(The photo you’ve seen 1,000,000x by now, courtesy of Getty Images.)

With Miesha Tate suddenly replacing the injured Cat Zingano as a TUF 18 coach, former title contender Liz Carmouche was left without an opponent for UFC on FOX 8. According to MMAFighting.com, the UFC has found a replacement opponent for Carmouche, and that opponent will be UFC newcomer Jessica Andrade.

Before we go any further, it’s okay: This is the first time we’ve heard of Andrade, too.

What we know about Andrade – or “Bate Estaca” as her friends call her – is that at twenty-one years old she’ll be the youngest female fighter in the UFC. She has been competing professionally for almost two years now and has compiled an impressive 9-2 record with all of her victories coming by stoppage. Granted, six of those nine victories came over fighters who were making their professional MMA debuts, but the fact that she has fought nine times since last May is still extremely impressive. Her most recent victory came over Milana Dudieva in April.

As for Carmouche, if you don’t know her recent fight history by now, I’m afraid that there’s not much I can do for you.

After the jump, we have some videos of Andrade in action.

(Step one: Distract the Lizbos. / Photo via Miesha’s Facebook page)

Following her loss to Cat Zingano at the TUF 17 Finale, Miesha Tate was slapped with a medical suspension due to a busted nose that would put her on the sidelines for up to six months. But if she can get ENT clearance in time, she’ll return to the Octagon at UFC on FOX 8 (July 27th, Seattle), where she’ll face former title-contender Liz Carmouche. UFC Tonight correspondant Ariel Helwani was the first to report news of the planned bantamweight matchup. For the record, Tate says her nose is fine and the damn doctors are just over-protective.

Carmouche has been inactive since her armbar loss to Ronda Rousey at UFC 157 in February, although she made some headlines recently with her campaign to become the first openly-gay athlete sponsored by Nike.

UFC on FOX 8 is already scheduled to feature the women’s bantamweight match between Julie Kedzie and Germaine de Randamie, so if Tate vs. Carmouche gets the green-light, the 7/27 UFC card will be the first to feature two women’s bouts on the same night. Any early predictions?

(And the song Ronda chose to accompany this momentous occasion with? Oh, you best believe it was some Geto Boys. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.) 

Of all the controversy that was brought to light in the weeks following the announcement of UFC 157 (WOMEN HEADLINERS?!, Dan Henderson playing second fiddle to WOMEN HEADLINERS?!, etc.), one issue that seemed to cling around more than most was that of pay-per-view buys. Specifically, how the UFC honestly expected a card featuring WOMEN HEADLINERS to draw diddly squat for viewers in the male-dominated sport of MMA. Because if we wanted to see two broads fight over a leather and gold belt, we’d go to Macy’s on Black Friday, amiright?

Well, we hate to spoil the misogynist fantasy, but it looks like WMMA (or at least Ronda Rousey) could turn out to be a huge draw for the UFC. The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer spoke earlier today about the preliminary PPV estimates for UFC 157 and suffice it to say, they are a lot better than many of us would have predicted:

Over 400,000….they’re absolutely thrilled. The show, it was…they had predicted 250. Budgeted 250, I shouldn’t say predicted. But I mean, the predictions internally were 250-300. So they blew away their predictions, big time…They’re expecting big replay buys. Big replay buys means 25,000-30,000 more than they have right now. It could do mid fours, maybe more, but that’s a nice number to say.

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Poor Miesha Tate. It’s bad enough that she nearly had her arm ripped from her torso when she first fought Ronda Rousey, but the fact that she is forced to relive it each and every time a microphone is shoved in front of her face has to leave her feeling somewhat bitter about the whole experience, and perhaps rightfully so.

Take last Saturday for instance, when Tate and her upcoming opponent Cat Zingano — both of whom appeared to be sponsored by either Lucky Charms or Zubaz Pants — were interviewed by Ariel Helwani following Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche’s historic battle at UFC 157. While one would think that Tate would put her personal differences with Ronda aside for a moment and simply congratulate her for the achievement, Tate opted rather to declare that she will “rip [Rousey's] face off in the rematch.” Um, Miesha, your next opponent is actually the woman who was standing right next to you when you all but wrote her off. Awkward. 

