FanHouse KimCouture

Miesha Tate (5-1) went from training for a fight against a well-known, less experienced opponent in Kim Couture (1-1), to a lesser-known, more experienced opponent in Sarah Kaufman (8-0). It was a bitter pill to swallow for the up-and-coming female MMA star, but one that she ultimately realized could benefit her career even more in the long run.

A win over Couture would have been a nice addition to Tate's resume, but it also would have done little to prove that she is a top-level fighter. Defeating the undefeated Kaufman in the co-main event of tonight's inaugural Strikeforce Challengers event on Showtime, would go a long way in terms of establishing Tate as one of the best 135-pound female fighters in the world.

FanHouse spoke to Tate about gearing up for a new opponent on short notice and trying to be recognized for more than just her looks. The full interview is after the jump.

Miesha Tate and Sarah Kaufman have a mandate, and that's proving to the world that women's MMA goes deeper than just Gina Carano and Cris Cyborg.

The pair gets the opportunity to do so on May 15's Strikeforce Challengers event in Fresno, Calif., broadcast on Showtime.

Tate was originally booked to fight Kim Couture on the event, but after the latter dropped out due to personal reasons, she was replaced by Kaufman, who openly campaigned for the fight and got her wish granted when Strikeforce president Scott Coker moved her from a June 19 match with Shayna Baszler. Barring injury, the winner of the Tate-Kaufman bout will face Baszler.

Less than a week after Kim Couture pulled out of her scheduled May 15 bout against Miesha Tate at Strikeforce: Challengers, the San Jose-based promotion has found a more than suitable replacement. FanHouse has learned that Sarah Kaufman, 8-0, has agreed to step in on short notice to face Tate (5-1).

Kim Couture, the wife of UFC legend Randy Couture, has dropped out of her upcoming "Strikeforce Challengers" fight against Miesha Tate on May 15 due to "personal reasons." A Strikeforce source confirmed the news and the reason to FanHouse earlier this morning. No specific explanation was given for her decision.

MMAWeekly.com first reported the news citing a blog post on Tate's MySpace account. Tate insinuated that the reason Couture pulled out of the fight was due to marital problems with her husband, Randy.

On Saturday night, Strikeforce put on its first MMA show of 2009, and on Sunday night Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker talked to me about how he thinks the first show went and where he sees Strikeforce going in 2009.

Among the topics we discussed were the success of Nick Diaz, the future of Frank Shamrock, the weight of Cris Cyborg (and her likely future fight with Gina Carano), as well as the possibility that big names in MMA including Kimbo Slice, Tito Ortiz, Royce Gracie and Fedor Emelianenko could fight in the Strikeforce cage. The full interview is below.

Although Strikeforce has still not been able to come to terms with the face of women's MMA, Gina Carano, it has come to terms with the first lady of MMA, Kim Couture.

Couture, the wife of UFC legend Randy Couture and a sometime fighter herself, confirmed on HDNet's Inside MMA that she will fight on the May 16 Strikeforce card. Couture said she does not know yet who her opponent will be, but she has accepted an invitation to appear on the May card, which will be the second of the year for Strikeforce.

I didn't like what I saw when I watched Kim Couture earn a first-round TKO over Lina Kvokov in Friday night's Strikeforce show. Couture isn't a first-rate fighter like Tara Larosa or Cris Cyborg or Gina Carano, but she regularly trains with some of the best in the world, and Kvokov looked woefully unprepared to fight someone like Couture.

So I'm glad to see that Couture herself says she didn't much like that fight, either.

On the Xtreme Couture blog, Kim Couture says she'd love to fight for Strikeforce again, but that she hopes she gets some opponents who don't turn their backs in the middle of the fight.

Kim Couture notched her first professional mixed martial arts win tonight, beating Lina Kvokov at Strikeforce: Destruction.

Couture, who suffered a broken jaw while trying to touch gloves in her first fight, didn't bother touching gloves this time around. Instead, she stalked Kvokov, landed a combination, and then worked some knees from the Muay Thai clinch. Kvokov was clearly overmatched, appeared to be afraid to take a punch, and didn't look like she belonged in a professional MMA fight.

The fight was mercifully stopped quickly, and Couture won a first-round TKO.

Couture, who was cornered by her husband Randy Couture and her friend and training partner Gina Carano, improves her record to 1-1. Kvokov falls to 0-2.

Kim Couture will fight Lina Kvokov on tonight's Strikeforce: Destruction card, and in this videos he talks both about that and about her husband Randy Couture's loss to Brock Lesnar at UFC 91:

"I thought he did a great job," Kim said of Randy, just minutes after the fight. "He just got clipped. ... Brock has very long arms and he did a good job. ... He just proves that size does matter."

The Affliction clothing line and mixed martial arts promotion did what it had to do today, accepting the resignation of Todd Beard.

The resignation comes days after Kim Couture, the wife of UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture, got a restraining order against Beard. After news of the restraining order came out, a series of allegations of impropriety surfaced surrounding Beard.