Just 10 days before she's set to defend her Strikeforce title belt for the first time, Marloes Coenen has been given a new opponent.Liz Carmouche will fight Coenen for the Strikeforce women's 135-pound title, replacing Miesha Tate, who suffered a knee injury in training.
Carmouche is 5-0 and is coming off an impressive third-round TKO win over Jan Finney on a November Strikeforce Challengers card. She's also got a good personal story that Strikeforce can sell, as a former Marine and Iraq War veteran. But Carmouche isn't quite on Tate's level, and she'll have to be considered a major underdog against Coenen.
Coenen has an 18-4 career record and is coming off the biggest win of her career, defeating Sarah Kaufman to take the Strikeforce title in October.
The Coenen-Carmouche fight will serve as the co-main event on a March 5 card headlined by light heavyweight champion Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante defending his title against Dan Henderson. The other fights on the Showtime card are Tim Kennedy vs. Melvin Manhoef and Billy Evangelista vs. Jorge Masvidal.
Get the latest gear