In fact, Tate was spilling haterade so vigorously that even Zingano jumped in line for a glass, declaring that Rousey had “a lot of holes in [her] game” after first saying how proud she was of the first WMMA fight in UFC History and blah blah blah. On the opposite end of the spectrum, both Tate and Zingano were impressed by Carmouche’s performance despite the fact that she lost and that they would have totally finished Rousey if put in the same situation.

And fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately) for Tate or Zingano, it’s looking like the winner of their upcoming fight will be given the opportunity to put her money where her mouth is. During the UFC 157 post-fight show on FUEL TV, Rousey mentioned that she “is interested” in the outcome of the matchup and will be in attendance when Tate and Zingano face off in Vegas on April 13th. So make sure to tune in for the chance to witness the first ever 209 gang-stomping in WMMA History.

In other WMMA news…

(Fill in the blank: When this happened, I nearly ___ my pants. / Photo via Getty Images)

In retrospect, all of you should have picked Ronda Rousey by first-round armbar. (Hindsight is 20/20, my friend.) After digging through the entries for last week’s UFC 157 fight-picking contest, we are proud to announce the winners. The envelope, please…

First place: Alan K, who guessed the armbar stoppage for Rousey within nine seconds (!), and got the judges’ scores exactly correct in the Machida vs. Henderson decision. Alan will receive the “Ronda Knows” and “Keep Calm and Break Arms” t-shirt package, courtesy of Fight Chix.

Second place: Brian001, who predicted a much earlier armbar stoppage for Rousey, but also predicted the judges’ scores perfectly for the co-main event. Brian will receive his choice of one of the aforementioned shirts.

Alan/Brian, please e-mail your full name, shirt size (including gender of choice), and address to contest@cagepotato.com, and we’ll get you hooked up ASAP. As for everybody else, there’s no law saying you can’t acquire these t-shirts the old-fashioned way. Visit FightChix.com, pick up a shirt or two, and show the world that you’re an enlightened human being who supports women pounding on each other. Thanks for playing, guys!

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

Make no mistake, no matter how last night’s main event was going to end, it was going to be an important moment in UFC history. For the first time in the promotion’s history, two female athletes would be competing in the UFC. Squash match or not, the historical significance of the fight and the freshly minted UFC Women’s Bantamweight title were enough to bump the fight up to main event status.

I’ve seen dozens of writers today write about how “predictably” the main event ended, but I can’t help but feel that this does a severe injustice to the fight we were treated to. Yes, it ended in a first round armbar victory for Ronda Rousey, and no, literally nothing else about this fight was predictable.

This is in large part a credit to challenger Liz Carmouche. Few people gave Carmouche any sort of chance to win, as clearly reflected by the betting odds for the fight. Yet for the first time last night, Carmouche was able to expose holes in Rousey’s game, and make the women’s champion look beatable. She wasn’t Rousey’s slightly-resistant grappling dummy – she was a very worthy challenger who almost finished Rousey with a rear-naked choke, and has teeth marks on her arm to show for it. Let’s all stop and admit that none of us expected this from her.

(I’m not exactly sure what Dana’s thinking right now, but if I had to guess, it’s probably something along the lines of “ohhhhhhh yeaaahhhhh [dooo-bo-bo].” / Photo via CombatLifestyle. Check out more pics from this set here.)

UFC 157 goes down tonight at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, and let’s just say if you hear any noise it ain’t the boys, Potato Nation. Women’s MMA crossover star Ronda Rousey will be putting her new bantamweight belt on the line against challenger Liz Carmouche, in a historic fight that will either be remembered as the UFC’s first step toward gender quality, or the latest Great American Freak Show. We’re just hoping for an entertaining battle that doesn’t end with a gruesome compound fracture on live television.

