THE CANADIAN PRESS
LAS VEGAS — Victoria’s Sarah Kaufman made it clear that she wants a rematch with Strikeforce women’s welterweight champion Marloes Coenen after dominating Liz Carmouche for three rounds at the promotion’s Challengers card on Friday.
"I need Marloes to win that match," said Kaufman of Coenen’s bout with Meisha Tate at Strikeforce’s show next weekend outside Chicago. "I want to take that title back and I want to avenge that loss.
"I hope the fans want to see that."
The approximately 1,300 fans inside The Pearl Theatre at the Palms Casino roared in agreement.
After all, they had just watched the 14-1 Kaufman batter the hard-charging Carmouche at Strikeforce’s first-ever card in Las Vegas. UFC parent company Zuffa purchased the MMA promotion — formerly based in San Jose, Calif. — in March.
Kaufman lost her 135-pound crown to Coenen by third-round armbar last October.
Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said that Kaufman had definitely worked her way back into the title picture, but wouldn’t completely commit to her taking on the winner of next week’s showdown between Tate and Coenen.
"She’s worked her way back, definitely one of the top three or four contenders," Coker said. "But there’s more women coming into that weight class from all over the world."
As much as Kaufman wants the rematch with Coenen, she admitted — after saying in the press conference she would rather fight Coenen even if the title wasn’t on the line — that she wants her championship back even more.
"I think I deserve to fight for the title again, I mean it was my title. I think I deserve that title shot I’ve put my time in Strikeforce," she said. "I do want that title back regardless of who I fight."
The previous one-loss Carmouche — who had given Coenen a handful before falling to a fourth-round choke in their match in March — came out firing at the start of the match. She landed a quick punch at the start of the first.
But the Greg Jackson-trained Kaufman settled in, pinning Carmouche against the fence. Kaufman quickly began to score points with her right jab while staying defensive in the clinch on the fence.
By the middle of the second round, Kaufman had bloodied the 27-year-old’s nose with a series of punches.
Needing a knockout or submission in the third, Carmouche again came out charging, but Kaufman’s blows were perhaps even stronger than in the second. She connected with a big left hook and landed a flurry of punches while slipping her opponent strikes in the final minutes.
"I’m happy with my performance. Liz is not an easy fight for anyone. She is obviously strong and very strong in the positions that she uses," Kaufman said. "I had to be careful that I didn’t get stuck up against the cage too much. I really wanted to clear that distance and use my strikes and use my length.
"As the fight went on I knew she couldn’t hurt me, I was really confident letting my hands go more. I don’t mind taking a shot, to me that’s fun. It’s part of the fight. I was happy I was more aggressive than I had been in my previous fights."
Kaufman’s bout was the first-ever women’s fight for Zuffa in its homebase of Vegas.
"It’s huge. Just the energy and the excitement for the fights in Vegas have been amazing," said Kaufman, who said she hopes next week’s fight in Chicago will be a thrilling tilt that will help the growth of women’s MMA.
"It’s absolutely important to put on the good shows because there is so much talk and controversy about having females in the division. But there’s visible fights coming up, so hopefully the excitement will be there."
In the night’s main event, Bobby Voelker delivered a wicked knee in the second round that wobbled Roger Bowling before immediately finishing the third part of their trilogy of fights with a series of punches.
"It was pretty suspenseful, he was winning the whole fight. I knew he was gonna come in hard, but I knew I just had to wait, weather the storm and catch him with something hard — which is exactly what I did," said Voelker, who also defeated Bowling by second-round punches in their second fight last October.
Friday offered mixed results for a pair of former NCAA football players.
Former University of Tennessee linebacker and defensive end Ovince St-Preux finished off his 205-pound opponent Joe Cason in just 72 seconds as he rocked him with a knee and pounced on him with a flurry of finishing punches.
Former LSU fullback Shawn Jordan, a last-minute fill-in for injured Lavar Johnson, lost a unanimous decision to heavyweight Devin Cole in the co-main event.
"I came out for this fight on short notice, so my gas tank wasn’t really there for it," Jordan said. "I wish I had a little better showing, but it was a good fight."
Earlier, Russian Adlan Amagov survived Ron Stallings in a split decision victory in the first bout of the Showtime-televised card, but may have been confused fighting for the first time in a cage. After the fight Amagov said through a translator: "It’s the first time I’ve competed in the Octagon."
Unlike big brother promotion UFC, Strikeforce participants compete in a six-sided hexagon cage. Amagov was also repeatedly warned and actually had his hands slapped down by referee Steve Mazzagatti a handful of times when he grabbed the fence for positioning.
"I believe that the judges’ decision was very objective. I believe I took the first two rounds. The other was more of an equal one," said Amagov, who threw three or four high-flying judo takedowns, including one in the second period that pinned Stallings against the fence.
"He was making contact with some very small punches that didn’t affect me at all and didn’t do much damage."
The most exciting and technically unsound fight of the undercard came when light heavyweights T.J. Cook and Lionel Lanham literally slugged it out until the buzzer sounded to end the first round — with the Florida-born Cook claiming the TKO victory with strikes at the 4:59 mark.
Another highlight was Anthony Smith, a Nebraska native, driving Ben Lagman into the fence with a flying knee before delivering a stunning right hand that put Lagman to sleep 30 seconds into the second round of their middleweight bout.
