IWMMAR is proud to announce the launch of the Women’s Independent World MMA Rankings. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple web sites, as well as www.IndependentWorldMMARankings.com.

Much like the Men’s Independent World MMA Rankings, which were launched last June, the Women’s Independent World MMA Rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody’s vote counting more than anybody else’s vote, and no computerized voting.

The rankings will be tabulated and published on a monthly basis, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.

According to the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, the official names of the weight classes in women’s MMA are Middleweight for the 145-pound division, Welterweight for the 135-pound division, Lightweight for the 125-pound division, and Featherweight for the 115-pound division.

The members of our voting panel are instructed to vote primarily based on fighters’ actual accomplishments in the cage/ring (the quality of opposition that they’ve actually beaten), not based on a broad, subjective perception of which fighters would theoretically win hypothetical match-ups.

Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.

Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.

Changing Weight Classes: When a fighter announces that she is leaving one weight class in order to fight in another weight class, the fighter is not eligible to be ranked in the new weight class until she has her first fight in the new weight class.

Catch Weight Fights: When fights are contested at weights that are in between the limits of the various weight classes, they are considered to be in the higher weight class. The weight limits for each weight class are listed at the top of the rankings for each weight class.

The members of the voting panel for the Women’s Independent World MMA Rankings are, in alphabetical order: Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter, MMA Memories, and MMA Journalist Blog); Yael Grauer (MMA HQ); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion); and Ivan Trembow (Freelance).

Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Joshua Stein, and Yael Grauer for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.

March 2010 Women’s Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on March 16, 2010

Middleweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos (9-1)
2. Erin Toughill (10-2-1)
3. Marloes Coenen (17-4)
4. Gina Carano (7-1)
5. Yuko “Hiroko” Yamanaka (7-1-1)
6. Shana Olsen (3-0)
7. Cindy Dandois (2-0)
8. Malissa Sherwood (3-1)
9. Amanda Nunes (5-1)
10. Jamie Seaton (2-1)

Welterweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Sarah Kaufman (11-0)
2. Tara LaRosa (18-1)
3. Roxanne Modafferi (14-5)
4. Takayo Hashi (12-2)
5. Hitomi Akano (15-6)
6. Shayna Baszler (10-6)
7. Miesha Tate (8-2)
8. Adrienna “AJ” Jenkins (17-2)
9. Vanessa Porto (10-4)
10. Jennifer Tate (6-1)

Lightweight Rankings (116 to 125 lbs.)
1. Rosi Sexton (10-1)
2. Aisling Daly (9-0)
3. Tara LaRosa (18-1)
4. Emi Fujino (8-3)
5. Sally Krumdiack (7-3)
6. Lynn Alvarez (5-1)
7. Rin Nakai (6-0)
8. Lena Ovchynnikova (6-0)
9. Monica Lovato (4-1)
10. Matsumi Kasai (4-0)

Featherweight Rankings (106 to 115 lbs.)
1. Megumi Fujii (19-0)
2. Yuka Tsuji (22-2)
3. Lisa Ward (12-5)
4. Mei “V Hajime” Yamaguchi (6-2)
5. Jessica Pene (7-0)
6. Jessica Aguilar (7-3)
7. Kyoko Takabayashi (10-4)
8. Angela Magana (8-4)
9. Elena Reid (4-0)
10. Saori Ishioka (8-4)

Rampage

In middle school and even high school, even the rumor of a fight was all the rage. We’d eagerly find a way to get to the meeting point, and if we couldn’t get there we’d sit and wait by the phone for the post-fight recap. At the risk of sounding old, I should point out that our school fights were relatively harmless back in the day. Sure, there was a clear winner and loser, but there weren’t guns or knives involved. Just fists. But if one of the likely participants didn’t show up to school that day–which was often the case–they’d probably be teased mercilessly for years to come. Woe be it to the poor kid who would stand in the way of our cheap entertainment.

The process of prolonging and rescheduling fights, while often understandable, brings about the same frustration. Rampage vs. Rashad? That was supposed to happen in December, not May. Blame it on our short attention spans if you wish, but the fair bit of interest that was stirred up about that fight has long since fizzled and died. Although Dana White said “this rivalry has gotten more intense in the last few months” it’s hard for anyone but the most

Erin Toughill

diehard MMA fans (and MMA HQ readers) to maintain the same level of interest with such a prolonged delay.

Although many don’t know who MMA pioneer Erin Toughill is yet, she was the powerhouse cited by many as the top contender facing Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos. Toughill announced on Facebook that she is planning on leaving Strikeforce. Toughill wrote:

U R hearing it first: I will no longer b fighting 4 Strikeforce. Its a personal decision tht I mde & one tht was NOT made in haste, trust me. Ill b doin interviews in cming days tht explain “WHY” I have made this hard decision. Cant subject myself 2 wht has bn going on (any longer) Retiring? Dunno, but am on verge due to basic issues like: NOT being able FIGHT!!! I am getting zero return for all I have put in…DONE.

