The women's MMA fight that ever fan wants to see, Cristiane "Cris Cyborg" Santos vs. Gina Carano, will have to be put on hold. Strikeforce has announced that Cyborg will fight on its April 11 show in San Jose, but against Japan's Hitomi Akano, and not against Carano.
That's a disappointment, but not a surprise. Carano has still not said whether she will fight for Strikeforce after the promotion purchased her EliteXC contract last month. Carano was woefully underpaid by EliteXC, and she'll want to renegotiate before she agrees to get back into the cage.
So for now we've got Cyborg against Akano, a submission specialist with a 14-5 record. That's a fine fight to add to the April 11 card, which is headlined by Frank Shamrock vs. Nick Diaz, but after Strikeforce got our hopes up by talking about Cyborg vs. Carano, it's also a letdown.