Strikeforce

Saturday night will be a wake-up call, either for Strikeforce bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey or her critics. Because Rousey is going to get punched in the face. Hard. How she responds will be critical, not just for her career, but for the future of women's MMA.

Rousey, as brilliantly documented in the recent All Access specials on Showtime, has become the face of women's MMA. She is the star, shining brightly over every other lady fighter, mere mortals who can only bask in her reflective glow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I91goS-575A

Like Jon Jones, who recently signed with Nike and is on the brink of mainstream, Rousey is one of MMA's go-to stars. But unlike Jones, she hasn't established herself in the cage at the level commensurate with her fame.

How good is Ronda Rousey?

So far, signs point toward "very" and "amazing." It's too soon to say, though, despite early dominance. Because Rousey has never been tested in any significant way. What happens when she meets adversity for the first time? Will she fold? Or emerge even stronger?

Although, on its face, this comparison might seem odd, Rousey's career is similar to Brock Lesnar's. Like the former judo Olympian, Lesnar was pushed to the top of the sport based on his unique charisma and star power. Like Rousey, he found immediate success, winning the UFC heavyweight title in just his fourth fight.

Then the wheels fell off his career. At UFC 116, Lesnar and his fans learned something that would have a tremendous impact on his future in the sport. Against Shane Carwin, it became glaringly obvious that Lesnar didn't like to get hit. That's normal for most of us. For a heavyweight fighter, though, it was a deadly flaw.

I was one of the first to notice what would be the defining characteristic of "Lesnar: MMA Fighter." While others were singing the praises of his comeback over Carwin, I was ringing the warning bells as loudly as I could at the MMA blog Bloody Elbow:

We learned a few things about Brock Lesnar tonight. We confirmed what many suspected: Brock Lesnar doesn't like to get hit. As soon as Carwin touched him, Lesnar did more than cover up. He flat cowered against the cage. He wasn't hurt as much as terrified. Make no mistake—Carwin had that fight won. Against anyone who isn't the promotion's heavyweight champion, that fight gets stopped due to some brutal ground and pound.

Lucky for Lesnar, Carwin isn't merely a one-round fighter. He doesn't even have that much in him. Three minutes into the bout and Carwin's heaving breaths couldn't feed his mammoth muscles. Lesnar survived, less because of his own defensive prowess and more because Carwin gassed and gassed bad.

Will Rousey pull a Lesnar on Showtime Saturday night? She's a huge favorite over Sarah Kaufman and has looked nigh but unstoppable in her short career. Kaufman, however, is a different kind of beast. She hits hard, especially with her straight right hand, and she isn't afraid to be hit. Can Rousey say the same?

Saturday night will be very interesting indeed. Rousey can silence each and every doubter if she takes a licking and keeps coming. Kaufman can demand the powers that be recast the "face of women's MMA" with an upset.

The stakes are very high. It's not just a fight—the immediate future of women's MMA hangs in the balance. Is Ronda Rousey merely Brock Lesnar in a pink judogi? We'll find out for sure Saturday night.

In the MMA cosmos there are few things burning hotter right now than Strikeforce 135 pound women's champion Ronda Rousey.

A perfect mixture of depth, brashness, humor and sincerity, the two-time Olympic judoka has handled her rise to fame with flawless ease. To put it bluntly—she makes it look simple. When you factor in how easily she has dispatched her opposition inside the cage, the bar of expectation seems to be resting firmly in her hands.

Is Rousey the savior of Women's MMA? That remains to be seen. But what has become glaringly obvious is that she is the current standard-bearer and more importantly the champion.

Rousey pushed her way onto the big stage, and when it came time to show and prove that, she did so in brutal fashion. Any doubt surrounding her legitimacy left the cage along with Miesha Tate's twisted limb. From the moment the belt was strapped around her waist, it has been a whirlwind. While new-found celebrity status can be a difficult thing to process for some, Rousey has taken it in stride.

"Everything is pretty much the same for me except I have more events and appearances to go to," Rousey told Bleacher Report. "When I go I get the rock star treatment but when I'm home, everything is exactly as it was before. I actually have a lot more time to train because I don't have a bunch of crazy jobs anymore.

"I also have a lot more people working for me to help with the organization of everything I have going on. Before this I had to deal with the scheduling of interviews and it actually became pretty stressful because it was taking up a lot of my time. Now I can delegate those tasks. They just dial the number, hand me the phone, and tell me to speak."

