t pack the punch of the men\’s fights, more than 850,000 viewers watched the Strikeforce bout between Gina Carano and Cristiane Santos in 2009.

Carano is certainly one of the top figures in women\’s MMA with an impressive record on 7 wins and 1 loss. She also has a solid kickboxing record, winning 12 of 14 bouts. Her only loss was against Cristiane Santos in 2009 and she has not fought since that bout.

Cristiane Santos, a former Strikeforce featherweight champ, has an impressive record all her own with 10 wins and just one loss. Her last bout, which was against Hiroko Yamananka in 2011, was technically a win but was overturned after she failed a test for anabolic steroids. While she did appeal her suspension, Santos won\’t be able to fight again until December of 2012. After that, she no doubt intends to come back into the arena with a vengeance.

Ronda Rousey is absolutely one of the top competitors of women\’s pro MMA, and she has an impressive, if brief, career so far. The former Olympian holds an undefeated 5-0 MMA record including wins against Miesha Tate, which earned her the Women\’s Bantamweight Championship title. She also has three wins as an amateur.

While Miesha Tate lost her bantamweight title to Rousey, she still holds the Freestyle Cage Fighting bantamweight title and has an overall 13-3 record in her MMA career. She also won five of her six fights as an amateur. A Washington native, she competed on the boys wrestling team in high school and also won the Washington women\’s state wrestling championship.

No list would be complete without mentioning Tara LaRosa. Her professional record includes 21 wins and just two losses. She is considered by many as the best female MMA fighter; however, because of her smaller size, she has yet to fight in organizations such as Strikeforce, which don\’t have the smaller weight classes.

Rod Bourgoine likes talking about mixed martial arts advantages. To get more information about an MMA gym in San Diego or to find boxing classes in San Diego, please check out The Arena MMA site today.

Toughest Women In MMA