Tate talks Coenen, Team Alpha Male and the future for women?s MMA

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. -- If Miesha Tate walks away with the Strikeforce women's bantamweight championship belt this weekend, she has Sarah Kaufmann to thank. Tate dropped a decision to Kaufmann at a Strikeforce Challengers show in 2009, and since that fight, has developed a different mindset about her fights.

"That fight taught me a lot about confidence," Tate said at an open workout before the Strikeforce bouts on Saturday night. "I doubted myself. In all my fights since then, I've learned that you have to believe in yourself 100 percent. I could be fighting Cyborg tomorrow, and I'd be 100 percent confident that I was going to beat her. I'm going to go out there and do the best I can, and lay it all out on the line, and ideally, I'll walk away with that belt."

That mindset helped her earn five straight wins and a title shot against Marloes Coenen this Saturday night. Coenen's last bout was a fourth-round submission over Liz Carmouche, after Carmouche had controlled the entire bout. Tate says that fight doesn't represent Coenen's true abilities.

"I've seen Marloes fight a lot before that and I feel like she didn't look like herself in that fight. I've seen her look better, and I can only assume that she's going to come in stronger for that fight."

But she did see a weakness that she can exploit: Coenen's lack of wrestling experience.

"She doesn't have that element developed in her game, and that's where I come from. I wrestled for four years before I started fighting. Even if she went home and trained nothing but wrestling since her last fight, you can't learn wrestling in a couple of months. I think it's going to be a struggle for her, and whenever we grab a hold of each other, I'm going to win."

To build on that wrestling background, Tate worked with a camp full of wrestlers who have made a successful transition to mixed martial arts. Her training with Urijah Faber's camp, Team Alpha Male, has prepared her mentally and physically.

"They understand that it's so much more than being physically ready. They have this great mental outlook on life and on fighting, and I think that's where most of the fight is won, in your head and your heart, before you ever get out there."

The pressure's on female fighters

Both Coenen and Tate have an extra pressure on them this weekend. Since Zuffa's purchase of Strikeforce, the future of women's MMA is unknown. Though Strikeforce has long been a big supporter of female fighters, Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta have been lukewarm, saying that there isn't enough depth.

Tate is looking at her spot on the main card of a televised event as a chance to show that women's MMA does deserve a future.

"It's not exactly pressure, though. I don't feel pressure, I feel really motivated. I feel like this is our opportunity, so I want to make the most of it. I feel like there's going to be a lot of people paying attention to this, and Dana and Lorenzo and all the guys in the UFC, and Zuffa will maybe start giving women a little recognition, and actually taking notice of it and what it's all about."

With this fight, she isn't setting out to become the face of women's MMA, but she's is proud to help her sport grow.

"It's not my main goal to be the face of MMA, but I love the idea that I have the opportunity to play a huge role in women's MMA, and I'd gladly accept that responsibility. I feel like I'm a good representation of it. I work hard. I'm going to go out there and fight. I'm happy when I can get out there and voice a little bit for the women."

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UFC 133: Yahoo! Sports and Heavy present Fight Day Live

Fight Day is back on August 6th with another star-studded UFC pre-show, live from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA.  Hosts Dave Farra and Megan Olivi will welcome UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar to the set for a live interview.  Also appearing live on set is the always controversial middleweight contender, Chael Sonnen.  Fight Day will also sit down with a pair of UFC 133 fighters.  First, a revealing discussion with main event participant Rashad Evans, where he will discuss the roller coaster that has been his life over the last 18 months.  There will also be an inside look into Vitor Belfort's training camp that shows how the former champion plans to rebound from his crushing defeat at the hands (or foot) of Anderson Silva.  Throw in a panel of MMA experts to break down all of the night's fights and you've got 60 minutes of programming you don't want to miss. Fight Day airs live from UFC 133 at 5pm EDT/2pm PDT.

Also, Heavy will give away a pair of tickets to UFC 133. Head to their Facebook page for more information

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Strikeforce done with Overeem, heavyweight champ reportedly dropped by Zuffa

There's a new sheriff in town and he's not messing around. Strikeforce fighters were sent a message tonight by their new boss Zuffa - play the game or play it elsewhere.

Back on July 18, the promotion's heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem got in a public beef over a fight date. Overeem said he wasn't available to fight on Sept. 10 on Showtime. It took less than 12 hours for Zuffa to pull him from the Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix. Now less than two weeks later, he's a free agent as Zuffa released Overeem from his contract according to HDNet's "Inside MMA."

Sources close to the situation have told "Inside MMA's" Ron Kruck that Strikeforce has exercised its right to eliminate the one remaining fight on Overeem's contract effective July 22nd.

Also according to the source, Overeem has been dealing with more serious injuries than originally reported, including a broken toe and rib and elbow problems. Overeem will fight next in October in Russia for the promotion United Glory.  No word on who his opponent will be.

This is a terrible blow for MMA fans. Overeem is certainly one of the top five heavyweights in mixed martial arts. Fights against the likes of Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos, Josh Barnett, Antonio Silva or even Brock Lesnar would've been big sellers. It seems unlikely Overeem will be fighting under the Zuffa umbrella anytime soon.

Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, purchased Strikeforce back in March. The organization immediately got an overhaul in the front office and with some of the support staff.

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Hand Injury May Keep Chad Mendes From UFC Featherweight Title Shot

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Chad Mendes elbows Rani Yahya, UFC 133PHILADELPHIA -- For the 11th time, Chad Mendes stepped into the cage, and for the 11th time he won. But not everything is perfect for the fighter nicknamed "Money."

While his unbeaten record may make him seem like a natural to be next in line for a featherweight title shot, a hand injury suffered in his unanimous decision win over Rani Yahya may rule him out of that slot.

Mendes said he hurt his hand in the first round of the UFC 133 bout, and told MMA Fighting afterward that he wasn't sure of the extent of the injury, but that he "felt a pop" and couldn't make a fist afterward.

Afterward, when asked by MMA Fighting if Mendes would get a title shot, UFC president Dana White said he thinks Mendes broke his hand and would soon be getting X-rays.

White seemed to indicate that Mendes may get the title opportunity if he was healthy. Though the unanimous decision performance didn't blow away onlookers, it was a solid performance nonetheless. White tempered any criticism of Mendes, who has won five of his six fights under the Zuffa banner by decision, including four straight.

"It's tough when you're in that position when people say he should be next but you don't go in and finish," he said. "It's tough, but there's no doubt he won the fight. If Tiger Woods goes out and wins but doesn't crush everyone, people ask, 'Is he the best in the world?' But he still won."

Mendes said that it was his plan to spend much of the fight on his feet, but after he injured his hand he was forced to change things up. He went a perfect six-for-six in takedown tries and stayed out of any trouble against the submission specialist in picking up the win.

For his part, Mendes was satisfied with his victory.

"Of course we all look for a finish, but overall I am happy with the fight and I felt good," he said. "When I took him down the first time I wanted to see what he felt like. He's a tough guy and I knew he would be strong. I was trying to elbow him and follow through with some quick pop-shots as much as possible."

Unless he leaves the doctor with a clean bill of health though, he might miss out on another title shot (he already skipped one chance when he decided not to wait for Jose Aldo to get healthy). If he does get positive news from his doctors, he may be the man waiting to see who emerges with the belt when Aldo and Kenny Florian scrap at October's UFC 136.

 

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UFC president awards a $70,000 bonus because he hated a fighter?s short

If fighters deliver on fight night for the UFC, the promotion has no problem throwing lots of cash their way. Bonuses for Fight of the Night, Submission of the Night and Knockout of the Night, have turned out to be a brilliant moves and really motivate the fighters.

There was no submission victory at UFC 133 so UFC president Dana White used the extra cash to award a brand new bonus - "the thanks for getting those horrifying shorts off TV as soon as possible" bonus.

Brian Ebersole's victory was impressive, but White was happier with the fact that he no longer had to watch Dennis Hallman (pictured) in the Octagon wearing tiny, tiny blue Speedos.

White argued that Hallman's fight gear wasn't even a Speedo.

"That wasn't a Speedo. I've seen Speedos before, that had to be custom made," White said with a tone somewhere between joking and still kind of irked. "[Ebersole] deserved every dime he got!"

The blue trunks may have distracted Ebersole. A good grappler, he was taken down in the opening 15 seconds of the fight and had to deal with a submission predicament. Hallman had his back and was trying to secure a choke.

"I was just worried about that cup, and his uniform malfunctioning to be quite honest," joked Ebersole.  "I knew I was fine from there. I've been training with some very, very good black belts in Melbourne, Australia."

There was reportedly a legitimate junk sighting earlier in the fight. Hallman had top control, his shorts got caught on Ebersole's arm and they pulled away from his body, exposing the viewing audience to something it didn't want to see. We won't be linking to that "highlight."

Aside from the money, Ebersole said the strange reason for the bonus will make for a great story down the road.

"It's obviously one of them stories that's going to stick out for a long time. The longer I fight, the less stories I'm probably going to  remember. That'll be one I can tell the grandkids and have a laugh about," said Ebersole.

Ebersole's journey to fighting on a UFC pay-per-view is pretty amazing. He's a 30-year-old from Indiana, but had to fight abroad to finally get his chance. He moved to Australia in 2007 and logged a total of 61 professional fights before catching the attention of the UFC. Now he's 2-0 with the biggest promotion in the world.

"It's a bit surreal. I always knew I could compete with the best guys in the world because I trained [in the past] with the best guys in the world out in California. So to be able to get my chance and win my first two fights ... you know I got thrown at the wall and I stuck," Ebersole said. "You know they can't rid of me for a little while. I'm pretty happy that I've done what I set out to do."

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Is Your Motorcycle Helmet Making You Deaf?

I ride bikes for a living, in case you didn’t know this already. I ride more miles on two wheels in a year, than the average American does in their automobile (I put more four-wheel miles down a year than the average American does as well, if that gives you any idea how much of Asphalt & Rubber is written while on the road). With all this riding, I’ve become increasingly concerned over my hearing, ...

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