Gina Carano suffered her first loss in the world of MMA at the brutalizing hands of Brazilian striker Cyborg Santos.  For those of you who didn’t get a chance to witness the Strike Force pay per view, the organization’s very first event to be headlined by two women, you probably heard all the chatter condemning Carano’s disappointing outing and the sport of women’s MMA in general.  The truth is that Gina had a lot of weight on her shoulders, weight that she was unable to hold during this point in her career.  The convincing loss to Cyborg has observers wondering: is Gina Carano done as an MMA fighter?

Set up for Failure?

It wasn’t long after the defeat before critics began to compare Carano to street fighting sensation turn MMA bust Kimbo Slice.  Since then, several have come out to say that she was simply all hype and no substance, plowing her way through lower quality opponents and only ascending to stardom because of her personality and beauty, not her abilities in the cage.  Though harsh in a sense, the comparisons are fair, especially when considering that Carano and Slice were both products of Gary Shaw’s proverbial “hype machine”, the same vehicle that benefited a number of boxers until they ran up against much better competition.  The major difference that many are overlooking is that while Kimbo went into the last EliteXC event looking for a big pay off and notoriety, Carano stepped into the bout against Cyborg seeking a real challenge. [Read more...]