With our beloved Strikeforce champion Ronda Rousey now the official first ever UFC women’s champion and set to make her debut for Dana White’s dominant promotion on Feb. 26, more and more females are trying their hands at Mixed Martial Arts. Of course, this doesn’t come without its fair share of criticism and vitriol from fighting purists, as some people might view women fighters as boring compared to the men. And it doesn’t help that White admitted that there wouldn’t even be a women’s division in the UFC if it weren’t for Rousey being such a badass.

“No other (female) fighters have what Rousey has,” he said. “She’s nasty. She’s mean. She’d actually fight a dude if that’s what it took to get in the UFC. She’d do it. … I’ve seen a lot of tough girls, but I haven’t seen a girl with the whole package until I met her.”

Thanks to that nastiness and meanness, progress is being made and new female fighters are trying their hands and feet at ass-kicking in smaller promotions across the country. Among them is perhaps the greatest example that fighters like Rousey and Gina Carano before her have made a huge impact in reaching across typical boundaries of stereotypes and social expectations.

Rachel Wray – not the TV personality, but it would be so much cooler if she was – is a former Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader who made her MMA debut for Blue Corner in Kansas City in September. Wait, why on Earth would an NFL cheerleader want to give that up to potentially get her ass kicked?

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<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

First the bad news – while there’s no official word yet from Strikeforce, its parent company Zuffa LLC, or Showtime, it appears that Strikeforce’s incredibly-anticipated January event that promised to make up for the canceled September and November events will indeed be the organization’s last. TMZ, the world’s leading news source for mixed martial arts business dealings, reported yesterday that the future that many people predicted for Strikeforce after it was purchased by Zuffa is indeed coming true. Yes, this sucks.

Now the kind-of-good news – that January 12 event in Oklahoma City could be one of the most exceptional events in MMA history (much like those that we have EXCITING LIVE DISCUSSIONS for), as the rumored plan involves every Strikeforce champion defending his and her titles one last time. It’s not official yet, and according to Yahoo!, we shouldn’t get our hopes up, because UFC president Dana White hates Showtime and won’t let this happen. But I’m a careless optimist and I believe they’ll think of adorable fans like me and absolutely make it happen.

But now, the great news – With Leather favorite and extreme badass Ronda Rousey will indeed be heading to the UFC, which marks an incredible 180 for White.

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Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire, with its precise 50/50 mix of making you wish you were Gina Carano and wish they’d sprung for an actual actress, was not what you’d call a blockbuster. As of this month it’s still sitting about six million dollars under budget, and sure, that’s like 17-million higher than Soderbergh’s usual “doll factory in a decaying town” efforts, but it’s not enough to turn the film into a franchise, collection of action figures or 4-D amusement park thrillride where action simulators pretend to be Gina’s thighs and crush your neck.

But don’t get discouraged! Your dreams of seeing Gina Carano naked in a movie one day become a big name movie star aren’t completely dead — she’s reportedly signed on for her second lead action effort, In the Blood. That’s my favorite Truman Capote book!

Carano will play the wife of a man who disappears while the couple is vacationing in the Caribbean. Carano’s character recklessly pursues the people she believes are the kidnappers.

“This role will showcase not only Gina’s fighting skills, but also her acting abilities as her character struggles to reign in her violent past,” director John Stockwell says.

So basically making a WWE Films film where Gina Carano plays John Cena playing whoever and the gender roles are switched. At this point I think the more compelling film is about someone who ISN’T struggling to reign in a violent past. Unless Gina’s planning to go full on swinging-dick Viggo Mortensen here I don’t see it working.

Of course, setting the movie in the Caribbean guarantees us that one bikini shot of her drinking white win and smiling before the sh*t goes down. Good job, John Stockwell.

[h/t Larry Brown Sports]

Welp, my brain just started bucking. Here come those repressed memories.

