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By: Maynard Sweeney, MMATorch Contributor This article is the seventh a series of daily releases counting down the top thirty fights of 2008. We will release a new article each day starting from #30 all the way up until the end of the month.
Top 30 Fights of 2008: #24
Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos vs. Yoko Takahashi
EliteXC: Heat – 10/4/2008
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you slapped a healthy pair of ovaries on Wanderlei Silva? Call me crazy, but it's a scenario I've been pondering since I was but a wee lad, watching "the Axe Murderer" mercilessly batter the heads of countless PRIDE superstars. Surely girl-Silva would maul and massacre every human they placed before her, wouldn't she? Oh how I longed for my life-long question to be answered.
Fortunately for me, and any other wing nuts whose brains are far enough out in the cosmos that they would conjure up wonders such as my own, this strange question was answered by the thugs at EliteXC. With the company's inclusion of female fight classes, we were treated to some great fights between martial artists of the fairer sex. One such female fighter we were privileged to watch, hailing from the infamous Chute Box Academy, was Cristiane Santos. Santos, a vicious Muay Thai practitioner whose style is remnant of the old school Vale Tudo competitors, is the wife of Evangalista Santos, another brutal Chute Box product (with whom she also shares her nickname).
Santos is not your typical fighter. Like her husband Evangalista, what she lacks in technical skill she makes up for in brutality. Her coaches do not escort her into the cage, they unleash her. It is assumable that she sustains herself in the mountains of Brazil, hunting wild predators with her bare hands, and living off of a healthy diet of raw meat and mare's milk. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find out she is directly descended from the female warrior tribes of the Russian steppes.
At EliteXC: Heat, we as mixed martial arts fans were able to see something beautiful. While the headlines were full of news concerning the pretty-faced Gina Carano getting naked at the weigh ins and being allowed to come into fights overweight because her breasts were big enough to justify her lack of preparation, "Cyborg" was breaking the stereotypes female martial artists have been burdened with for years. She fought with a type of vehemence you wouldn't even expect from the nastiest of male fighters, displaying a heart with such a love for her sport that you knew it wasn't just for the money or fame.
People love to call Gina Carano "the face of women's MMA." In my humble opinion, this perspective is highly detrimental to the development and acceptance of the legitimacy of female fighters. It's not sleek skills and a tight butt that women's mixed martial arts needs, it's the willingness of a fighter to step in the cage and maul, rampage, and massacre whatever human is standing across from her. Dancing around the cage for three rounds isn't going to make anyone look at female fighters differently. It isn't going to shatter the glass between women martial artists and mainstream acceptance. Blood, guts, and glory is what will get that done. Because, lets not kid ourselves, what fights do we remember most? The toe to toe wars, or the three round patty-cakes contests?
Santos, unlike the Carano, smashed through that glass of separation with all eight of her limbs. There was no need to maintain stereotypical femininity. She wasn't vying to sell herself to the mostly male fan base of mixed martial arts by looking hot and generating sex appeal. She was and is a fighter, plain and simple. Gina Carano may be the face of women's MMA, but Santos is the fists, mind, and heart of it.
On EliteXC's last night of fights, Santos battered and brutalized Japanese fighter Yoko Takahashi. Like a bat out of hell, she came out with her fists swinging right from the opening bell. We saw her punish Takahashi on the feet with her fists, and work her submission and ground and pound on the mat. For each of the three rounds, she was trying to put Yoko away with the utmost vigilance, smashing the game Japanese fighter in fifteen minutes of fast paced action.
In the end, Takahashi weathered the hell storm of Santos, but lost a lopsided unanimous decision. Santos had flown in under the radar, and now stood with one foot prominently upon the corpse of every stereotype she had overcome. "Cyborg" showed that she was a real fighter, ready to dish out punishment or receive it thereof. If this fight didn't prove her worth, I don't know what will.
Since her successful outing at Heat, rumors and speculations of a super fight between the Chute Box disciple and Carano have been flying avidly across the message boards. One can only hope this dream comes true, because after swallowing a few dozen knees and then having her head made one with the canvas, it'll be a hard sell to the public that Carano is the "face of women's MMA."
Stay tuned for #23 of the MMATorch Top 30 Fights of 2008, which will be revealed with a full article tomorrow.
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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