Women’s Welterweight Championship (135 lbs) bout: Sarah Kaufman vs. Marloes Coenen
Odds: (-295 Kaufman / +235 Coenen )
Betting Pick: Sarah Kaufman
In the second bout of the televised event, Women’s Welterweight champion Sarah Kaufman will look to defend her title against skilled grappler Marloes Coenen. Coenen has extremely good jiu-jitsu, but Kaufman is no slouch on the ground either and has far superior standup, so it remains to be seen whether Coenen can be successful in her second attempt at capturing a Strikeforce belt.
Marloes Coenen, one of the most prolific female grapplers in the sport, will enter this fight coming off a crushing loss to Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos in her bid to capture the Women’s 145 pound title. Now she will move down a weight class and give it another go. Unfortunately for her, this matchup looks a lot like the one against Cyborg minus the weight difference. Coenen will clearly be the better grappler in this fight, but Kaufman has really excellent standup that she is going to habe trouble dealing with.
Kaufman, undefeated so far as a professional, is a very formidable striker who actually has a fairly solid ground game although she does not utilize it much. Her bread and butter is her boxing, which is very technical and powerful, and her gameplan against Coenen will clearly be to keep the fight standing and box her around, something she is more than capable of doing. It is important that she is wary of takedown attempts though, since Coenen is far superior in the grappling department.
This is Kaufman’s fight to lose. Coenen is far better on the ground, but she has no answer for Kaufman’s standup, and that is going to prove fatal. Kaufman isn’t totally lost on the ground, but I doubt the fight will even make it there. Expect Kaufman to put a hurting on Coenen with her hands before winning by TKO.
Fight Prediction: Sarah Kaufman via second round T/KO.
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