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Boxing MMA UFC WMMA Women Boxing

BATTLE OF THE UNDEFEATED: 3 Reasons to Watch Claressa “T-Rex” Shields Take on Tori “Sho-Nuff” Nelson Tonight

BATTLE OF THE UNDEFEATED: 3 Reasons to Watch Claressa “T-Rex” Shields Take on Tori “Sho-Nuff” Nelson Tonight

First published on allsportseverything.com as a guest blogger

Women have been traditionally discouraged from professional sports for a variety of reasons – from the severe pay discrimination, the constant mockery of a female athlete’s physique and the endless taunts of ‘you are never going to be as good as a man in the same sport’. Women in combat sport have been fighting back hard for years. The year 2012 became a landmark year for boxing and mixed martial arts. Olympic female boxing was inaugurated when Claressa Shields claimed her first gold medal and in that same year Ronda Rousey became the first UFC female titleholder. From thereon, women fighters continue punching hard at this impossible opponent called misogyny.

Last year proved to be another fruitful year for female combatants. Shields became the first women to headline a USA premium pay TV boxing event on March 10th when she won her first professional title. She proceeded that same year to win a world title by the WBC in the middle weight division. In April 2017, Amanda Serrano became the first women to win world titles in five weight divisions. Her stupendous achievement was matched by Naoko Fujioka in December 2017 when the 42-year-old Japanese fighter won the WBO light flyweight title. That same year, UFC saw two new female divisions – featherweight and flyweight. The year finished off with a bang when Cris Cyborg, the dominant featherweight won via unanimous decision in the title fight with Holly Holm, former title holder of world championships in boxing and mixed martial arts.

This year kicks off with a clash between two prominent figures in women’s boxing. Claressa Shields meets Tori Nelson, the undefeated 41-year-old veteran for her first defense of the WBC and IBF female super middleweight titles. If you remain undecided about becoming a fan of women in combat sport, here are three reasons to consider tuning into the fight.

1.        Young vs Old

With better health care and improvements in medical science, athletes are constantly re-defining a respectable retirement age. A 19-year age gap between two opponents in a championship fight is still rare. Shields made a dig at Nelson’s age in a recent interview, “Tori Nelson is an older woman. … She reminds me of my grandma a little bit. … I’ll give her to the seventh [round] to be respectful.” A comment like that would surely incite women athletes in their twilight years to tune in and watch Nelson teach her ‘grandchild’ a lesson. Regardless, a match between a 12-time world championship old timer versus the hot new gun will certainly be an interesting contrast in style, speed and resilience.

2.         Cracking the Zero

Both fighters are currently undefeated. Nelson, like most athletes, is probably aiming to retire with no loss to her record. Shields, on the other hand, is clearly in the early days of blazing through what is likely to be a world class boxing career, and a loss so early will no doubt be demoralizing.  There is the off chance the match will finish in a draw. However, given the aggressive style of Shields, it is likely the match will run full length.

3.         The New Face of Women’s Boxing

Shields is considered to possess the inexplicable star quality, both inside and outside the ring. Aside from her impressive performance in combat sport, she is also a source of national pride for being the first (and so far only) American boxer to win an Olympic medal twice in a row. This is a time when MMA is seducing many boxers with its sizable purses, including the recent migration of Amanda Serrano who’s MMA debut is scheduled for March 2018. Shields remains staunchly loyal to the sport and for now she still presents herself in the world of boxing with infinite enthusiasm, vigor and drive.

Hosted at Turning Stone Casino in Verona, New York, tonight’s main event will air on the SHObox series of fights aired by Showtime at 10PM/ET.

All Sports Everything guest contributor Cyan is a former amateur boxer and the author of the novel ‘Girl Fighter’. You may find more information about her at www.girlfighterbook.com/about.

image via fightnewsasia.com

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Book Reviews Martial Arts MMA UFC

Review of the book “Beast – Blood, struggle and dreams at the heart of MMA” by Doug Merlino

Beast: Blood, Struggle, and Dreams at the Heart of Mixed Martial ArtsBeast: Blood, Struggle, and Dreams at the Heart of Mixed Martial Arts by Doug Merlino
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

By default, if a writer can describe the sport of MMA in an objective manner and is capable of bringing into light all aspects of MMA, the good, the bad, the misunderstood without the interjection of personal judgements, the book will be a 5 star for me.

This book for me rates a 3.5 star.

Doug Merlino, an established sports journalist presents this book and its several stories in a simple and effective style. He begins by introducing the sport from a layman’s perspective – how cage fighting normally appears like a barbaric activity to an outsider. He then brings in the opposing view of how each fighter are presented as warriors that embodies civilised virtues such as courage, hard work and honour. The book goes on to explore many facets of the sport including the physical and emotional backstories of various athletes, a brief history of the sport, wages and challenges of being a professional fighter onward to how the career can terminate for some of them. Overall I felt that he presented an all rounded view of MMA.

I deducted one star for one very large aspect of MMA he had failed to include in his book – Women’s MMA (WMMA). Aside from a brief mention of Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate, all other women in his book played the clichéd role of girlfriend, wives and mums. HELL NO! WMMA has been around several years prior to the publishing of his book (2015). Why would he not think that WMMA is a vital part of MMA? Does he believe a woman cannot be a BEAST? This is a huge sore point for me.

