By Cheryl Ragsdale : Dana White Wants More 'Tough and Nasty' Female Fighters, Invicta FC Plans to Deliver

UFC President, Dana White, is sold on Ronda Rousey being the best female MMA fighter on the planet. Unfortunately for the women's MMA division of Strikeforce, he still doesn't see depth in the ranks. "I think there could be [a female fight in the UFC]. I love Ronda Rousey. I think she's as tough and as nasty as they come...There are a lot of girls who compete in the sport who aren't at her level...The Tate-Rousey fight was great. If you had a whole division full of them, there's a lot you could do." video

Luckily, for female fighters who want to pursue a professional mixed martial arts career--the Invicta Fighting Championship (IFC) team is alive and well and planning their second all-female event for July 2012.
Invicta FC Fighters

The leadership team at Invicta, Shannon Knapp and Janet Martin, allow their roster of female fighters to fight for Invicta as well as for other organizations, like Strikeforce, for instance. That works well for everyone involved because professional fights are hard to come by for the women who are trying to build their fight resumes and their experience.
Liz Carmouche, a Strikeforce fighter, will face Kaitlin Young at Invicta 2. Liz won her fight against Ashleigh Curry on the inaugural Invicta event in April 2012. The opportunity to fight every three or four months is a dream come true for most professional fighters. Some fighters, wait months to fight. If they're lucky, their opponent shows up at the agreed upon weight, healthy and ready to fight.
With Invicta scheduling at least four shows a year, women fighters have the opportunity to build their skills by staying focused on their next fight. Continuous training with a scheduled match to be shown on the internet is raising the bar for everyone.
Liz tweeted, "I've been able to work with some good people this camp and I've been able to diversify my striking!"

Liz will need strong striking skills to defeat Kaitlin's kick-boxing. Kaitlin dropped Miesha Tate with a high kick back in 2007. "Anyone can get knocked out at anytime..." video

‏@jessamynduke, one of the fighters scheduled for Invicta 2 on July 28, 2012, in Kansas City, Kansas, tweeted, "Check out the badass new poster for @InvictaFights 2! I'm pumped to be a part of such a stacked event. http://pic.twitter.com/V1I6426t"
The poster features the main event fighters--Sara McMann (5-0) vs Shayna Baszler (14-6)--plus Hitomi Akano vs Strikeforce fighter, Alexis Davis. Davis was last seen in her Strikeforce fight against Sarah Kaufman in March 2012.
Olympic wrestler, Sara McMann ‏is getting more famous as a result of headlining the Invicta card. She tweeted, "Just found out that there is an imposter on Facebook acting like me."
Liz Carmouche whose Twitter handle is @IamGirlRilla responded, "@Sara_McMann so she's going around wrestling people?
Trash-talking to promote fights
I'm expecting the trash-talking will soon begin between Strikeforce champion Ronda Rousey and former Strikeforce champion, Sarah Kaufman. At this point, I'm not as excited to see the fight between Ronda and Sarah (on August 18) as I was to see the battle between Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate. By the time that fight happened, fans had been treated to an avalanche of Ronda Rousey interviews and twitter wars that were hilarious and deadly.
Sarah Kaufman is on record saying that she'd rather talk than fight.
Cyborg Santos, who is waiting for her suspension to finish before challenging Ronda at 135 also said that she'd rather fight than talk.
I have a feeling both of these contenders to the 135 title will have to sharpen their tongues and work out how to be funny and deadly using only 140 characters for a well written tweet. MMA fans like to be entertained by a fighter's wit as well as by his or her skills in the cage.
Ronda Rousey: "I don't think that women's MMA future is going to be like women's boxing. There's a lot of Olympic level athletes coming in now...Sara McMann and Randi Miller (Olympic medalists)...There's depth developing. I think Dana's assessment of the current state of women's MMA is pretty accurate...I think that within a year or two, it will be like night and day different." video
JEWELS from Japan has partnered with Invicta from Kansas City
Here's an example of the difference that time will make for women fighters. "We are excited to enter this partnership with JEWELS, which was essentially founded with the same goal of placing professional women's MMA competition at its highest level on a major stage," said Invicta president Shannon Knapp. "This relationship with an overseas promotion will effectively make it more turnkey for us to bring in some of the best women fighters in the world to compete in the Invicta cage and to send our top athletes to Japan to compete at JEWELS events." source

I'm expecting to see Invicta enter more partnership agreements as they continue to grow. Creating slots on fight cards is a high priority for the Invicta leadership team. I'd love to see an all female fight card featured on HDNet or maybe even Spike TV.
All in good time. Talent and skill take time to develop.

Source: Sherdog, InvictaFC.com


More from this contributor:
Rousey Vs Cyborg in January? She Wants My Arm, I Want Her Head': Fan's Look

Urijah Faber Taps to RNC from CNN's Soledad O'Brien: Fan's Look

Scott Coker Says Cyborg Vs Rousey at 135 Will Happen: Fan Reaction

Vitor Belfort's Wife Wants Wanderlei Knocked Out in 19 Seconds or Less: Fan's Look

MMA Judge, Ricardo Almeida, Former UFC Fighter Says 'I Can't Make Judging Better, but I Can Make Myself a Better Judge': Fan's Look


Cheryl Ragsdale started out boxing and has added kicks and BJJ so she can practice MMA. Currently, she trains with Keith Florian and has trained with UFC Fighter Kenny Florian at Florian Martial Arts - follow @thatgirlisfunny