Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos; ESPN Article Posted: July 6th, 2011 | By: Oliver Saenz | Comments: 3 | Comment Now
For those of you that may not know, Strikeforce recently was unable to come to a new agreement with Cristiane Santos, their 145-pound Women’s champion. I avoided talking about the release of “Cyborg” Santos for two major reasons. First and foremost, I wanted to give myself some time to cool off, since as a Santos super-fan, I probably would’ve flown into a ranting, raving tirade had I initially reported on Santos’ dismissal. Secondly, I got very caught up in the “Perfect Storm” weekend, and then UFC 132 directly after that. But now that all that’s behind me, I think I’m ready to talk about this topic in earnest. So here goes.
But with that said: in releasing Cristiane Santos, Strikeforce not only shot itself in the foot, but it let go of its best chance at making women’s MMA a respectable, marketable aspect of their promotion. And that’s not the fan in me talking, that’s the realist.
Allow me to explain myself by asking one simple question: what do MMA fans like the most? You can say it’s the ground game, or the technical stand-up, or all the many nuances that make this sport so multi-faceted. But I know and (be honest) you know what most people like the most about MMA: they like seeing someone get destroyed. Everyone likes seeing people get KTFO’d, or pummeled, or beaten down. We pay to see an MMA event, but what we really want are the dramatic finishes that we never forget. We want the destroyers and the knockout artists, that’s why people like Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva were at one time two of the biggest draws in MMA history.
And you know what Cristiane Santos is? Cristiane Santos is a destroyer.
How do you fumble the ball that badly? How do you fail to see the marketing potential of a Brazilian wrecking machine that goes out and just annihilates her opponents? Santos is 10-1, she’s only ever lost in her MMA debut, she’s got eight (T)KO’s, and she destroyed anyone Strikeforce put in her path, including Gina Carano, who was viewed as “The Face of Women’s MMA”. How do you release someone like that? How do you not give in to her demands when you know that she’s going to keep going out and putting on great fights, fights that routinely steal the show?
The only reason I can think of that makes any sense whatsoever is that Strikeforce just doesn’t care as much about their women’s division now that they belong to the UFC. And when the UFC does fold Strikeforce into itself, like we all know is going to happen, their women’s division won’t be coming with them.
I always say two things when I talk about Cristiane Santos. I believe in these sayings now more than ever. The first is that Santos is so good right now that she can basically just sit out as long as she wants to, waiting for the day until women’s MMA catches up to her. The second is a saying I believe wholeheartedly: “Gina Carano may be the face of women’s MMA, but Cristiane Santos is it’s soul”.
And when they let Cristiane Santos walk out the door as an unbeaten champion and the best, most marketable woman’s MMA fighter in the world… they removed the heart and soul of their women’s division. And that’s a loss I don’t think Strikeforce’s women’s division will ever fully recuperate from.
I’ll begin by offering a concession to Strikeforce: I don’t think women’s MMA will ever be on the level of men’s MMA. I know that sounds equally stupid and sexist, but I only mean that as it applies to mainstream acceptance and marketability. No matter what, some fight fans simply don’t find women’s fights interesting. If we go into why that is, we’d be here all day and that’s not the point of this topic. Whether it’s the smaller weight or the fact that they’re women, it’s probably unlikely that women’s MMA will ever reach the same level of respect, hype, and marketability as men’s MMA.
But with that said: in releasing Cristiane Santos, Strikeforce not only shot itself in the foot, but it let go of its best chance at making women’s MMA a respectable, marketable aspect of their promotion. And that’s not the fan in me talking, that’s the realist.
Allow me to explain myself by asking one simple question: what do MMA fans like the most? You can say it’s the ground game, or the technical stand-up, or all the many nuances that make this sport so multi-faceted. But I know and (be honest) you know what most people like the most about MMA: they like seeing someone get destroyed. Everyone likes seeing people get KTFO’d, or pummeled, or beaten down. We pay to see an MMA event, but what we really want are the dramatic finishes that we never forget. We want the destroyers and the knockout artists, that’s why people like Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva were at one time two of the biggest draws in MMA history.
And you know what Cristiane Santos is? Cristiane Santos is a destroyer.
How do you fumble the ball that badly? How do you fail to see the marketing potential of a Brazilian wrecking machine that goes out and just annihilates her opponents? Santos is 10-1, she’s only ever lost in her MMA debut, she’s got eight (T)KO’s, and she destroyed anyone Strikeforce put in her path, including Gina Carano, who was viewed as “The Face of Women’s MMA”. How do you release someone like that? How do you not give in to her demands when you know that she’s going to keep going out and putting on great fights, fights that routinely steal the show?
The only reason I can think of that makes any sense whatsoever is that Strikeforce just doesn’t care as much about their women’s division now that they belong to the UFC. And when the UFC does fold Strikeforce into itself, like we all know is going to happen, their women’s division won’t be coming with them.
I always say two things when I talk about Cristiane Santos. I believe in these sayings now more than ever. The first is that Santos is so good right now that she can basically just sit out as long as she wants to, waiting for the day until women’s MMA catches up to her. The second is a saying I believe wholeheartedly: “Gina Carano may be the face of women’s MMA, but Cristiane Santos is it’s soul”.
And when they let Cristiane Santos walk out the door as an unbeaten champion and the best, most marketable woman’s MMA fighter in the world… they removed the heart and soul of their women’s division. And that’s a loss I don’t think Strikeforce’s women’s division will ever fully recuperate from.
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