Former Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Champion Sarah Kaufman and grappling ace Shayna “The Queen of Spades” Baszler are set to face off for a second time at The Ultimate Fighter: “Nations” Finale on April 16th in Québec City, Québec, Canada. UFC officials announced the rematch today.
Kaufman and Baszler first clashed at Strikeforce Challengers 2 in June 2009, with Kaufman prevailing via a hard-fought Unanimous Decision. She made her long-awaited UFC debut in October. Baszler steps into the UFC Octagon for the first time since her stint on The Ultimate Fighter 18.
Kaufman (16-2-0, 1 ND) captured Strikeforce title gold in her first fight after defeating Baszler when she outpointed Japanese veteran Takayo Hashi in February 2010. She made one successful title defence before losing her belt to Marloes “Rumina” Coenen. Following her first setback, Kaufman bounced back with three straight wins to earn a shot at then-Strikeforce champion “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey, but her bid to reclaim her title ended in a 54-second submission loss. Kaufman got back on the winning track with a razor-thin Split Decision victory over Leslie “The Peacemaker” Smith at Invicta FC 5.
Following her close win over Smith, Kaufman faced off against popular rising star Jessica “Evil” Eye at UFC 166 in October. Despite appearing to win two of three rounds in the closely-contested fight, Kaufman was forced to settle for a disappointing Split Decision loss. However, well over three months after the fight took place, the result of the Kaufman-Eye bout was overchanged this week by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation due to a failed Eye drug test. The fight now stands as a No Decision and Kaufman remains technically undefeated in her UFC career.
Baszler (15-8-0) rallied back from the loss to Kaufman with four straight wins and she became the inaugural Freestyle Cage Fighting Women’s Bantamweight Champion in June 2010. Along the way, she scored a key victory over current UFC standout Alexis “Ally-Gator” Davis. After capturing the FCF title, Baszler added another belt to her collection by submitting Elaina “Beef” Maxwell for The Cage Inc. Since that time, Baszler has gone 1-2 under the Invicta FC banner, with an impressive submission win over Sarah “The Monster” D’Alelio and losses to Sara McMann and Davis in a rematch.
Most recently, Baszler took part in The Ultimate Fighter 18, which featured female competitors for the first time in the show’s history. She advanced to the quarterfinals by submitting Colleen Schneider in the elimination round, but lost to eventual TUF 18 winner Julianna “The Venezuelan Vixen” Peña in one of the season’s biggest upsets. She has since joined up with UFC champion Rousey, highly-touted judoka Marina Shafir and fellow TUF 18 competitor Jessamyn “The Gun” Duke to form a richly talented stable of female fighters who may have a significant impact on the sport in 2014.
The Ultimate Fighter: “Nations” Finale takes place on April 16th at Colisée Pepsi in Québec City, Québec, Canada.
(Photo Credit: UFC)
Kaufman will destroy Baszler.
I really love Sarah, but she is not at the best moment of her career. She lost 3 of her last 7 fights. She had a controversial loss to Jessica Eye (IMO, Jessica won), and she had a controversial win to Leslie Smith (IMO, Leslie won). Ultimately, her loss to Eye was overturned, and, now, she is 4-2-1 since 2010.
Still, she is as hunrgy as ever, she got one of the best stand-ups in her division (top five, for sure), is likely one of the top three strongest girls, has one of the best takedown defenses in the division and has got a good underrated ground game.
She walked over Liz Carmouche, who would beat Shayna more often than not, IMO.
I say Sarah wins by t.k.o. in round 3.
Shayna won’t take her down easily, and Sarah will destroy Shayna standing, prewtty much like Julianna Peña.