Cyborg Victorious, But Carano Saves Face

Cristiane Cyborg was victorious, but Gina Carano saved face.

Literally.

Well, that was a fun fight while it lasted.

Gina Carano actually did put up a pretty decent fight,, and landed some good punches, and briefly had a dominant position over her opponent Cristiane Cyborg Santos.

In the end, Cyborg was able to push the pace a little bit too much for Gina, in order to secure a TKO victory.

As a bonus to putting up a pretty decent fight, Carano is still decently pretty.  That is partly due to the way Carano finished the fight.

By the end of the first round, Cyborg was able to get a dominant position, and instead of attempting to scramble, which might have resulted in taking a few punches, Carano covered up, forcing the referee to step in.

The decision to make women's MMA rounds five minutes instead of the usual three proved to be of critcal importance.

Carano appeared to be visably tired after three minutes, but a one-minute rest period might have allowed her to recompose herself and get back into the fight.

Instead, Cyborg was able to wear Carano down for the win.

Overall, I think the main event was a success, as Carano and Cyborg put on a pretty good show for as long as it lasted.

However, I don't think this event is the one that women's MMA needed to really bring the sport to the mainstream.

I think that one thing the fight poved is that women really can fight.  But if you're a fan of WMMA, you already knew that.

The only question I continue to have concerns the extent to which WMMA will come into the mainstream.

For example, women's tennis is huge, and its stars make money comparable to their male counterparts.

For now, I don't think that WMMA is headed towards that kind of success.

It seems obvious to me that Cyborg won't be nearly as marketable as Carano would have been, and that a lot of the hype behind Carano and WMMA died with Carano's winning streak.