The other half a point was deducted because the book zig-zags between the lives of 3 athletes and made it rather confusing for me at the start.

Towards the end, Merlino mentions how through the months of his research, he acquired a number of wisdom from the veterans of the sport. I was particularly impressed when he describes how martial arts training helps align the mind, body and spirit, teaches a fighter to manage their emotions and defend themselves from threats. This is a level of wisdom not normally available to many athletes even after years of training. And this is why I round the book up to 4 stars.

View all my reviews

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MMA UFC WMMA

UFC 219 Cyborg vs Holm #AndStill

The last event of the year UFC 219 was all about Cyborg and Holm – the two current giants of Women’s MMA. The endless debates and predictions of will she or won’t she. Finally, judgement day had arrived and both of these female fighters were keen to finish 2017 with a bang. The Americans clearly desired an upset by Holm, though none would admit that their choice was perhaps influenced by national pride. Anyone who had seen Cyborg fight, without the influence of any coloured tinted glass would certainly find it difficult to bet against her.

Main Card Female Fight I: Calvillo vs Esparza

Cynthia Calvillo and former Strawweight champion Carla Esparza gave an excellent performance to whet the appetite for women MMA fans. Calvillo came in aggressive and dominated Esparza for the better part of the first round. The dominance was reversed in favour of Esparza in the second and third round with several take downs attempts and a good range of attack strategies. The fight went into decision and Carla Esparza won by unanimous decision. Some reacted negatively to the decision, calling it a bad call by the judge. For me, a solid women’s fight is always a win for WMMA.

 

Main Event Cris Cyborg vs Holly Holm

And so the fight is finally here, after years of discussion and months of hype, I was practically salivating with excitement. The consensus I felt from social media, at least in the English speaking world, everyone wanted Holm to win but believe Cyborg was the stronger athlete.

While I was disappointed the fight had to go to decision, the fight was nail biting for me. Both women were simply excellent fighters. Holly Holm, confronted with a formidable opponent not only took Cyborg to the 5th round, she was the first person in over 9 years to push a fight with Cyborg to a decision.

Cyborg was calm, composed and showed no signs of fatigue in the entire match. As a strong and confident fighter, the overall favourite, she never let her guard down and never showed any signs of frustrations or annoyance for not being able to take Holm down with a knock out.

In the end, the fight created an enormous amount of excitement, chatter and debate for women MMA in the last weekend of a year that had been fruitful for women in combat sport. I am happy Cyborg won, not simply because she is an incredibly skilled athlete, but because she had risen above all critiques and mockery of her and defeated one hellavu fighter with such composure.

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MMA UFC WMMA

Counting down to UFC 219

UFC 219

There are countless reasons why I am bursting with anticipation for UFC 219. It will occur mid-afternoon of 31st Dec 2017 here in Australia – last day of the year and potentially one of the most exciting day of the year for me.

Cyborg vs Holm

I’m not going to deny it – I’m personally more drawn to Cyborg. I am CYan, she is CYborg…Alright, that’s not the reason why. When I see her fight, I find her to be an incredibly focused woman, as though she was one of those few people who knew exactly what they wanted to do the moment they drew their first breath in this world. She shows no signs of fear, no apprehension, no interest in anything else except to destroy that unfortunate person sharing the cage with her.

Neither can I deny the accomplishments of Holly Holm, she had held titles in professional Boxing, Kickboxing and MMA. That’s akin to a ‘triple threat’ of contemporary prize fighting. Not to mention she defeated Ronda Rousey when so many other great women fighters failed.

I have pondered over this subject night and day, in the end, I believe I will be truly happy whoever wins, whether by submission or knock out, AS LONG AS IT IS NOT BY DECISION!

Image from UFC: Cris Cyborg and Holly Holm

Calvillo vs Esparza

Additionally I am also keen to watch yet another come back attempt by Carla Esparza. Since her loss to Joanna Jedrzejczyk more than 2 1/2 years ago, her participation in the sport was sparse for almost 2 years, and her performance have been lacklustre. That is no surprise nonetheless. Losing a title can be devastating. It took her Ronda Rousey over a year before she attempted another UFC fight. Since Esparza’s loss in March 2015, she had not secure neither submission nor knock out wins. Her opponent, the still undefeated Cynthia Calvillo, on the other had had secured 3 out of 4 fights via submissions and TKO just this year.

 

#UFC #UFC219 #Criscyborg #cyborgnation #cyborgvsholm #hollyholm #holm #Carlaesparza #Esparza #Jedrzejcyk #CynthiaCalvillo #Calvillo #UFCStrawweight #UFCFeatherweight

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MMA UFC

UFC Shanghai

It is possible that mixed martial arts was invented in China some 6,000 years ago. Thus the arrival of UFC for the first time in mainland China seems like a long journey come full circle.

Cyan Night, author of Girl Fighter book is a self-professed ‘martial arts junkie’, having dabbled in numerous forms of martial arts since the age of 5.  Cyan is bi-lingual in English and Mandarin (and speak several other languages at a pidgin level).

Follow this page for discussions and articles with a unique insight to an modern day mixed martial arts, with input from both Western and Chinese media.