Why in the hell is there one weight-class? And that sucks but still. refusing to concede five pounds does matter but in no ways trumps skills and experience. I myself had to wrestle in a 265 pound weight class while I only weighed 220. Such is fighting. Sometimes if you want to show people who you are you must make sacrifices. And it is laughable to say professionals make weight at whatever arbitrary weight class is decided. This is the stupidest thing I’ve heard. There are weight classes every ten punds. 140 is perfectly legitimate and so is 145 or 150 so is 125 or 110 but you must have options.

Sure I can understand how frustrating it must be for a person to be asked about another person every time they are interviewed… but the main question is: Do you want the interview or not?. If yes, then thank Carano. Free publicity. At least your name is getting out there and the sport is getting recognition. (And all of these fighters want to be known.)

Regarding weight divisions in women’s MMA, Josh Barnett (who’s training Shayna) admitted that women’s MMA is so new that there really are no officially sanctioned weight divisions at this point. Everyone agreed to fight at one weight (135 lbs).

The real question is why is there really only one weight division for women at this point? And Larosa’s and every critics’ insistence that Carano fight at this weight is worse than the misogynistic Hollywood model crap where they require you to be a size zero. And then to scream when she’s 1/10th of one pound overweight? I guess Larosa would’ve preferred that Carano strip off her clothes in front of a group of horny guys at the weigh in to make a weight everyone knew she would make if she removed her shorts. I know guy fighters do this (but they’re in a room full of men).

If Larosa wants to be the standard bearer of women’s MMA, why doesn’t she do the things a standard bearer does instead of shoot off her mouth and trash other women fighters? Like promote more weight classes for women than forcing her sisters to cut such extreme weight they could die? No one mentions that when Gina fought Elaina Maxwell at 150 that Maxwell was a pound overweight than Gina and Gina accepted this with no argument or drama.

Also, how come so many women fighters fight women with bigger weight differences than Carano ever has had for her fights and do so willingly? Women are fighting other women who sometimes are 25 lbs overweight because of the lack of competition. What is Larosa doing to bring more women into this sport to change this? Is she training other women like Carano has at Extreme Couture or Master Toddy’s? Is she challenging her promoters for better pay days (and has the face and recognition to do this successfully) which will help all women in the sport get the pay and recognition their due for the risks they take? And has she built the mainstream awareness of the sport through major network exposure (as Carano’s about to do on American Gladiators on NBC and has on Oxygen, MSNBC)?

Also, all this talk about Carano having no ground game… She has gotten more criticism for this than anyone in the sport. Everyone knows that every mixed martial artist has one area of strength and specialty. This is a natural part of the sport. Some guys are grapplers, others are stand up guys. No one makes a big deal of this, except about Carano. And every mixed martial artist has a choice when they step into the cage to try and control the fight and bring it into their favorite specialty (such as keeping it standing, going to the ground, etc.)

A recent network special on MMA talked about this issue… about how every fighter has an area of specialty and they try to control the fight in this way. They even did demonstrations on sprawling for guys who are mainly stand up and don’t want to take the bout to the ground. So Larosa likes to go to the ground and Gina stands and bangs… who cares???

As for Larosa being the best fighter, I used to think this was the case. But seeing how Julie Kedzie (since she switched over to Jackson’s) dropped Kelly Kobald every time she landed a kick and seeing how Kelly Kobald nearly beat Larosa, Julie Kedzie might be close to being the best in the world. Maybe eventually a rematch between her and Carano would be more appropriate than with Larosa who probably isn’t even near Carano’s weight class. Carano is naturally a bigger fighter and Larosa looks like she probably has to fight to keep on the weight at 135.

Also, Larosa likes to brag about how she could easily beat Carano. Yes, Larosa has far more fights and experience than Carano. She could beat her. The real question is, “Why would she want to?” Why would she take on a fight with someone she knows is far less experienced? Do champions do this?

Carano never admitted to being the best fighter, matter of fact she has said she’s not the best fighter at this point. Carano says Larosa is. She admits she’s still developing. This “face of women’s MMA” is something a promoter created to help their promotion and increase visibility for women in this sport resulting in hopefully all women (including Larosa) can get better pay days. It has nothing to do with a sports record. I would hope Larosa and others would be smart enough to recognize this. The fact that they don’t loses my respect.

I’m sure Carano has had some hand in insisting that Larosa and others be brought into EliteXC (which is providing the biggest stage of visibility for women right now). I noticed that once Carano said she wanted to fight Larosa eventually, that EliteXC ponied up a contract for Larosa. The real question is if Larosa has the class to fight Carano when the time is appropriate for both? When two equals face each other in the cage, not Carano on a suicide mission where another jealous fighter wants to take some promotional tagline away from her.

Gina Carano or Tara?

The interview sounded like a summary of Gina’s situation rather than learning more about Tara and her background.

Jay K.