But while the women might steal the show, “Rousey vs. Carmouche” is actually a solid card from top to bottom. We’ve got a possible #1 light-heavyweight contender’s match between Dan Henderson and Lyoto Machida, an old-school welterweight banger between Josh Koscheck and Robbie Lawler, and Urijah Faber’s must-win battle against dangerous veteran Ivan Menjivar. There’s also a fight between Court McGee and Josh Neer that really has no business being on a pay-per-view card at this point, but such is life.

Leading us through the UFC 157 main card will be actual fighter Elias Cepeda, who will be slapping down round-by-round results after the jump beginning at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and please throw in your own insightful commentary in the comments section. Thanks for joining us.

(This is where we’d normally tell you Taters to keep it in your pants, but since Ronda’s barely keeping it it hers..)

Ronda Rousey, Liz Carmouche, and the rest of the 24 fighters competing at tomorrow’s UFC 157: One Small Step for the UFC, One Giant Leap for Womankind event will be hitting the scales tonight starting at 7 p.m. EST. It’s a card that is all but guaranteed to deliver thrills from top-to-bottom, especially in light of the UFC’s recently implemented “Dan Hardy Stipulation” that renders all UFC contracts null and void should the fighter not “bring it every fucking time.” I’m just reading the press release, folks.

Anyway, join us after the jump for a video of the weigh-ins along with the fastest goddamn results in the entire goddamn internet. Seriously, we dare you to find another MMA site that updates the results faster than we do. You will not.

By Dan “Get Off Me” George

For the first time in UFC history, a card will not only feature but be headlined by a women’s title fight in the bantamweight division. We know what you’re thinking, “How are they going to fit an entire kitchen into the octagon?” but hear us out for a second. Pitting Olympic bronze medalist Ronda Rousey against Marine tuff Liz Carmouche, UFC 157 will look to break down the wall that has existed between men’s and women’s MMA for almost two years now. We kid, we kid, but will the UFC’s women’s division steal the show come Saturday night? And technically speaking, can you steal a show when you are the main event? These questions and others will be answered this Saturday night in Anaheim at the (R)Honda Center.

And with any big MMA event comes the opportunity to chip away at (or add to) those crippling debts we all are surely facing. So join us after the jump as we highlight some of the undercard and all the main card bouts for UFC 157 with the hopes of cashing in on some attractive betting lines, which come courtesy of BestFighOdds as always.

Preliminary card:

Michael Chiesa (-200) vs. Anton Kuivanen (+170)

Currently, Chiesa is right around -225, but look for that line to close around -300 by fight night. Anton has been more of a threat on the mat than on his feet thus far in his UFC run, but giving up almost half a foot in height to the Alpha Male-affiliated Chiesa will do him no favors in either department. Chiesa should be able to control this fight with his size advantage and continue his Cinderella story in the UFC.

(Wow, we even got *Ronda’s* attention with that troll-headline. Photo via Neil Davidson/Canadian Press)

By ReX13

“Rowdy” Ronda Rousey has rocketed to fame as the latest “Face of Women’s MMA,” and she’s pushed awareness and enthusiasm for her sport to new heights. Now making history as the first female champion in the UFC, it’s entirely possible that the best thing that could happen to WMMA is for Ronda Rousey to lose.

Ronda Rousey made her pro debut two years ago this March, defeating a scary Brazilian lady very quickly via armbar. Since then, she’s burst into the mainstream consciousness — as much as she can inhabit the mainstream, competing in a fringe sport like MMA —and has almost single-handedly driven interest in women’s mixed martial arts competition. Her background as a lifelong judoka and Olympic medalist immediately establishes her a legitimate athlete, while her looks have won her a bit of extra hype.  Not that the hype was undeserved: Rousey has demolished her competition, notching six straight first-round stoppages by armbar.

