By John McMullen
(The Phanatic Magazine) - The Emperor has no clothes.
In the most highly anticipated fight in the history of women's mixed martial arts, the best fighter won and the fledgling Strikeforce promotion cringed.
Cris "Cyborg" Santos recorded a brutal first-round TKO victory over the fetching Gina Carano with just one second left in the frame before a raucous crowd of over 13,000 at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. on Saturday.
To savvy observers, the result was no surprise. Santos is a legitimate fighter and was the favorite at the Las Vegas sportsbooks, but Carano was the crowd's choice simply because of her stunning looks.
The daughter of former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Glenn Carano and a former cast member of NBC's American Gladiators, the cage, trading blows with Santos is the last place you would expect to see Carano.
The Maxim Magazine model entered the ring to a deafening roar but it was clear early on that she would be no match for Santos and lost for the first time in her MMA career.
With the win, Cyborg (8-1), of Curitiba, Brazil, earned the first-ever Strikeforce 145-pound championship and effectively destroyed the promotion's biggest drawing card.
By the end of the round, Santos was on top of Carano (7-1) and had delivered approximately 12 clubbing punches with both hands to Carano's head before referee Josh Rosenthal stopped things a split second before the horn sounded to end the opener of a scheduled five-round tilt.
"She can keep the title of being 'the face of women's MMA' I've got my title right here," Santos said after the fight.
Carano, who was fighting for the first time in eight months, was game but Santos used her superior power to dominate things.
"She was done. We're not gonna contest that," Carano trainer Shawn Tompkins told Andy Samuelson of the Las Vegas Sun. "The ref pulled her off, she wasn't answering, she wasn't going anymore."
Promoters always tell you they just want to put on great fights and let the chips fall where they may. Not in this case.
The 4:59 of Carano-Santos certainly matched the excitement of any all-male bout this year. Those in the building were engaged and left happy. But, despite her immense talent, Santos has absolutely no drawing power on her own.
The size of the crowd in San Jose and the fact that the women topped a card that featured name fighters like Gegard Mousasi, Renato Sobral, Gilbert Melendez and Fabricio Werdum was all because of Carano.
You have to go back to 1941 when legendary world women's wrestling champion Mildred Burke squared off with Elvira Snodgrass in front of 19,000 fans in Louisville, KY to find a similar success headlined by the ladies.
Now you might have to wait another 58 years.
Unless you buy into the hype of Santos-Carano II.
"She relayed to us that she felt so much pressure with the fight and everything surrounding it that it got to her," Tompkins said of Carano. "We know Gina very well. We train with her every day; we've known her for years; she's a good friend, like a sister to us all, and that wasn't Gina Carano in the cage tonight."
Actually it was...
The Emperor has no clothes. Just hope Playboy captures it in an upcoming pictorial.
-You can reach John McMullen at jmcmullen@phanaticmag.com
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