‘Cyborg’ Santos Meets Her Match

I’ve often said that if anyone is going to create headaches for Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos in the women’s prizefighting ring, it’s going to be someone who can mimic the influx of wrestlers from 1990s male MMA. Now that might be happening.

HeadKickLegend.com reports that 2008 Olympic Bronze Medalist Randi Miller is making her MMA debut in Japan on Aug. 29 for the S-Cup promotion. At a competition weight of 139 pounds, Miller could compete either at 135 or 145 and has allegedly been training with Matt Hughes in Illinois.

This probably isn’t the beginning of a deluge: Women’s wrestling has a far smaller operating pool of talent than the men’s division. But it is an early signal that the level of athletic talent will finally begin to catch up with the level of technique. It may take a year or three, but Santos is looking at a problem.