That dominance is what gained her the attention of the man who previously maintained that he had no interest in female cage-fighting. After gaining control of a double-handful of women’s contracts when Zuffa obtained rival promotion Strikeforce, Dana White couldn’t help but change his mind about gender-equality in the Octagon. Rousey was pushing attendance, she was a moneymaker, and White chases money like a Kardashian chases famous dick: single-mindedly, without shame, and intent to take it all in. That he would also be cockblocking (snirk) another promotion by denying them the most marketable fighters in the market would just be icing on the cake.

And make no mistake: that’s exactly what’s going on here. What may at first seem like a boon for female fighters — the increased visibility of the world’s top MMA promotion in the UFC — also has the effect of skimming the top talent from the free agent pool and keeping them from Invicta Fighting Championships, a promotion that’s actually dedicated to the advancement of the women’s division.

(Image courtesy of FightChix.com. Click for larger version.)

This Saturday marks the UFC’s first-ever women’s title fight between Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche, which headlines UFC 157 in Anaheim. In honor of this historic occasion, our friends at Fight Chix have hooked us up with a Rouseyriffic prize-package, featuring their Ronda Knows and Keep Calm and Break Arms t-shirts. Both are available in men’s and women’s styles, so whatever gender you claim to be, Fight Chix has you covered.

If you’d like to win these shirts, here’s what to do: Submit your prediction for the Rousey vs. Carmouche fight — as well as the Dan Henderson vs. Lyoto Machida co-main event — in the comments section. Your entry should look something like this:

(“Of course I’m gonna beat Liz Carmouche. And everyone that comes after her. I’m going to retire undefeated, and there’s nothing any of these girls can do about it.” Video via: YouTube.com/UFC)

And here we have the traditional nine-minute preview of the UFC’s next pay-per-view event, which goes down February 23rd at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. If you’re tired of the Rousey vs. Carmouche hype at this point (Rousey = Mike Tyson, “Lizbos,” etc.), just skip to 5:07 to see the profile of Dan Henderson vs. Lyoto Machida, which begins by recapping the Henderson knee injury that led to the scrapping of UFC 151. At the 5:58 mark, Dana White says that if Henderson beats Machida, Henderson will get the next light-heavyweight title shot, which is direct contradiction of…ah, just forget it.

Also: Henderson hints that he’s bringing a secret weapon to this fight, but if that doesn’t work, he’ll just have to hit Machida with his right hand. (Makes sense.) Of course, Hendo vs. the Dragon is a matchup of power vs. speed/footwork, but as Henderson puts it, “we’ll see how quick this old man is too.”

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

In advance of the UFC’s first women’s title fight on February 23rd, Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche are getting the Primetime treatment, with a three-episode mini-series introducing viewers to the fighters’ personalities and personal histories. As we learn, Rousey and Carmouche both found themselves directionless after formative experiences — the Olympics for Rousey, the Marines for Carmouche — until MMA opened new chapters in their lives. The similarities end there, pretty much. Rousey is currently living the upwardly-mobile life of a UFC champion, while Carmouche is still broke as hell, working full days at the San Diego Combat Academy just to make ends meet.

A win for Carmouche would be life-changing, and she revels in the opportunity. “I absolutely think I’m going to spoil the UFC’s plans,” she says with a smile. (Hey, whatever happened to looking out for the company?)

Even if Liz is set up as the scrappy underdog who has fought tooth and nail to get where she is, the episode makes sure to push the adversity in Rousey’s life even harder. For better or worse, the Primetime series reaches an all-time high of emotional intensity in the final segment of this episode, as Rousey describes the heart-wrenching story of her father’s suicide, then breaks down in a moment of self-loathing for telling it. “I feel like I’m prostituting his memory for my own career gain, and it makes me feel like a fucking asshole,” she says through tears. Powerful stuff. Give it a look, and you’ll see a side of “Rowdy Ronda” that you might not have known about.

