Women's Bout Added To EliteXC On CBS
by Robert Sargent
After the success of the women's bout between Gina Carano and Kaitlin Young on their CBS debut, EliteXC has added an explosive female fight for July 26th, pitting "The Queen of Spades" Shayna Baszler against Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos.
Santos (4-0-0) has won three of her four fights by first-round TKO, while Baszler (9-4-0) has won four straight fights, all by way of submission in round one.
The fight will likely serve as a #1 contender's bout to determine a challenger to face Gina "Conviction" Carano for the vacant EliteXC Women's 140-pound Championship later this year. Baszler has a world of experience against nearly all of the top female fighters today, but she will need to survive the early barrage of strikes that has made Santos famous.
Baszler's four defeats have all come against extremely tough competition. She was defeated by Kelly Kobald (16-2-1) in 2004, one of the best female fighters in the sport, who reigned undefeated until the middle of 2007. Baszler also dropped two fights to Amanda Buckner (11-5-1), long-regarded as a top-3 female fighter, and one hard-fought bout to Tara LaRosa (15-1-0) in February of 2007. LaRosa is widely regarded as the #1 female fighter in North America, with only undefeated Megumi "Mega Megu" Fujii as competition for best in the entire world.
While Baszler has struggled with the upper echelon of competition, she has many notable victories to her credit, including impressive wins over Julie Kedzie, Roxanne Modafferi and, in ShoXC events, Jan Finney and Jennifer Tate. In Baszler's last performance, at another ShoXC event in April of this year, she scored an incredible victory over Keiko "Tama Chan" Tamai with the extremely rare Twister submission.
All nine of Baszler's victories have come by way of submission. She has never had a fight go to the judges, and her July 26th bout with Santos should be no exception.
In Santos, the wife of feared striker Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos, Baszler will face a very tough challenge. Though Santos has just four fights, she has won all of them in impressive fashion. Her striking, as well as her prowess on the ground, has attracted a lot of attention, but this will be her first fight since November of 2006. Whether the lengthy time off will be a factor remains to be seen.
Santos, adopting the frenzied striking style used by her husband, will look to keep Baszler on the defensive with strikes. Though Santos is skilled on the ground, it is unlikely that she will tempt fate by testing Baszler's submission skills. Few who do make it out of the round.
The remainder of the main card for EliteXC's second show on CBS features the EliteXC Middleweight Championship rematch between champion "Ruthless" Robbie Lawler and challenger Scott "Hands of Steel" Smith, an EliteXC Welterweight Championship bout between Jake Shields and Nick "The Goat" Thompson and a lightweight battle between EliteXC posterboy Nick Diaz and Thomas "Wildman" Denny.
In undercard action, airing live on Showtime in the United States and The Fight Network in Canada, the first EliteXC Heavyweight Champion will be crowned when Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva takes on UFC veteran Justin Eilers. Wilson Reis will battle Brian Caraway in a 140-pound bout, and Brazilian light heavyweight standout Rafael Feijao will face a soon-to-be-announced opponent.
EliteXC has done a good job of putting together an exciting card for their second "Primetime" event. Hopefully, this show will not be plagued with the controversies of the CBS debut.
