(Julie Kedzie steals the show at the EliteXC: Destiny weigh-ins, while some creepy chick named Gina lurks in the background. / Photo via George Ruiz)

What the hell, guys…it’s like the UFC is actually assembling a real women’s bantamweight division, with contenders and prospects and even gatekeepers. Color us impressed. The UFC’s latest female fight-booking is veteran Jackson’s MMA product Julie Kedzie vs. Dutch kickboxer Germaine “The Iron Lady” de Randamie, both of whom spent time in Strikeforce before that organization’s collapse. As first revealed by FOX Sports, the two fighters will meet at UFC on FOX 8, July 27th in Seattle.

A decorated practitioner of the “Fuck This” fighting style (seriously), Kedzie has unfortunately lost her last two contests against Miesha Tate and Alexis Davis, which dropped her career record to 16-11. Since then, she’s kept busy as a member of the Invicta FC broadcast team, and according to Wikipedia, Kedzie is also Greg Jackson’s personal assistant.*

(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.

(MY GOD DEM ARMS. NOT SURE IF WANT. / Photo via allelbows)

No matter how Ronda Rousey‘s UFC 157 title fight against Liz Carmouche turns out, at least one more women’s bout will take place in the UFC this year — and it’s a good one, too. UFC officials confirmed today that former Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champ Miesha Tate will make her Octagon debut at the Ultimate Fighter 17 finale (April 13th, Las Vegas), where she’ll face 7-0 prospect Cat “Alpha” Zingano.

A native of Broomfield, Colorado, Zingano’s most recent appearance was at Invicta FC 3 last October, where she submitted Raquel Pennington by second-round rear-naked choke. Prior to that fight, Zingano pulled off a body-slam KO against Takayo Hashi, TKO’d Carina Damm, and won Ring Of Fire titles at bantamweight and flyweight. In other words, this lady is serious business. And forget Cris Cyborg — Zingano is probably the most absurdly-jacked female fighter we’ve seen since Rin Nakai.

So will Zingano be successful in her UFC debut, or will she suffer the blankety wrath of Takedown Tate? Shoot us your prediction — as well as your general interest level in this fight — in the comments section.

(Props: Ronda Rousey’s Facebook page)

Confirming earlier reports that Ronda Rousey had become the first woman to be signed by the UFC, Dana White went on the Jim Rome Show today to make an official announcement:

“Yes, it’s official. Ronda Rousey did sign with the UFC…Over the next two years, we’ve got really good opponents for her.”

White also brought up the hottie/murderer dichotomy that makes her so oddly compelling to him:

“She’s beautiful,” White said. “But deep down inside, she’s a killer.”

Rousey also let the cat out of the bag on Twitter, writing: “Okay I admit it…I’m officially a @ufc fighter SO excited! Can’t wait to debut! Let @danawhite know who you want my 1st opponent to be!”

Well…about that. It’s probably not going to be Cris Cyborg, and the only other woman who has reportedly been signed by the UFC is Miesha Tate — and I don’t see an immediate rematch of that massacre in anybody’s future. So who else is there? Want to give us any hints about these “really good opponents,” Dana? Sara McMann…where you at, girl?

(This pose yielded very different results during the Robbie Lawler shoot.)

Gina Carano and Ariel Helwani continued their star-crossed romance in an interview for MMA Fanhouse, mixing friendly banter with actual questions about when the hell we’ll see Carano fight someone.  Long story short, it’s going to be in Strikeforce, eventually, but they’re still working out the details.  One would assume that the major detail in question is money.  Carano was working extremely cheap for Elite XC, and now she has the chance to hold Scott Coker over the coals and really stack that paper, son.  Only Carano claims – get this – that money is not a big deal to her:

Frankly, I am absolutely unmotivated by money. And I know that maybe people take that and don’t understand what that means, but I am just not. What I am interested in is people that have respect. Not only respect for me, but people who have respect for women in MMA. So, the better that I can do for myself and the better I represent myself – which I have to work on all of this, by the way – the better it is for the sport.

Now I’m no business mastermind, but if I were to write a book about how to negotiate a contract the first chapter would be entitled: “Don’t Publicly Claim That You Aren’t Interested In Being Paid Lots of Money.”  The second chapter would be called: "The Power of Blackmail," so now you know why I’m not writing that book. 

But even if you’re willing to believe that Carano is the kind of idealist who doesn’t want to get paid as much as she possibly can for doing a dangerous and difficult job that has a very limited window of opportunity, then you have to find a way to reconcile that Gina Carano with this Gina Carano: