ProElite 3: “Grove vs Minowa” takes place on January 21st at the Neil S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii and features a Bantamweight matchup between Olympic Silver medalist and 9th ranked, Sara McMann and submission specialist and 5th ranked, Hitomi “Girlfight Monster” Akano. HDNet will televised this event LIVE starting at 10pm EST.
McMann (4-0), the first American woman in history to win an Olympic medal in wrestling, began her pro MMA career in May 2011 with a victory over Christina Marks via a first round rear-naked choke. One month later she’d defeat fellow Olympian, Julie Malenfant, via first round TKO. In July she’d face off with veteran, Tonya Evinger and grind out a unanimous decision. She’d then make her ProElite debut in August against Raquel Pa’aluhi, winning via a third round keylock. Akano (18-8) began her pro career in 2004 and has fought a who’s who list of top opponents such as: Tara LaRosa, Amanda Buckner, Hiroko Yamanaka, Cris Cyborg and Miesha Tate. Currently she is riding a two-fight win streak, defeating Chisa Yonezawa via armbar in March and Roxanne Modafferi via unanimous decision in July. This matchup has Fight of the Night written all over it, so don’t dare miss it.
**Rankings info supplied by the Unified Women’s MMA Rankings.
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