(“Jon Jones can count on three things: Death, taxes, and Chael Sonnen whippin’ your ass.”/ Video via YouTube.com/UFC)

- Tim Kennedy Takes Shot At Fighters Who Pulled Out Of Strikeforce Bouts (Fightline)

- Dana White on Gay Fighter Liz Carmouche: ‘I Love What She Did’ (MMAFighting)

- Mata Leon’s Sexy New BJJ Kimono Ad (BloodyElbow)

- MMA’s Top 10 ‘Holy S#!t’ Moments of 2012 (BleacherReport)

- Check Out the 20-Second Fight That Almost Ended in a Double KO (MiddleEasy)

- Video: Reshat Mati, 13 Year Old MMA and Boxing Prodigy (FightDay)

- 5 Other Apocalypses That Didn’t Happen (Besides the 2012 Mayan Apocalypse) (EgoTV)

- The Quentin Tarantino Soundboard (Complex)

- 6 Supplements You Shouldn’t Be Skipping (MensFitness)

- The 50 Best Viral Videos of 2012 (WorldWideInterweb)

- RAW COMMENTARY: ‘Muppet Christmas Carol’ (ScreenJunkies)

- Adorable. (Facebook.com/CagePotato)

(Above: UFC 157 poster via @rondarousey. / Below: UFC 157 tickets banner via UFC.com. Click both for larger versions.)

See? I told you guys this wasn’t just an elaborate prank. Here we have Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche front-and-center in the first official promo poster for UFC 157, while Dan Henderson and Lyoto Machida lurk in the background, just a couple more innocent men subjugated by the gynocratic culture of the UFC.

From the moment this event was announced, fans and pundits have debated whether the UFC made the right choice in having its first women’s match headline a pay-per-view, especially when one of the competitors has no name value with casual fans. I thought Zach Arnold at FightOpinion had an interesting take on it yesterday:

When Gary Shaw was promoting Gina Carano as his women’s ace, was he in the women’s MMA business or the Gina Carano business?…Gina drew plenty of eyeballs against female fighters who had lower media profiles. She saw her run end against Cyborg, but it was a hell of a run. You can’t say that the experiment was a failure…

Much in a similar vein to Gary Shaw with Gina Carano, Dana White sees Ronda Rousey as his vehicle to reach the masses who only care about Entertainment Tonight, Extra, The Insider, Access Hollywood, Inside Edition, and random Youtube video clips where Rousey can make remarks about sex & testosterone and know that a billion people are going to talk about her comments. Rousey is completely shameless in the way she attracts what political pundits call ‘low information voters’ and she’s proud of it…

(Keep it together, Ronda. Never go full Sally Field. / Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.com)

According to BestFightOdds, UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey opened as a -1500 betting favorite against her UFC 157 challenger Liz Carmouche, who opened at +700. Since then, the odds have leveled out somewhat; SportBet currently has the line at a more reasonable -1110/+690, which means that you’d need to put up $1,110 in order to turn a $100 profit on Ronda if she wins, while betting $100 on Liz would…you know what, I’m not even going to finish that sentence. Please do not bet money on this fight.

The current odds make Rousey vs. Carmouche rank among the most lopsided UFC matchups of all time, which comes as no surprise — before the booking was announced, many UFC fans may not have even been aware of the existence of Liz Carmouche, who is an unknown quantity to everyone except hardcore fans of women’s MMA and Strikeforce. Plus, Carmouche fell short both times she faced champion-level competition, suffering a decision loss to Sarah Kaufman in July 2011 and a submission loss to Marloes Coenen four months prior, although Carmouche was winning that fight until she was stopped.

(Visual proof of this whole “lady UFC champion” thing, via @MikeChiappetta)

During a UFC on FOX 5 press conference held earlier today in Seattle, UFC president Dana White presented Ronda Rousey with her new bantamweight championship belt — then announced that she’d be defending it against Liz “Girl-Rilla” Carmouche in the main event of UFC 157, February 23rd at the Honda Center in Anaheim. As MMAFighting writes:

While it wasn’t the hoped-for matchup with Cris Cyborg, White promised that matchup with Rousey would come next as long as she emerged from UFC 157 victorious. ”That was obviously the fight we wanted to make at 135 pounds,” White said. “We worked hard to make that fight. I believe that this fight will happen and I truly believe the next fight will be the Cyborg one.” [Ed. note: Not that Dana doesn't have the utmost confidence in you, Liz.]