Kind of disappointing for a fight that was first supposed to happen last May, though Toughill stepped out of that bout due to health reasons. But for a fighter who had her first MMA match in 1999 who now won’t be able to prove herself against the best in the cage… this goes beyond our disappointment at someone not showing up to the fight after school at the bus stop. It’s absolutely devastating.

Not only does this mean the long-awaited Toughill vs. Cyborg bout will not happen, it pretty much puts the 145-lb. division up in the air. Gina Carano is filming a movie. Marloes Coenen wants to fight in a lower weight class. While there are other fighters in the mix (like Cindy Dandois), I’m afraid that the talent pool in the 145-lb. weight class has just gotten even more restrictive in its limitations than it already was.

UFC on Versus 1 is on this Sunday, a questionable move by the UFC considering how few people subscribe to Versus as compared to a network like CBS.  In Canda this event will also be shown on SportsNet and TheScore.  This card seems irrelevant, and it is, but there’s some great fights here which will provide the standing wars that so many fans love.

Brandon Vera vs Jon Jones :  Great job by Joe Silva making this fight happen, these guys are more evenly matched than the betting lines might suggest.  Jon Jones is almost a 3-1 favorite to win this fight even though Vera is the more experienced fighter.  It will be interesting to see exactly how this fight plays out because Vera is the more technical striker while Jones is more unorthodox and unpredictable.  Either style could trump the other but I tend to lean toward the cleaner and more disciplined technique in the end.  Jones has the wrestling and Judo advantages while Vera has the more dangerous clinch and submission game.  It could be argued that Vera has the advantage because of his experience but Jones has incredible speed and athleticism to counter balance that.  This is such a tough call because anywhere this fight goes it will be close and anything can happen.  I like both these guys but I think Vera pulls off the upset by split decision.

Winner : Brandon Vera

Junior dos Santos vs Gabriel Gonzaga : dos Santos has looked great lately but he’s been facing nothing but strikers, most of which are past their prime.  Gonzaga has been hit-and-miss of late and his conditioning could be suspect considering we haven’t seen him go past the 1st round in his past 4 fights.  Gonzaga needs to get the top position to work his strikes and submissions if he stands any chance of winning this fight.  Other than being on his back underneath Gabe Gonzaga, anywhere else this fight takes place will favor dos Santos who will be looking to sprawl and brawl his way to victory.  I’m picking dos Santos by KO.

Winner : Junior dos Santos

Cheick Kongo vs Paul Buentello : This is Kongo’s fight to lose and he always looks strongest when facing another striker.  Coming off 2 straight losses to Velasquez  and Mir, Kongo needs a win here and he won’t get a better chance than this from the UFC.  Buentello didn’t look great in his first fight back with the UFC, but he demonstrated that he’s still dangerous on his feet.  Conditioning is something that plagues both the fighters and we will likely see this fight go to the score cards.  I suspect Kongo will land more strikes while Buentello will land the harder strikes which will lead “the Headhunter”  to another decision loss.

Winner : Cheick Kongo

Alessio Sakara vs James Irvin : This one shouldn’t last too long considering both these guys like to throw down and neither has a great chin.  Sakara has an accomplished boxing game but it’s worked against him during his MMA career considering he’s not exactly the toughest guy in the division.  He’s been knocked out in the 1st round by Chris Leben, Houston Alexander and Drew McFedries.  James Irvin has been out of action for almost 2 years since his brutal KO loss to Anderson Silva with a recurring knee injury which forced him out of 2 scheduled UFC bouts so far.  Even with his ring rust, I believe that Irvin’s power and Muay Thai will be too much for Sakara and his Boxing to overcome.  If all else fails Irvin could still take the fight to the mat to score points and control position using his superior wrestling.  Although I have a feeling Sakara is going to sleep withing the 1st round.

Winner : James Irvin

So lets hear it, who are you picking? Also, dont forget to get your picks in at the playground.

Other than the money that can be brought in by a James Toney fight, White has one of two intentions. The first would be to, of course, make Toney into a complete mixed martial artist. If this is the case we will likely see Toney take on a good striker who is at the low end of UFC Heavyweights. Perhaps a fight with Pat Barry, Antoni Hardonk, or even Cheick Kongo could be in Toney’s future.

There is however another option. As many in the boxing world have speculated, perhaps White has signed Toney to a mixed martial arts fight in an attempt to prove that mixed martial arts is superior to professional boxing. If this is the case, this is a rather lame and useless attempt at doing so.

