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Mark Davies: Does it matter if Gina Carano wins?
By Zach Arnold | August 9, 2008
By Mark Davies
Several months ago, while waiting for the tantalizingly inevitable pictures of Gina Carano’s latest weigh-in, I had a thought. No, not the same thought hundreds of teenaged MMA fans were having as they waited for those same pictures…
Most fight fans are aware of Gina’s routine failures to make weight, primarily because those failures lead to bikini pictures of the comely kickboxer, but how many people could tell you what weight she is failing to make? Or any of the weight classes in female fighting?
Conventional, and accurate, wisdom has it that both Kimbo Slice and Gina are being protected so that Elite XC may preserve their cash cattle. (That’snot a further slur on Gina’s inability to cut weight). If that’s true of Gina, and we’ll stipulate that it is, why is it necessary?
This question recurred recently when it was heavily rumored that Gina’s next opponent would not be Cris Cyborg, but someone very few fans had ever heard of.
Kimbo and Gina both bring a lot of new fans to Elite XC broadcasts. Giving them matchups that allow them to showcase their skills seems logical from a promoting perspective and, in Kimbo’s case, it is.
Not so much for Gina’s followers. Kimbo has a large fanbase of uneducated MMA fans who can convince themselves he is a top fighter. A thirty second annihilation at the hands of a good but not great fighter, maybe Ben Rothwell or Paul Buentello, would see Kimbo’s following evaporate. As soon as Kimbo takes a beating he’s the black Harold Howard.
Gina’s fans are a different story. They generally tune in to see the sexy chick that fights, but the contents of the fight aren’t as important as the fact that it exists.
There are dozens of women that make a living on nothing but good looks. When a woman, who has the necessary features to be in the last sentence, has an extra hook, like being a fighter, it sets her apart. People who wouldn’t tune in to a Leeanne Tweeden bikini special, will watch Anna Kournikova play tennis, even if they have no idea when its deuce.
Fans used to flock to see Gabrielle Reece play volleyball for the same reason. Knowledgeable fans knew she was among the worst players on the pro tour but the fans she attracted didn’t care. The same is true of Anna, who never won a big tournament. Gina may yet become an elite fighter, but right now Cyborg would eat her lunch, and still make weight afterwards.
The point of this is not to knock Gina, who seems like a nice person who cares about fighting. She is not to blame for her good looks or for the fact that people follow her because of them. She also deserves credit for resisting the urge to cash in by appearing in her unmentionables in every men’s magazine from here to Indonesia.
It’s doubtful anything but an extended string of losses would cause her to lose popularity, unless one of those losses were to feature extensive facial disfigurement.
Elite XC may actually be making a mistake protecting Gina. Fighters can sell fights on in-ring ability, gimmicks, or their looks but the great moneymaking fights all feature a compelling storyline.
Former friends Chuck and Tito facing off, Randy coming back to fight a man six inches and fifty pounds bigger, the invincible Chuck Liddell fighting the last man to beat him, or Fedor facing the man who knocked his brother out are all examples of the kinds of compelling stories that make fans care, and spend.
Other than Ken versus Frank, the best storyline available to Elite XC is as follows: Spunky glamour girl gets mauled by Big Butch Brazilian Cyborg. Broken, bleeding, and hopefully crying, Carano vows to come back stronger. (Hopefully from Elite’s perspective, I personally have no desire to see Gina cry).
Vignettes featuring Carano training for a rematch, interspliced with Cyborg destroying men in a backwater Brazilian gym with no air conditioning would build what would be the biggest female fight in MMA history. (It’s also the plot of Rocky 3, but it stands the test of time). That would have the double effect of making Elite a ton of money, and making Cyborg a star. She would be the first legitimate female star other than Carano.
Topics: Media, MMA, Pro Elite | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The author assumes that Cris Cyborg would “eat Gina’s lunch” just because Gina is the better looking one? Manly doesn’t mean good, and good looking doesn’t mean bad.
Hell, Gina has one advantage over Cyborg. She’s way bigger than her. Everyone counts out Gina every single fight, and she proves them wrong time and again. And yet, they keep clamoring for her downfall. Why? Because she’s pretty. Isn’t that reverse stereotyping?
It’s no secret that she’s being pushed due to her good looks. But she’s also dominated everyone she fought. What has she done that people keep trying to take her down a notch? If Gina Carano looked like a man on steroid and a face only a mother could love, like some of the other women fighters out there, I’m sure everyone would consider her the best fighter out there.
Having good looks and being a great fighter is not mutually exclusive.
“Hell, Gina has one advantage over Cyborg. She’s way bigger than her. ”
Because she doesn’t make weight in a class designed for her and she gets away with it just because she’s pretty. I like watching her fight, but I can’t stand watching rules get bent for her. And that’s my (and I’d assume others) only real problem with her at all.
I think what cyph means with “way bigger than her” is that even when Gina makes weight, by fight time she’s 10lb or more bigger than the opponent…and the same would happen against Cyborg.
On the other hand, what people seem to be forgetting is that Gina won a whole bunch of Muay Tai fights before getting into MMA…and Cyborg looked way too disorganized a fighter…I’m pretty sure Gina would wreck her to hell on their feet…she’s a lot cleaner in her standup, and she hits hard.
On the other hand, I may be talking out of my a$$ 🙂
Josh Barnett, Shayna Baszler, Tonya Evinger, and various others have all confidently predicted Gina would beat Cyborg. I think the idea that Cyborg would kill her is a stretch.
This article also assumes that Gina is a star. We know Kimbo could bring in fans for at least one event. There is nothing to show Gina can do this.
Well, no doubt that should she make weight she’d be a lot larger than Cyborg, but I can live with that. My issue is her not even being able to make that assigned weight in what is essentially a catch class to begin with.
Gina has gotten a lot of fan support and I’d say that she may be nearly as big in drawing potential as Kimbo, honestly. Just listen to the fan response when her face is on the screen if nothing else.
I dunno, Cyborg cut a lot of weight and gained it back pretty fast. She was huge at the fight compared to the weigh ins.
Cheers and an ability to sell tickets are two very different things.
The authour doesn’t know a damn thing about Gina Carano’s Muay Thai fight skills or he wouldn’t write this nonsense in the first place. Her standup is much more accomplished than Cyborg’s.
“The same is true of Anna, who never won a big tournament.”
Do the appropriate research before you write articles and make uninformed statements. I understand you are trying to point out that Anna wasn’t as good as the press she received, but the quoted statement is plainly inaccuate and you make MMA writers look like second class journalists.
Anna won 2 Grand Slam doubles titles (Australian Open 1999/2002) and was first runner up at a third Grand Slam (French Open 1999). While she might not have been a fantastic singles player to you (which should be still be arguable as she was ranked as high as 8 in the world during her career), she was a fantastic doubles player.
BTW- I’m not a huge tennis fan, but I actually work in professional sports and I hate seeing second class journalists cloud the sports industry with inaccurate research and bold statements.