When it was announced that the 6’2″ 245lb Gabi Garcia would be fighting a 49-year-old woman on Rizin’s latest card eyebrows were immediately raised. By no fault of Garcia, she is an actual MMA fighter but there’s just no competition for her in the higher women’s weight classes.
Garcia trains with UFC fighter Cris Cyborg and has made MMA her full-time career. Rizin’s open-weight fights are the only place that’ll pair her with opponents but unfortunately you get fights like her latest when opponents are scarce.
“Everybody knows the rules and get paid to fight,” said Gabi. “She [Hotta] accepted the fight. It’s not bizarre, it’s their culture. I respect that. It was a big marketing move for the company. ‘Look at us! Bizarre or not, look at us!’ I think [Nobuyuki Sakakibara] is very smart. He’s the greatest promoter in the world. He made ‘Minotauro,’ Wanderlei, Anderson, ‘Shogun,’ ‘Cro Cop’ and other legends.”
If attention was the goal, they surely delivered. It’s like watching a car crash that you’ve seen coming for miles but you can’t look away.
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