If White is attempting to make a mockery of Toney and the boxing world, it is likely that he will put Toney in with a top tier wrestling or jiu-jitsu fighter. Randy Couture, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira or perhaps even Brock Lesnar would certainly put Toney in his place on the mat. The announcement of Toney’s opponent will tell us everything we need to know about White’s intentions in signing Toney.

Perhaps the more telling fight will be on the May 15th Shine Fights event. Mixed martial arts veteran and submission master Din Thomas will take on former WBC Super Middleweight and Middleweight Champion Ricardo Mayorga. The fight is slightly more interesting due to the fact that Mayorga is still in fighting shape and has been a relevant boxer throughout the last decade. Due to his lack of mixed martial arts experience, it is unlikely that Mayorga, even with his athleticism and skill, will be able to keep the fight standing and will more than likely fall to a first round submission.

Either way, it is clear that the boxing invasion into mixed martial arts has begun. Although the purses available still cannot touch the top levels in boxing, they have steadily grown throughout the last 10 years and are now a viable option for boxers who are not fighting at the elite levels.

Time will tell what effect this has on mixed martial arts. The injection of top level boxers into mixed martial arts will likely force the striking level to finally catch up with that of wrestlers and jiu-jitsu practitioners. For many years, NCAA and Olympic level wrestlers as well as World Champion Jiu-Jitsu grapplers made the transition to mixed martial arts as a way to pay their bills. Now with the improved pay that fighters are receiving it is likely that the next evolution of the sport will contain even more high level boxers and as a result, the striking game will improve rapidly.

Zoila Frausto

On March 26, Zoila “Warrior Princess” Frausto (5-0) will be fighting Miesha “Takedown” Tate (8-2). Although Frausto won her last fight by armbar, the rest of her wins were by decision. Tate has three KO/TKO wins, three submission victories and two decision wins. Rumor has it that the winner of this match will be the next challenger for Sarah Kaufman’s title. Tate has already fought Kaufman and was possibly her toughest opponent to date. Although Kaufman dominated the 1st and 3rd round, Tate got a picture perfect takedown and some nice ground and pound in the 2nd round.

Although Frausto is a lot of fun to watch, her biggest strengths seem to be her explosive kicks and Superman punches. I happened to talk to a couple of fighters about their own usage of the Superman punch a long time ago, and both talked about the need to set it up properly. Pro fighter Tara LaRosa sets hers up with a jab-cross-hook-right kick combo. “I’ll do that maybe one or two times for my oponent to catch the rhythm of it and then instead of adding the kick on the last time, I’ll do jab-cross-hook and sell the kick, make them think I’m going to kick using the same combination I’ve been using and that’s when I’ll use the Superman punch,” LaRosa told me.

Miesha Tate

Pete Sell, who successfully used the Superman punch against both Nate Quarry and Josh Burkman, also advocatessetting up the punch with a good leg kick. “If you land, and hurt the guy’s leg pretty good, he’s gonna take it and that’s when you take the right hand and set him up. Even if you don’t hurt him that bad with a leg kick, just by doing the leg kick in general sets it up. As long as he didn’t check it, he’s definitely gonna feel it and then you can use a setup for that as long as it lands on the leg,” Sell said.

Frausto’s flashy leg kicks, however, are probably a bad idea against a wrestler like Tate, because it really sets up a takedown. Frausto’s Superman punches “haven’t proven to be very effective,” according to Tate, and her kicks may not be a good idea either. “I suggest she keep both feet planted on the ground but hey, I won’t complain if she doesn’t!” Tate added.

Both Burkman and LaRosa both pointed out that the punch doesn’t work if someone’s expecting it. “If you don’t set it up, you can see it coming. And if you use it repeatedly without setting it up, it’s pretty much obsolete, it’s not gonna work for you,” LaRosa said. Pete Sell echoed the sentiment. “You’re not going to keep using it. You use it once in a while. You are not going to get much effectiveness out of it unless you use it sparingly.”

If Frausto’s whole game is Superman punches and leg kicks, this kind of begs the question… how could she win this fight? Although anything can happen, Tate is coming into the fight quite confident–and rightly so. “I’ve been training specifically for her,” she pointed out. “I feel like its a bad style match up for her and she doesn’t have enough time to correct her habits and it’s going to make it that much easier for me to capitalize and win the fight!”  Tate has been training with Bill Jackson, who has a flashy style of kickboxing similar to Zoila’s. Frausto did not respond to requests for comment, but we’ll see both girls in the cage less than two weeks from today.

Starting next Sunday on March 21, the UFC debuts on the Versus channel with a great card, see fight card below.

