Five Ounces of Pain » Takayo Hashi

5 Oz. Exclusive: EliteXC further bolsters female division with the signings of Coenen, Kaufman, and Hashi

Sam Caplan — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:06:34 +0000

Already boasting a deep roster of female fighters, Los Angeles-based Elite Xtreme Combat recently added more depth with the signings of Marloes Coenen, Sarah Kaufman, and Takayo Hashi to multi-fight contracts.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com learned of the signings after speaking with EliteXC head of Fighter Operations Jeremy Lappen on Friday afternoon.

Debut dates for the fighters are not yet known but if they can’t be scheduled for a card by the end of the year, all are expected to have made their debut for the promotion by early-2009.

Coenen is a Dutch fighter who at one time was considered by some pundits as the top pound-for-pound female in the world. While her stature has decreased slightly in recent years, she is still recognized as a top ten by many in the industry.

A talented striker who has improved her submission game, Coenen is 15-2, according to Sherdog’s fight finder, with her only losses coming to Roxanne Modaferri and Erin Toughill. She has recorded notable wins over Yoko Takahasi, Keiko Tamai, Megumi Yabushita, and Yuuki Kondo.

Competing in the same division as top fighters such as Cris Cyborg, Gina Carano, Shayna Baszler, and Kaitlin Young, Coenen could get a chance to prove she’s number one again but this time in front of a much larger audience.

Kaufman, a Canadian, is 7-0 in her professional mixed martial arts career with all seven of her wins coming via TKO. Her record and the manner in which she has recorded her victories have earned her a reputation of being one of the heaviest hitting females on the planet.

Kaufman’s last two fights took place for the now-defunct Hardcore Championship Fighting where she recorded second round TKOs over veteran Molly Helsel and Josh Barnett-protege Ginele Marquez.

Hashi has competed primarily in Japan for the Smackgirl and DEEP promotions. She improved her record to 11-1 after recording a unanimous decision victory over Amanda Buckner during a Fatal Femmes Fighting show in Los Angeles this past April.

(Pictured: Sarah Kaufman)

Report: Vladimir Matyushenko to defend title vs. Alexandre Ferreira during August IFL show

Sam Caplan — Wed, 21 May 2008 13:00:25 +0000

IFL Director of Fighter Relations Shannon Knapp has revealed that the promotion’s light heavyweight champion Vladimir Matyushenko will defend his title against Alexandre “Cacareco” Ferreira during its next show on August 15 in East Rutherford, N.J. at the Izod Center.

Knapp broke the news during an interview with Tracy Lee of CombatLifestyle.com.

Matyushenko is one of the league’s biggest success stories, going undefeated in six career IFL bouts. The former UFC competitor joined the IFL after an extended hiatus from fighting. He holds notable career victories over Vernon White, Yuki Kondo, Josh Marsh, Travis Wiuff, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Anthony Ruiz, Tim Boetsch, and Alex Schoenauer.

The Brazilian-born Ferreira is 16-5, according to Sherdog’s fight finder, and is undefeated in his last five fights. He made his IFL debut this past February in Las Vegas, where he submitted Lew Polley with a guillotine just 20 seconds into round 1. Ferreira holds career victories over Heath Herring, Shannon Ritch, Branden Lee Hinkle, Rafael Monteiro, and Fabio Maldonado.

During the course of the interview, Knapp also indicated that most of the league’s marquee fighters will be featured on the August card and that talks are taking place for middleweights Benji Radach and Tim Kennedy to both appear on the show. It is unclear whether Radach and Kennedy will be featured in separate fights, or against each other.

The August will also feature the debut of “The Hex”, the IFL’s new fighting surface which consists of a six-sided ring.

Television preview of IFL World Grand Prix matches

Sam Caplan — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 13:08:02 +0000

The IFL‘s first-ever live telecast Saturday night on MyNetworkTV at 9 p.m. ET is a welcome relief for those sick of all the politics and the drama that’s been going on in MMA. While the league secured a two-hour window in Canada on Fox Sports World, the U.S. television audience will be limited to just one hour. However, that one hour of TV time emanating from the Sears Center in Chicago should be memorable as the IFL is offering two of the best matchups it has to offer from the field of its first-ever World Grand Prix.

The team-based league is taking a break from its usual format and will crown individual champions for the first time in the lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight divisions. The winners of all tonight’s semifinal bouts will advance to the WGP finals on Dec. 29 in Connecticut, with the lone exception being the light heavyweight bout between Vladimir Matyushenko. Due to contract issues and injury, the league decided to trim the four-man field at 205 lbs. down to two and treat the fans of Chicago to the first-ever individual championship bout in IFL history.

Here’s a brief rundown of the matches scheduled to be shown on MyNetworkTV:

Lightweight Semifinal: Bart Palaszewski vs. Chris Horodecki -

Palaszewski fights for Pat Miletich’s IFL team but doesn’t train out of MFS. It’s ironic because Palaszewski is pretty much the prototypical lighter weight MFS fighter: well-rounded, fundamentally sound, good on the ground, and tough.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE ON SAM CAPLAN’S PROELITE.COM BLOG.