A five-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Carmouche’s career MMA record stands at 7-2, with both losses coming last year, in back-to-back Strikeforce matches against Marloes Coenen and Sarah Kaufman. Carmouche rebounded impressively this year, scoring stoppage wins over Ashleigh Curry and Caitlin Young under the Invicta banner.

Though she’s been publicly angling for a matchup with Rousey in recent weeks, Liz Carmouche is one of the last people you’d expect to be headlining a UFC pay-per-view card in early 2013. But as is often the case with UFC title fights lately, the booking was motivated by a lack of options. Said White:

(McMann creates the most savage punch-face in women’s MMA history, against Raquel Pa’aluhi at ProElite 1 last August. Yeesh. That is just awful.)

Strikeforce’s latest red-hot female prospect now has a debut date and opponent. According to MMAFighting, undefeated bantamweight (and Olympic silver medalist) Sara McMann will compete on the supporting card of Strikeforce: Cormier vs. Mir, November 3rd in Oklahoma City, against 7-2 U.S. Marine Liz Carmouche.

Carmouche’s last two Strikeforce appearances in 2011 resulted in losses against Marloes Coenen and Sarah Kaufman. But this year, she rebounded with back-to-back wins against Ashleigh Curry and Kaitlin Young under the Invicta banner. Carmouche is a great test for McMann, and the fight has the potential to create some heat around McMann with Strikeforce viewers — assuming that Showtime doesn’t bury the fight on the prelims like they did with Miesha Tate vs. Julie Kedzie, which, now that I think about it, they probably will. Damn it.

Still no word on the next opponent for Strikeforce bantamweight champ/franchise star Ronda Rousey, but it’s safe to say that if McMann gets past Carmouche in November, she’ll punch her ticket to a title shot.

Related: Sara McMann Isn’t Convinced Ronda Rousey Wants to Fight ‘Cyborg’ Santos

2004 Olympic wrestling silver medalist Sara McMann won a hard-fought unanimous decision over Shayna Baszler after three rounds at last night’s all-women Invicta FC 2 event. Baszler rocked McMann with a left hook late in the fight but McMann had evidently gotten far enough ahead on the judges’ scorecards to get the win. Check out the full fight video above.

Scores were 29-28 (twice) and 30-27 for McMann. “That was by far the toughest and most skilled fighter I have ever fought,” McMann said post-fight of Baszler.

With the win, McMann improves her MMA record to 6-0. Baszler dipped to 14-7.

Full results via MMAFighting, as well as video of Liz Carmouche‘s submission win over Kaitlin Young, are after the jump.

(Leslie Smith vs Kaitlin Young, via IronForgesIron.com)

Invicta FC 1 wasn’t the first promotion to feature an all-female fight card, nor did they invent the MMA livestream, but last night they paired the two beautifully for a groundbreaking show that will undoubtedly do wonders for WMMA. The online broadcast is said to have peaked at 100k viewers, some four-times their initial projection.

Overall the show had a professional, polished appearance. The familiar voice of Mauro Renallo carried the commentary team with the sort of obvious, gender-based puns that we would never personally sink t…oh, right. The recently unemployed “King Mo” kept it 100 on the mic, but casual doesn’t always equal comfortable or competent, and Jon Anik can breath a little easier this morning. Alongside Lawal, Julie Kedzie called the fight from a fighter’s perspective, and with a little more experience she could transition well into that roll.

While one of Invicta’s stated goals is to develop clearly defined weight classes, the fighters will have to do their part when it’s time to step on the scales. With four fighters missing weight for the inaugural event, some of them badly, there’s still much work to be done.

As for the fights, it was an overall entertaining card. Videos and a recap are after the jump.

No way I’m not using this picture again.

