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Strikeforce Women's 135 Tournament Workout Quotes
 | posted by MarQFPR, a Women Talk Sports blogger About MarQFPR: ...more |
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(Via Strikeforce Press release - all photos courtesy Strikeforce/Ester Lin)
The four ladies set to compete in the first-ever STRIKEFORCE women’s welterweight (135 pounds) tournament took part in an open workout for the media at the Riches Wrestling Complex on the campus of Arizona State University on Wednesday.
STRIKEFORCE women’s welterweight contenders Miesha “Takedown” Tate, Carina “Beauty But The Beast” Damm, Hitomi “Girlfight Monster” Akano and Maiju Kujala will be at STRIKEFORCE Challengers this Friday, Aug. 13, at Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, Ariz., live on SHOWTIME®. The winners of each semifinal bout on Friday will face off in the tournament final.
During Thursday’s weigh-ins, current undefeated STRIKEFORCE Women’s Welterweight Champion Sarah Kaufman and STRIKEFORCE Women’s Middleweight (145 pounds) Champion Cris Cyborg will meet fans and be available for autographs.
Sarah Kaufman could face the winner of the tournament and had these thoughts:
SARAH KAUFMAN
"I think it's a real interesting concept," said the undefeated Kaufman, who will also sign autographs for fans along with STRIKEFORCE Women's Middleweight (145 pounds) Champion Cris Cyborg at the official weigh-in, which will begin at 5 p.m. local time at Dodge Theatre, tomorrow/Thursday. "It has to be tough to have to train for potentially three different opponents. But at the same time when you train you should be training everything anyway. Hopefully you're at a level where you can tweak what game plan you are going to go with."
The media is invited to the Dodge Theatre at 4:30 p.m. with fighter’s stepping on the scales at 5 p.m.
What the fighters had to say on Wednesday:
“I put a game plan together for each one of the girls but, realistically, in a tournament all you can do is prepare to be the best fighter that night.
“All I do is eat, breathe, sleep thinking victory. A loss doesn’t even cross my mind. That’s all I’m focused on right now. It doesn’t matter who or how. Just winning.
“I think I am the favorite. In my opinion I am. If you read stuff on the Internet and the message boards I think people are picking me to win. That’s the consensus.
“Being a part of this tournament is monumental because it’s helping push MMA to the forefront. STRIKEFORCE has shown they believe in and want to promote women’s fighting. The way I look at this entire tournament thing is that potentially I’m three fights from being a world champion.
“I’ve competed in tournaments and I’ve made mistakes in them. One thing is it’s natural when you’re competing to have that adrenaline dump once you’re done. You think, ‘Thank God that’s over’ and win lose or draw you’re done and you can relax. In a tournament you have to keep that going and you can’t let that momentum drop. So that’s going to be the biggest thing. Just going back and preparing as if you haven’t even fought before.
“I think 30 minutes rest is about the perfect time. It’s just enough time to go down and get fully recovered. Get your heart rate back to resting and then you have five, maybe 10 minutes just to chill out. Drink some water and get a good warm-up.
“I’ve been looking forward to Sarah Kaufman since 10 seconds after we fought last year. I think she’s my most sought after rematch.”
“I have fought in the tournament style before so I have my own game plan and have prepared for each of the fighters. I know how to manage two fights in one night.
“STRIKEFORCE has done a good job and is making the whole week easy. They are not making it difficult on the fighters.
“I see there being a lot of wrestling. I think it’s possible to see some standup and some punches exchanged. I think since all the four fighters strengths are on the ground that it could definitely be a good opportunity for me to stay standing and see if I can hurt them with my punches.
“I think the audience knows I love fighting and that I bring my heart and my soul into each of my fights. They know I really enjoy fighting. We have some tricks but you’ll have to tune in on Friday to see what we have planned.
“MMA fighting is big in Finland but here it’s on a whole different level. There’s a huge crowd every time and I’m expecting to see the Dodge Theatre filled.
“This is a good opportunity for me and a huge event. I enjoy fighting anywhere. It doesn’t matter where it is.”
“I’ve trained for this fight and I’m ready. The winner of these fights will get a shot at the world championship so that’s what I want. Nobody knows how important this is for me.
“I’m ready to fight anybody. Just tell me who I’m fighting and I’ll be ready for them.”
“I’m feeling relaxed and excited. I’m ready. This is the first time I am seeing all the girls in person so in terms of size, they are what I expected so that’s good."
“My strategy is to take the initiative and be aggressive on offense."
“One thing I can say is that all the girls are exceptional athletes and I fit right into that mold so it should be a very competitive night of fights.”
Tickets for the STRIKEFORCE Challengers event are on sale at the Dodge Theatre Box Office, all Ticketmaster outlets, by phone at (800) 745-3000, and online at http://www.livenation.com and http://www.strikeforce.com.
Dodge Theatre doors will open at 5 p.m. local time. The first preliminary bout will begin at 5:30 p.m. and the first main card bout will begin at 8.
The SHOWTIME telecast will begin at 11 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast.)
The SHOWTIME telecast will begin at 11 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast.)
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- Martial Arts, MMA
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