NCAA football betting is about to get started but a women's event will steal the betting spotlight this weekend. At Strikeforce, Gina Carano and Christiane "Cyborg" Santos will battle for a newly created women's championship. The significance: it's the first time a women's event will headline a major MMA promotion. Who has the upper hand?
If you know MMA, especially from a betting perspective, odds are you know (and have a crush on) Gina Carano (7-0). She's perhaps best known for appearing in Maxim magazine and on American Gladiators as "Crush," but don't let that fool you into thinking she's an Anna Kournikova-type who doesn't actually perform well in her sport. Carano is a world-class fighter, skilled in Muay Thai and surgical in her strikes. She can knock opponents out but also has a submission victory under her belt.
If Carano stands for technique, her opponent, Cyborg Santos (7-1), stands for raw power. She's an absolutely vicious striker, having demolished opponents with knockouts in five of her seven wins. What she lacks in technique, she makes up in brute force. No fighter can withstand a clean shot from her -- probably including Carano.
However, if you look at MMA's all-time great technicians like Royce Gracie and Georges St-Pierre, they've often beaten powerful fighters with fundamentals over strength. Carano can beat Santos in multiple ways; she has knockout power but can also submit Santos, whose one career loss came that way. Santos will have to knock Carano out. Betting services think that will happen, as they list Santos as a slight favorite over Carano in Strikeforce odds, but I think Carano will cement her status as the best female fighter in the world.
Pick: Gina Carano
If you know MMA, especially from a betting perspective, odds are you know (and have a crush on) Gina Carano (7-0). She's perhaps best known for appearing in Maxim magazine and on American Gladiators as "Crush," but don't let that fool you into thinking she's an Anna Kournikova-type who doesn't actually perform well in her sport. Carano is a world-class fighter, skilled in Muay Thai and surgical in her strikes. She can knock opponents out but also has a submission victory under her belt.
If Carano stands for technique, her opponent, Cyborg Santos (7-1), stands for raw power. She's an absolutely vicious striker, having demolished opponents with knockouts in five of her seven wins. What she lacks in technique, she makes up in brute force. No fighter can withstand a clean shot from her -- probably including Carano.
However, if you look at MMA's all-time great technicians like Royce Gracie and Georges St-Pierre, they've often beaten powerful fighters with fundamentals over strength. Carano can beat Santos in multiple ways; she has knockout power but can also submit Santos, whose one career loss came that way. Santos will have to knock Carano out. Betting services think that will happen, as they list Santos as a slight favorite over Carano in Strikeforce odds, but I think Carano will cement her status as the best female fighter in the world.
Pick: Gina Carano