What up, Potato Nation, it’s your boy ReX13 here at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Kansas City, ready to watch some ladies fight. I realize some of you have dirty-ass opinions about women’s MMA, and to you assholes I say this: I think there’s an NBA game on or something. Is the NFL draft still on? How’d my Carolina Panthers do? Actually, don’t answer that, just exit stage left. For the rest of you, let’s party: we got a badass card to watch.

Since the whole thing is streaming for free right here, I’m going to forego an actual play-by-play and just drop observations as the night goes on. I’m also ready to grab snapshots and video of the things you can’t see, so expect butt shots of Natasha Wicks. I’m all for girl power, but I also know what my Nation likes.

One more note: they are trying to disable the media with a light show and deafening dubstep. Pray for me.

Come on in, the show starts at 8pm ET. Until then, feel free to tweet your best #BadPickUpLinesAtInvictaFC at me, because I’m immature.

 I don’t know how you have a staredown with a French accent, but I’m pretty sure Romy Ruyssen (right) is doing it.

So let’s get this out of the way:  I live in Kansas.

No, I don’t know what the hell a jayhawk is.  I’m not actually from here.

Anyways, Invicta Fighting Championships is going down just a short drive away in Kansas City, so I was quick to accept when I was offered a chance to be a member of the fight media for the inaugural Invicta FC card.

There were a few hiccups at the weigh-ins:  for some reason, they did not set up a raised platform for me to set up upon. As a result my pictures and video were of decidedly low quality. (As a recompense, please enjoy a few pictures courtesy of Invicta’s own photographer, Esther Lin.)

(Props: YouTube.com/allelbows)

Invicta Fighting Championships‘ all-female debut event is going down Saturday night in Kansas City, KS, and our own Doug “Rex13″ Richardson will be in attendance, trying his hardest to get kneed in the balls. Check out this video package from Esther Lin/allelbows and get to know the talent that will be competing. It’s awesome to see Kaitlin Young back in action, and every Marloes Coenen fight is required viewing for fans of women’s MMA. The show will also feature Jessica Pene, Liz Carmouche, Lisa Ellis-Ward, and Nicdali Rivera-Calanoc, best known as one-half of the greatest MMA face-off of all time. A live stream of the event will be aired on InvictaFC.com starting tomorrow evening at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. Be there.

(Date, time and location of ring card boy auditions TBA)

Women’s MMA will have a new home starting on April 28 when Invicta Fighting Championships holds its inaugural event in Kansas City.

The upstart all female fight league, which will be promoted by IFC co-owner and VP Shannon Knapp who has worked for the IFL, UFC and Strikeforce in different capacities including matchmaker and fighter relations, announced the event and its existence on Sunday. A press release sent out by the promotion also stated that it has signed several of the sport’s top female talents (a few of whom are regular CP readers), including Strikeforce standouts Marloes Coenen, Sarah D’Aleo and Liz Carmouche, Dutch submission specialist Romy Ruyssen and former Bellator tournament competitors Jessica Penne and Lisa Ellis-Ward.

“The time has come for a platform dedicated exclusively to building the growing women’s division in our great sport,” said Knapp. “Invicta is committed to increasing the depth of the women’s field and building female superstars by providing women athletes with the opportunity to compete and hone their skills on a consistent basis throughout the year.”

The April show will feature former Strikeforce bantamweight champ, Coenen’s return to featherweight where she will rematch Ruyssen in the main event of the night.

The Marines, enjoying someone fighting for them for a change. (Photo: MMAOnTap.com)

There is no shortage of military metaphors in the world of MMA. “War Diaz.” “War Penn.” Our athletes don’t just compete, they go to battle. Even that shirt you claim not to own is ‘an expression of combat known worldwide’.

But these are mere words. For a select few of the sport’s elite, the challenges they encounter inside of the cage are nothing compared to the trials they signed up for by enlisting in the armed forces. It turns out the reasons MMA fighters serve their country, and their experiences in the military, are as varied as anyone else’s. As we celebrate Veteran’s Day, check out a quick glimpse of their lives in uniform.

Thanks to the folks at Ranger Up for making their crew available.