UFC ON VERSUS

Brandon Vera vs Jon Jones

Junior Dos Santos vs Gabriel Gonzaga

Cheick Kongo vs Paul Buentello

Alessio Sakara vs James Irvin

Then on Saturday the 27th, we have UFC 111 showcasing 2 title fights, a #1 contender fight and some other great match ups to go along with a free preliminary show on spike.

UFC 111 – Main Card

Georges St. Pierre vs Dan Hardy

Frank Mir vs Shane Carwin

Ben Saunders vs Jake Ellenberger

Jon Fitch vs Thiago Alves

Jim Miller vs Mark Bocek

Spike broadcast

Nate Diaz vs Rory Markham

Ricardo Almeida vs Matt Brown

If that isn’t enough, Wednesday March 31 is Ultimate Fight Night 21 headlined by Florian vs Gomi which will precede the first episode of TUF 11.

Ultimate Fight Night 21

Kenny Florian vs Takanori Gomi

Roy Nelson vs Stefan Struve

Ross Pearson vs Dennis Siver

Nate Quarry vs Jorge Rivera

Great stuff on the way folks, which fight are you most excited to see?

“I’m just trying to help out the community and help put food on people’s tables,” Simpson said. “It’s kind of a hard time for people right now.” Simpson will be available for photographs and autographs for donors from 10 to noon at Westwood High School in Mesa, AZ.

The United Food Bank distributes food donations to over partners 240 emergency food programs and non-profit organizations that help get food to those in need. Donors on Saturday’s event will receive a raffle ticket for every five non-perishable food items donated.

In addition to his participation with this food drive, Simpson is also teaching a takedown seminar in East Mesa, AZ. The seminar will take place on April 3rd from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm at East West MMA, located at 2910 N. Power Road in Mesa, AZ. The cost is $50 for those who register by the end of March and $60 after that. Simpson plans to cover single leg and double leg takedowns and defenses.

Although he’s won all of his bouts by knockout or decision, Simpson is a world-class wrestler. He compiled a 142-1 high school wrestling record and compiled 110 wrestling wins for ASU, earning NCAA All-American status in 1996 and 1998. And before he ever stepped foot in the Octagon, Simpson placed in the US Olympic Trials for wrestling in 2000 and 2004. He spent 9 years serving as an Assistant Wrestling Coach at ASU, coaching future MMA stars Ryan Bader and Cain Velasquez.

For more information or to sign up for the seminar, call 480-310-5483 or e-mail gust...@gdjiujitsu.com.

Efrain Escudero looks to bounce back from a submission loss (armbar) to Evan Dunham at UFC Fight Night 20 in January.  The Mexican-American fighter will next fight Dan Lauzon at UFC 114 in Las Vegas in May.

Some fighters bounce back from losses very well, while others mentally break under the added pressure.  Escudero continues to reflect on the fight – and hopes to earn a rematch – and has learned from the fight.

“Really that I am human and prone to mistakes.  My training camp could have been better, my focus could have been better.  I am regrouping and hoping to come back as a better fighter. Evan is a tough, unknown prospect and I think time will show us all how good he is.  I hope to get another shot at him.”

Despite a very tight arm bar that appeared to seriously injure him, Escudero said his arm feels good two months from fight time.

“Good, I am rehabbing the arm but still training hard.  I was just in Big Bear helping Shannon Gugerty and Brandon Vera prepare for their (upcoming) fights.  Overall I feel great and I am hungry to get back into the cage.”

The relatively new superstar continues to train with Ben Henderson, Edgar Garcia and other strong fighters.  “Still helping them and a whole lot of great people supporting me through Team MTX.  I also plan on traveling some more and training with a lot of great camps around the country.”

His training has been “busy” in Big Bear, with Escudero following thee fight schedules of Henderson and other fighters who have bouts sooner.  Escudero is working diligently to prepare for Lauzon, who trained with him in Arizona for  a few months about three years ago.

“I know Danny well,” Escudero explained.  “I  expect a brawl.  He is a game fighter and knows how to bring it.  Look for fireworks (made in Mexico),” he joked.

The UFC is an extremely difficult organization to stay in, especially after consecutive losses, and Escudero has such a bright future he doesn’t want to see snuffed out for Lauzon’s sake in the lightweight division.

Win or lose his upcoming fight, Escudero plans to uphold a promise to his parents that he would graduate from college and get his degree.  He is still able to train full-time, and slips cram sessions in whenever he can.

If all goes according to plan, expect Escudero to have an extremely bright future in MMA.

Efrain wanted to thank the fans and the following sponsors for their support:  Dethrone Royalty, Bud Light and MTX Audio.