While men's MMA has been charting a course for global domination in combat sports, WMMA has steadily scrapped for its place at the table. A handful of talented female fighters have done their best to push the sport forward and when Gina Carano squared off with Christine "Cyborg" Santos in 2009, it appeared as if the future was going to be bright. But that wasn't exactly the case.

Following Carano's loss and eventual exit from the sport, the pulse once again slowed. That was until Rousey burst onto the scene and began rattling cages at WMMA's highest level. Two lights out performances in the Strikeforce Challengers Series gave her a platform and she used it to call out Miesha Tate.

After a high-profile battle of words, she was granted a title shot this past March where she needed only one round to dispatch of the former champion. The process made Rousey no friends, but she believes she understands an aspect of the fight game other women fighters are missing.

"A lot of these girls forget this sport isn't an Olympic or amateur sport situation," Rousey said. "People don't just care about your last athletic performance—they want to be entertained.

"I've been trying everything to not only be an entertaining fighter but an entertaining personality outside of the ring. It helps because people become more interested in the fight. They either want to see me win or see me get my butt kicked.

"I've been trying everything I can to get people interested. If you are depending only on your athletic performance to impress people then you are going about it wrong, because usually people only see it when the fight's over because someone has told them.

"It's different when people know who you are as a person and they want to see you fight just because it's you. Then you will have more viewers initially, but if you are only looking to get in there and throw some crazy head kick to impress everybody, then you are only going to impress the people who are watching initially and everyone who heard about it afterwards. That's why I'm trying to entertain and be a good athlete at the same time.

"A lot of the other girl fighters don't seem to like me too much. I don't blame them because I probably wouldn't like me that much if I was looking at this from the outside. The rising tide lifts all boats, you know? I'm doing whatever I can and I think they are benefiting from the work I'm doing just as I'm benefiting from the work they are doing. I respect them and hopefully one day they will come to respect me back."

On Rousey's fast track to becoming champion, former champion Sarah Kaufman was bumped aside. As criticism trickled in, it was ultimately Rousey's ability to turn the main-event bout with Tate into a high-profile affair which prompted the decision to be made.

On the same night where Rousey became the reigning queen of women's MMA, Kaufman put on an incredible show as she battled to the wire with Alexis Davis. The victory over Davis earned Kaufman her long-awaited chance to regain the title and Rousey the opportunity to put the punctuation on the statement she's been trying to make since coming to Strikeforce.

"I feel beating Sarah Kaufman will validate the point I was trying to make from the very beginning," Rousey said. "People kept saying she was next in line for the title shot and she deserved to have the shot. I think that beating Sarah Kaufman will make me feel more validated in that original argument than I feel right now. I feel encouraged but not entirely validated.

"She's a tough chick. She is a veteran of the sport and deserves a lot of respect. To be honest I don't think she's very creative in the way she fights. Every time she fights, she comes out with the same style. She could come out and show something completely different against me but she has never really shown any kind of adaptability in her fights. It doesn't matter if she is behind or what's going on, she always fights the same.

"On the other hand, they really don't know what to expect from me. They are going to be walking out there guessing while I'm going to be walking out knowing pretty much what I'm dealing with. Even if she decides to do something completely different, I have the ability to adapt and change throughout the match where I don't feel she necessarily has that.

"Both Sarah and I have a lot to prove in this fight. I don't think there is going to be any kind of feeling-out process or point fighting, we both need to beat the other person down for very personal reasons. It's going to be a good one. You aren't going to want to hear about this fight from someone else after it happens. You are going to want to watch it live so you can say you watched it live when it went down. People are going to see the most exciting women's fight they've ever seen in their lives."

When Rousey enters the cage on Saturday night, it will be only the her sixth appearance as a professional. With that being said, the promise and potential she carries is on a different level than what is currently seen in WMMA.

Depending on what happens in her career, Rousey's star power may fluctuate, but her ambition and passion to reach great heights far exceeds any expectation others can place upon her.

"No one puts more pressure on me than I put on myself," Rousey said. "People can think what they want but no one is going to expect more out of me than I do from myself. I am very much a perfectionist. I want to retire undefeated and the pound-for-pound, undisputed best women's fighter in the world. Those are very lofty goals but I've been raised to set lofty goals.

