Ronda Rousey post-fight interview; video recap and highlights from ‘Strikeforce: Rousey vs. Kaufman’

“First of all, I need to send out a challenge to Ms. Cyborg out there. People want to see you have the first fair fight of your life? I’m the champ now, the champ doesn’t go to you, you come to the champ. Come down to 135 and let’s settle this. If you still want to go out in the parking lot, my friend Wetzel brought my gloves and I’m going to be right there!”

Those were the words of Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey (6-0) following her 54-second armbar submission of former champ Sarah Kaufman (15-2) Saturday night in San Diego.

Before the fight, Kaufman said Rousey had never faced anyone as well-rounded as her and with her level of striking. And while that may have been true, it mattered not one iota, as Kaufman got to throw exactly one punch before Rousey closed the distance with punches and took the Canadian to the ground. Most experts agreed if the fight went to the ground Kaufman stood little chance, and they were correct.

And in what was certainly “fight of the night” and very likely “fight of the year” for women’s MMA, was a 135-pound match-up between former champion Miesha Tate (13-3) and veteran Julie Kedzie (16-11) in the Showtime Extreme preliminary card headliner.

Kedzie started the fight strong, at one point almost knocking Tate out with a head kick, but “Cupcake” was able to hang tough and eventually come back to win via armbar submission in the third round.

It was an intense hard-fought back-and-forth battle that saw both ladies take control at different points in the bout. Tate lost the title to Ronda Rousey in her last fight and with performances like this she could see herself back in the cage and fighting to regain the title sooner rather than later.

Rousey is much more pleasant to interview AFTER the fight as she talks with Showtime’s Heidi Androl:

If you missed the live Showtime broadcast, you can check out the complete “Strikeforce: Rousey vs. Kaufman” fight results and our play-by-play commentary on ProMMAnow.com (www.prommanow.com). Also, stay tuned for all our exclusive post-fight video interviews.