Gina Carano vs Kedzie
Gina Carano Defeats Kedzie
In what ended up being called “the fight of the night,” Gina Carano soundly defeated Julie Kedzie, in the first women’s MMA fight for EXC in Southhaven, Mississippi on Feb. 10th. The fight aired live on Showtime and after three very impressive rounds, Carano walked away with a unanimous decision. Carano and Kedzie were true professionals before, during and after the fight, and even though Kedzie seemed to be suffering through a brutal beating, she never once lost her composure or her desire to prove to the audience that women truly do own a piece of this up and coming sport. “I’m extremely proud of both of us for what we showed out there,” Kedzie told MMA Weekly, “I’m really pleased. I think we showed, together, what women are capable of.”
Kedzie came into the fight a heavy underdog but her level of class was evident from the weigh-in. When it looked as if Carano was going to have to strip naked in a roomful of men to make weight, Kedzie brushed it off, accepted the fact that she was a little over and simply said, “Screw it, let’s just fight.” Carano’s 20 lb. weight drop to enter Kedzie’s class seemed to have a direct impact on her ability to bully Kedzie throughout the night, “I thought it had a huge effect on the fight,” Kedzie said in her MMA Weekly interview after the fight, “I think she was clearly very strong, like much stronger than me and I got pushed around a lot in that fight. I wasn’t expecting to get bullied around as much, because I’m usually the bully.”
Carano dominated from the moment the two women entered the cage. Although Kedzie quickly landed a front kick in round one and went for a takedown, Carano easily held her off and landed a hard knee to Kedzie’s stomach avoiding a second takedown try. She then escaped Kedzie’s guard and getting back on her feet landed several right hand punches followed by a head kick and two more right hands. Sherdog.com put Carano on top- 10-9.
Round two got off to a quick start as Carano landed a low and hard kick. Although Kedzie scored a takedown, Carano ended up on top. Back on their feet, Kedzie managed to counter a head kick with a right hand punch but Carano quickly came back with a right hand punch of her own followed by kicks to the Kedzie’s legs and a couple of head punches. Kedzie went down on a hard right hand punch from Carano but managed to get back on her feet and scored a body lock takedown to end the match. Sherdog.com scored round two,10-9, once again in favor of Carano.
In round three, Kedzie manages a takedown but Carano once more gots to her feet. Throwing a double jab, Carano landed a right hand punch but took one from Kedzie in return. The round ended as Carano landed a very powerful knee strike and scored a takedown of her own. Final score of the judges 29-28,29-28,30-27. Carano walked away with a unanimous decision.
In a final evaluation, Carano’s stand-up was nothing short of amazing as she landed several combinations that had Kedzie’s ears ringing. When Kedzie was able to take her to the mat, Carano quickly reversed the position and returned to pummel Kedzie soundly. Although it seemed that the fight was over on several occasions, Kedzie - to her credit, kept coming back. Both these women did an excellent job of proving to Showtime viewers that women in the MMA are just as tough as the men.