"I want to be something extraordinary. I don't want to settle for mediocre goals. The outside pressures are nothing compared to what I put on myself. The outside hoopla and what people say doesn't matter because it all comes from me."

For former Stikeforce women's bantamweight champ Sarah Kaufman, Saturday's title fight with Ronda Rousey is about more than just winning a belt—it's about earning the respect she deserves.

Like a Rodney Dangerfield skit, Kaufman's fighting credentials have garnered little respect from fans and analysts despite her nearly spotless record.  While everyone may be jumping on the Rousey bandwagon, Kaufman wants to prove to the mixed martial arts world she shouldn't be overlooked.

Since her 2006 debut, Kaufman has been one of the most dominant forces in women's MMA, suffering only one loss in that span, a 2010 title loss to veteran Marloes Coenen.  Winning back-to-back bouts following her sole defeat, Kaufman thought she was a shoo-in to face Meisha Tate for a chance to win back her title last March, but the Strikeforce brass opted to go with the newcomer Rousey.

Understandably, Kaufman was angry. 

Rousey has just been competing as a professional since March of 2011 and only made her amateur debut in August of 2010.  To put that in perspective, Kaufman had already won and defended her Strikeforce belt before Rousey had ever entered the cage.

Not only did Kaufman have more experience, but she was also the last person to defeat Tate at the time.

While these facts did little to stop Rousey's ascension to the title, they are important factors to keep in mind as Kaufman finally gets her shot at the belt.

In addition to having an edge in terms of experience, Kaufman will also have a huge edge in the striking realm.  Of her 15 career victories, 10 have come via knockout or technical knockout. 

Not only is Kaufman a better technical striker than any of Rousey's previous opponents, but she is also quite powerful.  Whether it's her heavy straight right hand or a huge power bomb slam, Kaufman is deceptively strong and may be able to push Rousey around as long as she avoids the takedown.

Kaufman has solid take-down defense, as seen in her win over the wrestling-minded Tate, and may have a chance of keeping this fight standing—a must against Rousey.  The key for Kaufman is to turn this fight into an all-out brawl and drag Rousey into the later rounds, a feat easier said than done considering "Rowdy" has never let her opponents out of the first round.

The former champ needs to draw out the fight because that's where she shines.  In her last bout against Alexis Davis, Kaufman put on a gutty performance, turning the bout into a bloody affair, a strategy that she must duplicate against Rousey.

Both women are skilled and it truly is anybody's fight, but if anyone thinks Kaufman is going down easy, they are absolutely insane.

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MMA veteran Sarah Kaufman held a contest for the fan who could make a video of the best Ronda Rousey impression. The winner gets two tickets to the Strikeforce Championship fight coming up on August 18, 2012.

Unfortunately, Rousey herself provided the best video. It's doubtful that she'll win the tickets though. 

The backlash against Rousey's sarcastic video was swift. When I first watched the video and laughed (until her roommate tried to steal the show), the video may have had 1,600 views and two or three pages worth of comments. I returned a couple of days later, and there were nearly 100,000 views and 67 pages of comments (and counting).

I also watched yet another boring Kaufman video in which she parrots the same crap about pretty girls getting all of the attention. That video has 604 views. 

Kaufman just doesn't get it.

Muhammad Ali got it. Mike Tyson got it. Brock Lesnar got it. Nick Diaz gets it. Ronda Rousey gets it. Rappers get it. Reality TV stars get it. Talking heads like Nancy Grace get it.

In order to sell in the United States, you MUST get the people emotionally invested in you. Doesn't matter if it's good or bad.

Drama sells, and the angry comments on Rousey's video tell the whole story. They're flowing non-stop. People want to see Kaufman knock Rousey's head clean off her shoulders!

"That's why men hit these retarted woman" -loucusss

"Ronda thinks everyone loves her.... the sad fact is the only person that loves ronda is ronda....." -mma10101

"I am now rooting against Rousey. Her personality is horrid." -Taurosnake 

Even her poor roommate wasn't immune to the anger of keyboard warriors.

"i don't have nothing against you (Ronda) in this video, but that guy is so much annoying and when i see him i wont to puke." -begoking1

Taurosnake's comment is exactly what I'm talking about.