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Watch the Worst Church Singer of All Time - Basically the opposite of the Wharvey Girls from O Brother Where Art Thou. Also, basically the opposite of someone who will ever have sex. [The FW]

Photoshop Challenge: Liam Neeson Versus… - I will not be even 1% surprised if this leads to Liam Neeson Vs. Predator in real life. Liam Neeson should try battling his performance in Phantom Menace. [UPROXX]

STen Pointless, Expensive On-Screen Props I Need to Own - BRING ME THE HEAD OF BABY SINCLAIR. [Warming Glow]

Cross Your Fingers: Dave Chappelle & Chris Rock Could Tour Together - Just like Watch The Throne, only Kanye and Jay-Z are still relevant. Yeah, sorry, no amount of being the black friend from Grown Ups is going to make me like you again, Chris. [Smoking Section]

“Total Recall” Remake Not Very, Uh, “Total Recall”-esque - Destiny is going to be disappointed. Total Recall is one of her favorite movies. In fact, like four of her five favorite movies involve Arnold. My girlfriend is weird. [Gamma Squad]

‘I Want You to Make My Mouth Pregnant’ leads AVN ‘Clever Title Award’ - Porn guys sure do have a weird idea of what constitutes “clever”. They should give Allie Sin a Newbery medal. [Film Drunk]

Stephen Colbert’s Interview With Maurice Sendak Was Outrageously Funny - Almost as cool as the time E.B. White and Bill Watterson went on Bill Maher and yelled at each other about religion. That didn’t happen, but oh man. [UPROXX]

Top 10 Pictures Of Vladimir Putin Beating Up Little Kids - Sometimes I feel like we should just start a blog about Russia. Somehow they were less crazy as evil Soviets. [Buzzfeed]

Stick Figure Decals For Your Unfortunate Lifestyle - The “my student could beat up your a-student!” bumpster stickers for a new generation. [Adult Swim]

Gina Carano explains why sex Is like cage fighting. If this doesn’t make you a fan, nothing will - And if you aren’t already a fan, you’re one of those Cage Potato commenters who hate everything. [FARK]

Single Men Vs. Single Women In NYC - As someone swimming in beautiful alty girls in Austin, Texas, this graphic is important and useful to me. [High Definite]

“The only time I got hurt was when I punched Gina Carano in the head by accident.”

I want that written on my tombstone.

That’s what Ewan McGregor told an extremely excited to be there correspondent of the E! Network at the Golden Globes. Between this and trying to pop Jim Norton’s eyeballs out of his head it looks Gina’s doing more damage as a leading lady than she ever did cagefighting and whomping people in the neck with pugil sticks on ‘American Gladiators’.

The story, which either confirms that Gina Carano’s skull is too foxy for human hands or Obi-Wan Kenobi can’t throw a punch:

“I had a series of three punches, but the third one…for one reason or another I connected really hard on the side of her head,” McGregor said. “She was the one who got straight up and said, ‘Are you OK?’ She was asking me if I was OK! But she was right because I almost broke my friggin’ hand!”

Carano took the hit like a champ. McGregor laughed, “She was absolutely fine.”

I guess she’s really taking that killing people in her underwear thing seriously. She should’ve connected really hard on the side of his head for making Down With Love.

Comedian Jim Norton has a history of letting visiting MMA stars incapacitate him for the enjoyment of the Opie & Anthony radio audience, and while clips of him getting heel hooked by Brock Lesnar or being guillotine choked by Cain Velasquez are funny, they’re missing the important “i want to worship her anus” comments that make an Internet video successful. Enter: this clip of Haywire leading lady and sorta-kinda-still-MMA-star Gina Carano choking out Jimmy on Tuesday’s show.

If you need to know why this is basically the best thing that can happen to a man, here’s what she says before she does it:

“I’m just gonna squeeze your throat real quick. I love that I have heels on. It makes it so much easier.”

Amazing.

They should bring on Cris Cyborg next and see if Jimmy gurgles and taps out when she jams a needle into his ass cheek.

[h/t to Cage Potato]