Kerry Vera handily defeated Kim Couture in the first round of their fight at Friday night's Strikeforce Challengers series event, showing off impressive kicks and bloodying Couture's face and knocking her to the ground with hard punches before the referee stopped the fight.

Couture used her left jab effectively in the early part of the fight, and she snapped Vera's head back a couple of times. But Vera, a former professional muay Thai fighter, is the more skilled, polished striker, and she won the fight convincingly, ending it at 3:35 of the first round.

"The first punch that she hit me with, I was like, 'ooh, wake up, time to go,' but I came back," Vera said after the fight.

The bout came just six days after Couture's ex-husband, Randy Couture, defeated Vera's husband, Brandon Vera, at UFC 105. That fight will get a lot more attention than this one, but Kerry Vera showed on Friday night that she's a fighter all MMA fans should pay attention to. She's a strong striker with a winning personality, and she'll be a big part of Strikeforce's continuing efforts to promote women's MMA. Beating Couture was a step forward for her, and in her next fight she'll need to take a step up in competition.