Fans want to see fighters get knocked out, as much as they would like to see them knock someone else out. Taurosnake is now emotionally invested in this fight and will either throw the remote or spontaneously do a backflip with glee, depending on the outcome.

This fight is on a Saturday night, not prime time. Casual fans have other things to do, unless they either love or hate Rousey.

Kaufman hasn't done a thing to draw attention to this fight other than start that contest. 

There are a lot of fans who like Rousey for her looks, but they wouldn't throw Felice Herrig out of bed either.

Who?

Exactly. 

There are a lot of pretty ladies in MMA. The difference is Rousey makes people choose a side. No one is sitting on the fence for a Ronda Rousey fight. She's a polarizing figure.

Go back to Kaufman's fight against Alexis Davis. That fight was better than any of Rousey's fights, yet the Rousey-Tate fight was far more entertaining.

Fans said to themselves, "Somebody's gonna get their ass kicked tonight and I don't want it to be my fighter!"

Every momentum change in that fight, no matter how big or small, was magnified because of the emotions of both the fans and fighters. The fans felt what the fighters felt. They cheered, cried and jeered with their fighter.

How many fans of Rousey panicked when Tate broke free of Rousey's first arm bar attempted and then jumped on top of her? How many Tate fans cringed when Rousey judo tossed Tate through the mat?

Had the Kaufman-Davis fight had that type of drama leading up to it, it would have been an instant classic. Instead, I deleted the fight off of my DVR without re-watching it, while re-living the Rousey fight over and over again.

The bottom line is most women either don't have what it takes or do what it takes to sell fights. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxrkM_cLEV0

It's a love and respect fest that really doesn't interest most fans. No woman has the reach and moves of Jon Jones. Most can't deliver a slam like Matt Hughes. No one—not even Cris Cyborg—has the sheer power of Alistair Overeem (or Urijah Faber for that matter).

Most female mixed martial artists don't bring any wow factor to the table. Most men look at a "girl" and feel like they can do anything she does better. If that's true, then they also fall for drama better (WWE fans, where ya at?).

Fighters like Kaufman need to stop complaining and do like Chael Sonnen did. Learn how to sell a fight.

Female mixed martial artists put on a better show than the men, every time. They just need to do what it takes to make sure someone actually cares. 

Ronda Rousey may be the star of the show for women's MMA at the moment, but don't forget about Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos. The Brazilian is entering the home stretch of her suspension due to a failed drug test and is eagerly waiting to step back into the cage.

"Cyborg" spoke to Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com on The MMA Hour and expressed interest in fighting one woman in particular.

"I really wanna fight Ronda," she said. "I really want to."

When asked why she seemed so focused on fighting Rousey, "Cyborg" elaborated that she wasn't happy with some of the comments made by Rousey following Santos' suspension.

"She says bad things about me. I never say bad things about my opponent," Santos said. "I want to do my best in the Octagon, and if she says she wants to fight me, she can come to my weight or at 140."

The leanest "Cyborg" has ever weighed in at is 140 pounds, which was for her United States debut in 2008. "Cyborg" admitted that a cut to 135 pounds would be too difficult but told Helwani that she is around 160 pounds right now and considers herself to be "very skinny."

Rousey initially began her career at 145 pounds but dropped a weight class to challenge bantamweight title holder Miesha Tate earlier this year. Although it would seem Rousey made the decision based on the fact she would get a title shot and it was virtually the only big fight in WMMA Strikeforce could make at the time, "Cyborg" has other thoughts.

"...she's running to 135. She's running to not fight me," Santos said. "And after, she speaks a lot of s*** about me. I want to fight her soon."

The war of words between the ladies began when Rousey stated she had no respect for "Cyborg" after her failed drug test. The two engaged in minor bickering exchanges, with the highlight from Santos' side coming after she shared a picture of a beaten Gina Carano, apparently threatening to duplicate the feat against Rousey.

Santos is anticipating the time when the talking will be over between the two.

"I'm very excited to fight her. And when we're in the Octagon, we'll see if she says anything," she said. "And if she says anything, I can punch her."

Perhaps the two will be able to meet one another in the cage on Saturday night, as "Cyborg" will be in the building to watch Rousey defend her title against Sarah Kaufman in the main event of Strikeforce: Rousey vs. Kaufman.

