I grew up in a household where Saturday night at the fights was the only way to spend the evening. It was 5 o'clock mass, pizza and then we'd gather around the black and white. Fast forward to Saturday, August 15th and the most important, highly anticipated fight in women's mixed martial arts; touted as the largest combative fight in the history of women was just about to grace the Showtime screen.
(Gina) Carano vs (Cristina Justino Venancio) Cyborg / USA vs Brazil / 27 vs 26 years of age; the oddsmakers said we'd be in for three tough rounds. However, after about thirty seconds I blurted out "do you know how long five minutes is if you are in a ring fighting a cyborg?" (you know... a cybernetic organism).
Round 1 - It was fascinating to hear the San Jose deafening crowd as the evening's main-event fighters were announced. This was a decidedly pro-Carano crowd. Before the opening bell the fans were on their feet chanting "Gina, Gee-Nah" to greet the action. Santos moved in quickly, the action almost immediately hit the floor as the noise level dramatically increased. Up against the cage and down again the femme fatales moved furiously. As I watched the clock ticking down, it appeared that time had stopped. More punches fired in a furry when Carano delivered a few blows, but Santos stood tough, remained firm footed and only two minutes had passed. There were a few jabs, a couple kicks, a right and then finally Santos pushed in and threw Carano to the floor. Santos was warned for gouging Carano's eyes, and took her opponent down who unbelievably squirmed free. As the clock approached the end of the first round, just under five minutes Santos delivered a series of hard rights when the referee rushed in to stop the bout just as the horn sounded.
The MMA mixed martial arts bout, a full on grappling, sprawling, kicking, boxing, kinda sport, came to a brutal end in a first round TKO 4 minutes 59 seconds.
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