Support women's sports and SHARE this story with your friends!

Strikeforce women's featherweight champion Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos (10-1) will be challenged by Hiroko Yamanaka (12-1) of Japan on Saturday night at the Valley View Casino Center in San Diego.

Yamanaka carries an impressive eight-fight win streak to the cage. The 5-foot-11, 32-year-old's lone loss came in an April 2008 loss to Hitomi Akano, but Yamanaka avenged the result in March 2010. 

Meanwhile, Santos fights for the first time since June 2010. A contract dispute had left the dominant champion sidelined in recent months, but she reached a new deal with Strikeforce officials in August. 

Santos, arguably the world's top female fighter, has been hardly challenged at the 145-lb weight. She recently said she would be open to dropping to 135 pounds to face the top fighters in that division, which is by far the deepest and strongest women's division in MMA.

But first, she must get past Yamanaka. Watch the fight live on Shotime on Saturday night. The main card begins at 10pm ET.

Video by MMAInterviews.tv (thanks to @pegson for the heads-up).

Support women's sports and SHARE this story with your friends!

• MMA
• Sports
• Media
• Videos

This post is related to an event on our Calendar:

• Strikeforce: Cris Cyborg Santos vs Hiroko Yamanaka

This post is related to an ongoing story:

• MMA: The Women are Here to Stay

This article was written by a WomenTalkSports.com contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own women's sports content.

View anngaff's Full Profile