With all apologies to Benson Henderson and Frankie Edgar, their main event at UFC 150 on Saturday night isn't the biggest fight to watch out for this month. It just isn't. 

That honor, esteemed reader, goes to Ronda Rousey and Sarah Kaufman, two extraordinary fighters who will take their own bow in San Diego next weekend. 

You probably think I'm nuts right about now, but allow me to explain myself. 

Rousey is a superstar in the making. I'm not talking about "a superstar in Strikeforce" or "a superstar for a female fighter." Rousey has already far surpassed those two niche monikers, leaving them coughing up dust during her meteoric rise over the past 12 months.

What Rousey is chasing now is a level of renown known by only a few of her male counterparts in the UFC. She's on her way to the territory currently occupied by Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva and Jon Jones. But in truth, she has the potential to be far bigger as a mainstream star than any of them.

And that's why every fight is important for Rousey, no matter the circumstance. There's a lot more at stake than just the Strikeforce bantamweight title.

Because, as Rousey goes, so goes female fighting. Her continued success will, without a doubt, lead to female fighters being accepted into the UFC's ranks within the next two years.

If Rousey falters and folks start losing interest in seeing females beating each other up in the cage? That's not so certain at all.

That's why, every time Rousey steps in the cage, it's considered an important fight. Especially when she's facing an opponent with the skills that Kaufman possesses.

Rousey's made easy work of everyone she's faced thus far—including Meisha Tate, who many thought would be too great all-around for Rousey to contend with. But Kaufman excels in the one area that we haven't seen Rousey develop just yet: the striking game.

I love that I'll get to see Benson Henderson and Frankie Edgar tie up again on Saturday night. It should be a thrilling bout, full of the kind of twists and turns and submissions and kicks that MMA fans crave. But it's not the most important bout of the month. For that, you'll have to tune in to Showtime on August 17.

Why would you use Twitter to get attention when you can use it to get paid?

That is a rhetorical question that Miesha Tate must have been pondering before the decision to use the social media tool to attract sponsors came to her.

On July 26, Tate posted the following on he Twitter account:

Hey if any1 wants to potentially sponsor me for my upcoming bout Aug 18th hit up BryanCaraway pls

The bout Tate refers to in the Tweet is an upcoming showdown opposite Julie Kedzie, which will be part of the undercard for a Ronda Rousey-Sarah Kaufman main event. Tate is looking to rebound from a first round submission loss at the hand of Rousey, which came back in March of this year.

Tate's Tweet has garnered a few inquiries (visible on her Twitter page), as well as multiple recommendations that she should look specifically to Playboy for some support.

No word yet on whether Tate will take the advice to heart.

If the call for sponsors seems a bit shameless, consider that many athletes have made similar pleas in the past. Twitter just happens to be a bit more public than most avenues of solicitation, making it a double edged sword—it will probably earn some eye rolls, but it will probably work as well.

How will we gauge the success of Tate's electronic canvassing? By seeing how gaudily decorated her trunks and top are when she enters the cage on August 18. 

On Wednesday night, I was at home working on another Bleacher Report story for Thursday. I heard the news that Frank Mir had agreed to move to Strikeforce to face Daniel Cormier, and while talking to Mir's manager Malki Kawa about the move, I sent one of Cormier's best friends a text message with the news.

The friend is a fellow named Daniel Rubenstein, and I've mentioned him in this space before. He was, like Cormier, a collegiate wrestler and is as knowledgeable as they come on the subject of international wrestling. He'd just gotten off the phone with Cormier 10 minutes before receiving my text, and Cormier knew nothing of his next fight.

Cormier had been under the impression he would be facing Tim Sylvia on September 29 for several weeks. He'd heard rumors circulating the past few days that Zuffa was looking to bring in a different opponent on a different date, but he wasn't going to change his training camp up until he knew for sure, so he was at American Kickboxing Academy training for the fight when Rubenstein relayed him the news.

When Cormier called me an hour later, you could hear the good news in his voice.

"I was excited, man. I couldn't have imagined getting such a huge-name guy and fighting a guy that just fought for the UFC championship only a few months ago," Cormier told Bleacher Report in an exclusive interview. "I didn't know what to do with myself. I was dropping my cell phone."

One can hardly blame Cormier for being excited. Finding out that you're going from Sylvia to Mir is almost like winning the lottery, or whatever the lottery amounts to for a guy stuck in Strikeforce for one more fight.

