Sarah Kaufman | Source: MMAWeekly.com
At 11-0 in her mixed martial arts career, Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Champion Sarah Kaufman is currently considered to be one of the best pound-for-pound female fighters in the world. Unfortunately, her last fight–a five-round title win over tentative Japanese fighter Takayo Hashi–has earned her criticism from fans and analysts who believe that she could have done better.
While preparing for her first title defense in the co-main event of Friday night’s Strikeforce Challengers card against Roxanne Modaferri, Kaufman took some time to speak with Tapology’s Steven Kelliher, addressing fan criticism along with a host of other topics, including her disappointment with fighting for a world title for the second time in a row on one of the promotion’s smallest cards of the year.
Strikeforce Challengers 9 takes place this Friday from the Comcast Arena in Everett, Washington, with the main card airing live on Showtime.
Tapology: Your last victory was a title win over Takayo Hashi. What are your thoughts on how the fight went overall?
Kaufman: It’s a hard thing because you obviously want an exciting fight, you want to get that knockout, but you also don’t want to put yourself in bad situations. I felt that I really stuck to my game plan and I was trying to be as aggressive as I could and it was hard with her being defensive—I felt like she was running away for much of the fight—so I did get some criticism from some people thinking it was a boring fight.
The next day I was pretty upset about it, which is pretty ridiculous considering that I just won the world title, but after watching it I noticed that it wasn’t a boring fight, it was just a technical fight. Fans want exciting fights; they want knockouts, so that’s what I’m going to try to do in this next fight.
Tapology: I wanted to address a bit of that criticism. Many people who watched the fight believed that you could have finished Hashi if you wanted to. Could you have finished her or would attempting to do so have put you in a reckless position?
Kaufman: I think if she had actually come to fight and had been more offensive then I definitely could have finished her, but since I had to chase her the whole fight I don’t think there was anything else I could have done to win that fight, unless I wanted to be careless, which, as a professional fighter, that’s what you try to get away from.
Tapology: Jon Fitch said the same thing when I spoke with him about a year ago. He has won four decisions in a row, so he has taken some criticism, but he said that he feels like—after the first round—some of his opponents back off and try to get to a decision, which makes it more difficult to finish them.
Kaufman: Exactly. It’s one of those things: if someone is literally backing up for the whole fight—like the Nate Quarry/Kalib Starnes fight—there’s not a whole lot you can do. You can try to cut corners and cut them off, but if all they’re doing is backing off then all you can do is stand in the middle of the ring and call them out, but then you’re just standing there.
Tapology: Does hearing this kind of criticism bother you, motivate you, or does it not affect you either way?
Kaufman: I think a bit of both. It’s a little bit disheartening because a lot of the fans take a look at fights that they consider exciting, but they’re really sloppy. They say, ‘Oh that was the best fight of the entire century,’ and in terms of excitement, maybe it was, but if you’re a fan who knows the sport it was a very sloppy fight where they just smashed each other.
At the same time, it is important to have the fans behind you because they give you the push to get bigger fights and bigger paydays, but there is also something to be said for fighting a technical fight and being technically superior to your opponent.
Tapology: You finished the first eight fights of your career by TKO, while the last three have come by decision. With that being said, is it at least beneficial for you to know that you can fight to the distance in a championship fight without getting exhausted?
Kaufman: I’ve never really questioned that even though a lot of my fights have finished in the first or second round. My coaches all do a really good job of making sure I’m in the best shape that I can be in. Because of that, I don’t really think, ‘I should hold back encase I get tired.’ I go in there and I fight, and I have a game plan that I try to stick to. I’m really confident and don’t get stressed that I will get too tired, so I can go five hard rounds.
I’ve proven that I can go five rounds, but I want to shorten this one up if I can.
Tapology: There was some confusion recently where you stated that you were no longer under contract with Strikeforce and they said that you were. Why did that confusion come about?
Kaufman: I’m not 100% sure. I should probably stick to the fighting and that’s probably something that I shouldn’t have talked about in the first place. It’s all been figured out and I’m glad that I’ll be defending my title.
Tapology: You will be fighting Roxanne Modafferi in that title defense. Do you think she stacks up well with some of your past opposition, such as Miesha Tate and Shayna Baszler?
Kaufman: Definitely. Roxanne has been around for quite a while and she’s fought some of the best females in the sport for sure. She has worked her way up and she is a game fighter. She says that she’s going to stand and knock me out, but I think that because of her style—she’s not a super defensive fighter—I’m hoping she doesn’t just run away.
Tapology: Do you think there is anything specific that you need to avoid against her?
Kaufman: I think we’re just going to go out there and put on a good show. Whether it’s on the feet or on the ground I want to get the finish, preferably by strikes. Who knows what she’s going to come out with? I’m just going to be ready for anything.
Tapology: We always talk about female fighter wages in these interviews, but it’s obviously an important topic to discuss. Now that you are the champion at 135lbs, has the reality that you don’t make nearly as much money as other champions in your organization hit you a bit harder?
Kaufman: It’s hard because for a lot of the male fighters they have quite a few options; depending on their skill level, they could go to the UFC, WEC, Bellator, MFC—there are so many organizations that they can go back and forth and up their stock that way. Female fighters don’t have many options. Strikeforce is the biggest promotion for female fighters right now, so there isn’t as much bartering that can be done.
My goal is really just to prove myself, try to get some finishes again, and I think the next step for me is to get off of the Challengers cards. To be fighting for a title on a Challengers card is not something that I want to do, especially twice.
Tapology: It does seem a little insulting to have a champion fighting on a Challengers card.
Kaufman: I think part of it is the worry that I’m not a big enough draw, but the other side to that is the way to become a bigger draw is go get some more exposure and to fight on a big card. That’s something that Showtime, Strikeforce, and myself will have to figure out, and I think an exciting win will help my case.
Tapology: Well hopefully you get that finish and hopefully this is the last time we’ll see you on a Challengers card. Thanks for the time.
Kaufman: Thank you so much.