Referee Josh Roshenthal and his evil, goateed twin declare Voelker the winner. (Pic: Strikeforce.com)

It’s been clear in recent months that Strikeforce is losing its grip on its top talent, but last night its Challengers series continued to plug away in its mission to develop the MMA stars of tomorrow. The action yielded a few decisions, a couple of exciting stoppages, and some much needed direction for Strikeforce’s female fighters.

For the third time in fourteen months, Bobby Voelker and Roger Bowling locked horns under the Strikeforce banner, and the rubber match did not disappoint. Bowling was the energetic aggressor from the onset, mixing up his strikes and throwing numerous hard body kicks in the first round. Voelker landed a few shots of his own, but he was too passive and flat-footed to answer most of Bowling’s attacks. A first round eye-poke bent Bowling over, bringing fears of a second early stoppage via inadvertent foul in this series, but “Relentless” was able to continue. Round two saw Bowling pushing the action again as he worked tirelessly for the takedown, but Voelker landed a big knee with his back against the cage that rocked Bowling backward. A few follow-up punches dropped Bowling and a few more on the ground sealed the deal, earning Voelker the win and the tie breaker by TKO.

Go ahead, make a joke about “pointy elbows”.

Heads up Potato Nation: one of our own is scrapping tonight. Liz Carmouche is a fan of CagePotato in good standing, along with several members of her team. Maybe you remember them: Team Hurricane Awesome MMA Team of Awesomeness? Yup, they like us over there, and we like them. Now, we’re not making any promises, but Girl-Rilla may shout out the Nation before and/or after her fight. Also possibly during the fight, depending on how things go.

By Jason Moles

Earlier this week, news broke that Ranger Up — a longtime sponsor of MMA fighters who have served in the U.S. military, and a passionate lover of America — has been forced to exit the building. Ranger Up CEO Nick Palmisciano was informed by Zuffa that his company would need to pay the recently-established Strikeforce sponsor fee if their fighters were to wear any RU gear at upcoming Strikeforce events. Most notably, this affects former Marine Liz Carmouche, who faces Sarah Kaufman at tonight’s Challengers event in Las Vegas, as well as bionic super-soldier Tim Kennedy, who’s slated to take on Robbie Lawler on the main card of Fedor vs. Henderson.

“[They] told us in a very professional way,” Palmisciano explained to CagePotato.com. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it now, I completely understand. It’s a business deal and I’ve got no hard feelings. I think it’s a good business decision for them and from my position, I don’t feel like we’re owed anything.”

That’s very gracious of him, but the fighters are still going to be losing money unless another sponsor picks them up, right? Wrong. “I know it sounds cheesy, but the military is a family and we are very passionate about what we do in taking care of the people in our community,” Palmisciano said. “We’ve been sponsoring Tim Kennedy since 2006 and we’re not going to all of a sudden treat a member of our family differently because an organization imposes a fee that prohibits us from going forward with the deal that we had. We’re going to continue to support both fighters like they were already and they will both get paid from Ranger Up like they expected to for this fight and in the future.”

(Security guard is mildly amused by Coenen’s standing-guillotine.)

An interesting conspiracy theory from Saturday night’s women’s welterweight title bout between champion Marloes Coenen and challenger Liz Carmouche was that Carmouche actually tapped out to Coenen’s tight standing guillotine in the second round.

We decided to give the video a second look and we took the liberty of making an animated gif of the sub attempt. It’s a moot point since Coenen was able to secure a fight-ending triangle in the fourth round to retain the strap, but had Carmouche won, Team Golden Glory may have had a decent case for an appeal.

Check out the gif after the jump and decide for yourself whether or not “Gorilla” pulled a Sonnen.

(“I’m not doing a fist pose.”)

Well it’s time for another Strikeforce liveblog. I spent the last two hours on my roof in the pouring rain trying to get my satellite dish set up at my new house and I’m in no mood for witty banter, so let’s get to this biotch.

Spoilers are after the jump, yo.