"Not to disrespect Tim Sylvia, but he hasn't really been fighting at the top of the sport for the last few years. He's been fighting wherever he can. I think the last top-level guy he fought was Fedor, and he got beat really quick," Cormier said. "So it's exciting to fight a guy that's been fighting at the top of the sport for his whole career, a guy who just fought for the title and was coming off three or four straight wins in the UFC before that. It's a great fight."

The fight, on paper at least, is a dubious one for Mir. He's never had great success with high-level wrestlers, and to say that Cormier is a high-level wrestler would be the understatement of the year. He's a former Olympian, after all, and is likely—and this is without hyperbole—the very best wrestler in the entire sport. 

"That's going to be my biggest strength over everybody that I fight. I think that's a no-brainer, and it's my biggest advantage in almost every fight I have," Cormier said. "Also, there are a couple more advantages. I think speed. I think conditioning. Some of those areas that I haven't really shown a weakness in, and he's shown a weakness in at times."

Cormier is a very happy man. He gets to cap off his Strikeforce career against a big-name opponent and then insert himself directly into the mix in the UFC. 

"I think it is. Frank is a guy who has been a champion twice. His name rings a bell. It's synonymous with the UFC. So UFC fans will actually come over to watch Frank fight, and he'll get a lot of eyes on me," Cormier said. "And regardless of the outcome, more people will see me and know me as I move into the UFC than before I fought Frank, or if I'd faced someone else in my last Strikeforce fight."

In a press release obtained by BR MMA, Strikeforce has named an opponent for longtime champion Gilbert Melendez. 

"There’s no doubt that Gilbert Melendez is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, but he’s facing a tough test when he defends the Strikeforce lightweight title against Pat Healy in Sacramento,” Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said. “Pat has been around the sport a long time and has put together an impressive winning streak. This is the biggest fight of his life and he doesn’t want to waste this opportunity.”

Melendez has been considered a top lightweight ever since he systematically shut down world-ranked Shinya Aoki in 2010. Since winning the belt, Melendez has successfully defended six times under the Strikeforce banner.

On July 14, Healy extended his winning streak to five when he secured a unanimous decision victory over Mizuto Hirota. "Bam Bam" holds wins over Carlos Condit, Dan Hardy and Paul Daley, and is considered to be the only challenger remaining in the Strikeforce lightweight division.

Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Healy will take place on Saturday, September 29 and features heavyweight sensation Daniel Cormier in the co-main event. The press release specifically states that Cormier's opponent will be announced in the next few days.

Cormier's final fight in the organization is highly anticipated, as there is no way of knowing what caliber of opponent that Zuffa will provide to him in the final heavyweight fight for the organization.

With the rumor that Josh Barnett might also be competing on this card, this is shaping up to be one of the better events that Strikeforce has produced since the Zuffa takeover.

Stay tuned to B/R MMA for all the latest breaking news and analysis on all things MMA.

If you fail once, try again. Or, better yet, try something else.

Strikeforce veteran Tim Kennedy most recently had his striking put to the test by middleweight champion Luke Rockhold on July 14—a test that he, by all accounts, failed.

Though the 25-minute scrap was hardly a blowout, Rockhold consistently got the better of exchanges in what was a predominantly standup bout and cruised to a unanimous decision victory.

With the failed push for Strikeforce gold firmly behind him, Kennedy is seeking a different, though certainly no less daunting, test.

On July 23, Kennedy Tweeted the following:

I read @cokersf said @rogergracie was the best grappler in @Strikeforce. I would love to prove that is not the case.

For those of you who do not speak Twitter, Kennedy is questioning Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker's assessment that middleweight contender Roger Gracie has the best grappling in the entire promotion.

Gracie made his middleweight debut the same night Kennedy was defeated by Rockhold, dominating Keith Jardine for two of three rounds, earning a unanimous decision win. At 5-1, the victory marked Gracie's first victory that did not come by submission.

Kennedy, an accomplished grappler in his own right, has notched half of his 14 career wins by making his opponent tap. But despite his track-record, I suspect the number of people who would give Kennedy the nod over Gracie in the grappling department would be few and far between.

But of course, outcomes are not decided by reputations, and the fight would be an intriguing one with title implications, should Coker grant Kennedy his wish.