Marloes Coenen Set To Face Fiona Muxlow At DREAM.18 In JapanFormer Strikeforce women’s champ Marloes “Rumina” Coenen will compete in Japan for the first time in more than five years when she faces off against Australian grappling specialist Fiona Muxlow at DREAM.18: “Special NYE 2012.” The event takes place on December 31st in Saitama, Japan.

DREAM officials confirmed plans for the Coenen-Muxlow featherweight bout today. Coenen is coming off of a successful debut for Invicta FC in April and has won three of her past four fights. Muxlow is on a three-fight winning streak and most recently earned a Unanimous Decision victory in October.

Coenen (20-5-0) is one of the most experienced female fighters in MMA today, with a career spanning more than 12 years dating back to November 2000. In October 2010, following an unsuccessful bid for the Strikeforce Women’s Featherweight Championship, Coenen opted to make the move down to 135 pounds and claimed the Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Championship from then-champion Sarah Kaufman. She successfully defended the title five months later in a bout with late-replacement opponent Liz “Girl-Rilla” Carmouche, but succumbed to a fourth-round arm-triangle choke from Miesha “Cupcake” Tate in her next fight on July 30, 2011.

Following the title loss to Tate, Coenen was abruptly released from her Strikeforce contract. She signed with the upstart Invicta Fighting Championships promotion and debuted on the inaugural Invicta FC card in April, outpointing France’s Romy Ruyssen in a rematch from 2008. The bout marked Coenen’s return to the featherweight division and she looks to score her second straight win later this month. A victory could propel Coenen into an Invicta FC Featherweight Championship bout next year.

Muxlow (6-1-0) is one of the more skilled grapplers in the 145-pound women’s division. She began her mixed martial arts career on June 2, 2007 in a one-night women’s tournament for Princesses of Pain and secured submission victories in all three of her fights to claim her first championship title. Muxlow’s next bout for the promotion came against American Cindy Hales and marked her lone defeat to date. She has since rallied back with three more wins, including a Unanimous Decision over Leanne Reid on the all-female Brace For War 17 card in late October.

While Muxlow will likely give up a significant edge in striking against Coenen, her physical strength and grappling prowess could pose problems for the former Strikeforce champion. Coenen has struggled at times during her career when facing opponents who are able to keep her pinned down on the mat and Muxlow could potentially score the biggest victory of her career if she can implement a strong game plan and play to her strengths.

Regardless of the outcome of the bout with Coenen, Muxlow is expected to make her Invicta Fighting Championships debut in the coming year. A win over Coenen could vault Muxlow into contention for the all-female promotion’s inaugural featherweight title.

DREAM.18: “Special NYE 2012” is set to take place on December 31st at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

 

 

(Photo Credit: Esther Lin, AllElbows.com / InvictaFC.com)

  1. Great news! Never heard of Muxlow before but I love watching Marloes fight – glad she’s back!

  2. Much love to Marloes Coenen.

    Coenen will submit Muxlow from her back. Mark my words. Muxlow lacks Coenen’s finesse on the ground… and I am pretty sure we will see some serious improvements in Coenen’s wrestling. Plus, I am not sure if Muxlow has faced anyone as skilled as Coenen.

    Romy Russyen failed to take Coenen down. Au contraire, Coenen had absolute cage control, even with a broken hand.

  3. The time marloes spent wrestling after the tate loss, was real obvious in the ryussen fight. She would beat tate 9out of ten times, there was so much bs going on behind the scenes during the tate fight. I wouldnt of been surprised if it was already decided that if it went to a dec tate would win, dana wanted golded glory out of the game. The reason i say this is the fight was reffed by big john, and he ususally keeps a fight going, ( he stands up fighters if no one is paassing the guard or striking fter a min or so) , in this fight he left them on the ground overthree min of a five min rd, thats just bsgiving the uneducated judges the impression that tate was winning because of top position,. I know lots of people think that dana has no control over who wins well that is just naive and stupid, of course dana can influence every fight if he wants, anyway im glad marloes is fighting again

  4. Marloes was definitely defeating Tate in their fight. She made a stupid mistake and had to tap.

    But, yeah, she was dominating Liz Carmouche while striking, she outstruck Sarah Kaufmann, and she was beating Tate before the last round.

    I think Marloes can win this one standing, or on the ground, AND she won’t be controlled that easy anymore (Miesha Tate is a high level wrestler).