During the build up for Gina Carano’s fight against Christiane “Cyborg” Santos last night in San Jose, Carano’s manager claimed that they had turned down “multiple offers” from Playboy to have Carano do a spread for the magazine, saying that “it never even reached to a point where we would talk about money.” Umm, about that…after Carano was stopped by Santos at the end of the first round, her manager might want to place a call to Hugh Hefner to see if that offer still stands.
And when I say that she was stopped “at the end of the first round” I mean that literally - as in “with one second left,” a fact that left most of the crowd wanting more. And with good reason: for 4:59, they put on an entertaining slugfest that had more thrills than the last UFC card. But as you can see in the video after the jump, it was Santos’ ability to throw punches in bunches that was the difference in the fight:
Conventional wisdom would say that Carano’s career both as a fighter and as a crossover star took a major hit after suffering her first loss. But I’m not so sure that’s the case: nothing endears a fighter to the public more than the “comeback” story following a loss. People want to see a fighter go on the path the dememption and eventually get revenge against the person who handed their their defeat.
As for Santos: she’s not Carano: the only magazine that would be calling her asking for a cover shoot would be muscle magazines and not Playboy or Maxim. But that doesn’t mean she can’t sell tickets, just on the basis of being an incredible fighter - think a Brazilian version of Ivan Drago. It will be interesting to see how her career progresses in the next few fights until the inevitable big money rematch with Carano happens.
At least Santos has a sense of humor, or someone in her camp does: they called the Strikeforce promoter hours before the fight and told him they would have to cancel the fight because she was pregnant. Which turned out to be a joke, but I’m sure one that the Strikeforce team didn’t think was all that funny.
7:27 pm on August 16th, 2009
solid win for cyborg. carano was in trouble at the end and the ref appeared to call the fight after the horn, but could have ended it just before. proof was how carano remained on the mat when cyborg was celebrating. she was hurt.
this will lead to a rematch. another big pay-day. which is what all involved want.
9:06 pm on August 16th, 2009
Does this mean that Carano will now spread for Playboy???
I’ve got to know!!!!
10:50 am on August 17th, 2009
I was actually relieved when they said the fight was over because Cyborg might have killed her in the 2nd round.
From the get go, Carano was backing up. I’ve never seen her being backed up before. She met a stronger, faster, quicker, more technical, and all around much better fighter. If there’s going to be a rematch, Gina will need to learn something new because right now, she’s not even at the same level as Cyborg.
And by the way, whoever told her to let her up after SHE MOUNTED CYBORG needs to be fired!
2:41 pm on August 18th, 2009
For the Record I guess one could see it coming if they looked carefully.Carano had her hands balled up when she met Santos.That was something I had never seen her do before.The rest of the fight was nearly a one-sided tragedy…it kinda broke my heart.
But I believe Carano will return.I just don’t know when.I mean people let’s face it.Now that the hype and the pomp is gone I do believe she will become a strong and challenging contender and, with a stronger attitude,defeat Santos in a rematch.