Women's MMA - April Rankings plus More to Look Forward to

Welcome to the Fightergirls blog here on the Women Talk Sports website. Remember Fightergirls for all of your women’s mma clothing and gear.

Here is the news for this week.

 (Elana "Baby Doll" Reid courtesy MSNBC) 

In breaking news, Elena Reid has said on the "Sportsgeeks" podcast that she is throwing her hat in the ring for one of the Bellator 115 pound women’s tournament starting in August. There was an announcement from Bellator last year that a women’s 115 and a 125 tournament would be apart of their upcoming seasons. They also stated #3 ranked Tara LaRosa and #1 ranked Rosi Sexton would be apart of the tournaments, with Reid stating Sexton and #1 ranked 115 pounder Megumi Fujii will be in the 115 grand prix.

Bellator has a 120 pound catch weight bout scheduled between Felice Herrig and Jessica Rakoczy at the Bellator card in Chicago April 5th, which will be live on Fox Sports Net. We will have full on site coverage of the event on Fightergirls.com. 

Elena Reid will be defending her Sovereign Nations MMA title on April 17 in North Dakota, and will be fighting for another flyweight boxing title in France in June.

(Kerry Vera courtesy Strikeforce)

It was announced this week that Kerry Vera’s return to the Strikeforce cage will be May 21 in Portland, OR. Speculation is her opponent will be 2-0 Julianna Peña, who won last December via an armbar vicroty over Stephanie Webber. The also 2-0 Vera defeated Kim Couture this past November at the Strikeforce Challengers event in Kansas City.

In the only women’s match this past weekend, Catia "Cat Woman" Victoria defeated Tiffany Connell via 3 round decision at the Art of Fighting MMA Payback in Tampa.

(Michelle Ould & Zoila Frausto)

After her defeat to now #9 ranked Miesha Tate, Zoila Frausto has been begging for an opponent for her scheduled match at the Eagle Mountain Casino in Porterville, CA. This week, it was announced that Michelle Ould will be stepping up to take on “The Warrior Princess" on May 16.

Zoila won’t be the only Frausto on the card. Younger sister Stephanie Frausto will also be in action.

(Champion Cyborg Santos Courtesy Tom Hill)

The April Unified Women's mma rankings are up, with a couple pf changes to the lists. The top four stayed the same in the 145 pound division, with Cyborg Santos at 1, Erin Toughill at 2, Marloes Coenen at 3, and Gina Carano at 4.

Formerly #5 ranked Kelly Kobold has dropped out of the 145 pound top ten due to inactivity, leaving Hiroko Yamanaka to take her place. Yamanaka upset #5 ranked 135 pounder Hitomi Akano last month, and asked for a shot Cyborg Santos's Strikeforce 145 pound title.

(#7 ranked Cindy Dandois - Courtesy M-1)

Cindy Dandois, after being stuck at #7 since early last year, moves to sixth place, with former #7 ranked 135 pounder Amanda Nunes jumping to the 145 pound division at #7. Yoko Takahashi dips from #6 to #8, and Nana Berto slipping to ninth from after being sixth last month.

(Champion Sarah Kaufman courtesy Ester Lin/Strikeforce) 

In the 135 pound division, the top five reamin the same, with top six spots the same as last month. Sarah Kaufman tops the list, followed by Roxanne Modafferi, Shayna Baszler, Takayo Hashi, Hitomi Akano, and Jenn Tate rounding out the top six in that order. With Amanda Nunes departure to the 145 pound list, Vanessa Porto moves from eight to seven, and Julie Kedzie moves from nine to eight. Miesha Tate re-enters the rankings at nine, with Alexis Davis rounding out the top ten.

(Rosi Sexton courtesy Bodog)

The only change in the 125 pound division is Emi Fujino leaving the list, Jeri Sitzes moving to ninth and Monica Lavato moving on the list at ten. The top five in order are Rosi Sexton, Carina Damm, Tara LaRosa, Ash the Bash Daly, and Rin Nakai.

The 115 list remained unchanged.

It was announced this week that #6 ranked 125 pounder Sally Krumdiack will face Tammy Schneider for Krumdiack’s Legends MMA title on June 5 in Yakima, WA.

Tuff-n-uff Amateur mma returns to the Orleans arena Apr. 23 with Christy Tada facing Jessica Sorrenson in a 130 pound catchweight bout, and Ashley Cummins facing Cathy Snell in a 115 pound match, with the winner facing Gabriella Lakoczky for the 115 title on May 28. The May 28th card will also feature LaTasha Marzolla in the main event.

After hopes that Amanda Buckner would be on the Freestyle Cage Fighting New Hampsire card in May, she states is still recovering after ACL surgery, and eyes a fall return

The G-Fight summit closed with their annual awards being presented to the best of the past year.

Pro Fighter of the Year: Cris Cyborg 

Ammy Fighter of the Year: Amanda Wilcoxen

Rookie of the Year: Barb Honchak

Fight of the year: Valerie Coolbaugh Vs Felice Herrig

and

Women of the year: Sam Wilson

Congratulations to all the winners.

(Lisa Ward, Jessica Aguilar & Tara LaRosa - Courtesy Grappler's Edge)

The US Women's Team won the World Grappling Championships No-Gi title and placed second in Gi World Championships last week in Poland. Lisa Ward takes gold in the 50 kg no-gi and bronze in no-gi; Jessica Aguilar wins golds in both No-Gi and Gi at 55 kgs' & Tara LaRosa won bronze on the 60 kg no-gi.

The only women’s matches this week will be the Valkerie 5 card in Japan:

(Fly-8) Kyoko Takabayashi vs Emi Fujino (3x3)

Kayo Nagayasu vs Fujuko "Happy Fukuko" Hamada (3x3)

Yasuko Mogi vs Akiko Naito (3x3)

Naoko Torashima vs Harumi (3x3)

Mutsumi Kasai vs Ayame Miura (3x3)

Yasuko Tamada vs Yukiko Seki (3x3)

That’s all for now. Check out Fightergirls store for all your women’s MMA gear and clothing; and for those guys out there, we also are carrying our new line of men’s shorts. We also carry REVGear, Everlanst, and Cleto Reyes gloves and pads. 

We will have more news over the week at the Fightergirls website and also on twitter @Fightergirls.

Until next week.

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