Did Zuffa Drop The Ball With 'Cyborg' Santos?

Did Zuffa do the right thing in the release of Women's MMA star, 'Cyborg' Santos?
 
I’ll begin by offering a concession to Strikeforce: I don’t think women’s MMA will ever be on the level of men’s MMA. I know that sounds equally stupid and sexist, but I only mean that as it applies to mainstream acceptance and marketability. No matter what, some fight fans simply don’t find women’s fights interesting. If we go into why that is, we’d be here all day and that’s not the point of this topic. Whether it’s the smaller weight or the fact that they’re women, it’s probably unlikely that women’s MMA will ever reach the same level of respect, hype, and marketability as men’s MMA.

But with that said: in releasing Cristiane Santos, Strikeforce not only shot itself in the foot, but it let go of its best chance at making women’s MMA a respectable, marketable aspect of their promotion. And that’s not the fan in me talking, that’s the realist.

Allow me to explain myself by asking one simple question: what do MMA fans like the most? You can say it’s the ground game, or the technical stand-up, or all the many nuances that make this sport so multi-faceted. But I know and (be honest) you know what most people like the most about MMA: they like seeing someone get destroyed. Everyone likes seeing people get KTFO’d, or pummeled, or beaten down. We pay to see an MMA event, but what we really want are the dramatic finishes that we never forget. We want the destroyers and the knockout artists, that’s why people like Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva were at one time two of the biggest draws in MMA history.

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