Sarah Kaufman Takes Majority Decision, Sends Message to Strikeforce Champ

Former champ beats Alexis Davis, says she wants her belt back

In case Sarah Kaufman hadn’t made her feelings clear that she would rather have been fighting in the main event at Strikeforce on Saturday night, she reiterated it after a slugfest with Alexis Davis.

Kaufman beat Davis by majority decision in a fight that closed out the preliminary card of Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey – a fight that saw both women battered and bloodied after three rounds.

And after she had her hand raised, she sent a message to the two women fighting in the main event, bantamweight champion Miesha Tate and challenger Ronda Rousey, whom Kaufman believes talked her way into the title fight that rightfully should’ve been hers.

Throwing a few jabs at both Tate and Rousey, who talked plenty leading up to their fight, Kaufman, a former bantamweight champ, said if she gets to fight the winner, she won’t make it about talking.

“I knew (Davis) was going to come in tough. She was going to come in to fight,” Kaufman said. “And that’s what you guys want to see, right? A fight? You don’t want to see two girls parading around not fighting, just talking. I’m going to come, I’m going to fight, I’m going to have that title. It’s my title. So look out (whoever) has it.”

Kaufman, who improved to 15-1 with the win, said she doesn’t care who wins the main event that was still two hours away when she had her hand raised. She just wants a fight. She likely will get one now against Rousey, whose first-round armbar took Tate’s title.

“At this stage of the game, I’ll face whoever comes to fight,” Kaufman said. “Whoever fights tonight, that’s who I want. Because they have the title, and it’s my title.”

In the prelims’ opening fight, Ryan Couture, son of UFC Hall of Famer and MMA legend Randy Couture, upset Conor Heun with a third-round TKO. Couture was a 3-to-1 underdog in the fight, but picked up his first knockout win to improve to 4-1.

In a fun slugfest, Roger Bowling needed to get into the second round before finishing off fellow Ohioan Brandon Saling, who actually was able to land several damaging strikes against the heavy-handed Bowling before finally succumbing to strikes at 1:15 of the second round.

And Pat “Bam Bam” Healy survived a good first round from Caros Fodor, then wore his opponent down to get a third-round arm triangle submission.

 

0 Comments