Resisting the tide - The History and Future of DCF

Donners · May 7, 2015

2016 in review

Shows

2016 was a year of both stability and change. While our roster remained largely intact, there were changes at the top of both the Bantamweight and Featherweight divisions.

Each of our eight shows was at least reasonably successful, highlighted by record-breaking profits at DCF 96, 99 and 101.

DCF 95, held in March 2016, saw us finally rise to High Level National size, and our performance for the rest of the year indicated that removing the cap was the right decision.

#	Main Event				Crit	Comm	Att	Pop	Profit
94	Virginia Ryland D Charlene Eilers	74%	75%	6130	5.0%	16,206,616	
[b]95	Khryssa Tau D Laura Petrovic		85%	81%	7573	4.8%	21,527,652[/b]	
96	D'Arcy Fortin D Diana Robert		82%	96%	9057	7.5%	35,103,874	
97	Rita Fraser D Anne Frehley		78%	73%	7493	0.8%	20,903,603	
[b]98	Virginia Ryland D Suzanne Elder		75%	75%	7943	2.8%	21,971,901[/b]	
[b]99	Karen Hinkle D Sherry Clean		82%	96%	12505	5.6%	36,288,744[/b]	
100	Maria Araujo D D'Arcy Fortin		80%	82%	10617	3.3%	22,951,616	
[b]101	Khryssa Tau D Courtney Backlund		75%	96%	13968	5.2%	36,769,462[/b]

Arrivals

There weren't too many losses this year, so there wasn't much need to bring in fighters to add to the already large roster.

25-year-old judoka Sanako Sarumana (12-1) was the best of the signings, as the current #1 ranked Flyweight in the world. Another rising star, Katrine Knudsen (8-2), and veteran Irene Liaudin (20-9), who left DFC for XCC in 2008, were the other recognisable fighters who we managed to poach.

The rest of the signings just bulked up the divisions - Elmas Aksoy (18-1) and Marie Gurgel (12-1) for the Lightweights, Brenda Tanner (11-1), Clementine Blais (22-9) and Paula Jo (14-0) for the Featherwights and Caparina Gouveia (6-1) and Cherree Barry (1-0) for the Bantamweights. At least most of those are in their 20s; the roster is looking rather old at the moment.

Departures

There were few departures this year, and even fewer who were of any note. The best of the bunch was clearly Brittany Garofalo (16-7-1, 6-2-1 DCF), who drew a title match against D'Arcy Fortin in 2015 but retired early in 2016. She was DCF Bantamweight champion back in 2008, but vacated the title to join XCC.

Sybylla Van Der Capellen (12-6, 6-6 DCF) and the unsuccessful pair Floriana Moore and Yue Wan Tan

also retired, while Kishi Matsukata, Michelle Wu, Lucille Kelly, Miiko Abe and Kyoko Hishikawa were cut. Kelly and Wu stand out as particularly unsuccessful, with one win from 14 fights between them.

Suffice to say, little of value was lost.

Lightweights

Khryssa Tau was the only DCF champion to retain her belt through the year, beating Laura Petrovic and Courtney Backlund (whose DCF ranking continues to be bizarrely low) by submission.

Caress Nadeau continued her strange rise, having now won four in a row after losing her first eight DCF fights. It's still hard to see her as a title contender, though. Indeed, it's hard to see any obvious contenders to take on the dominant champion. It is nice to have a few young fighters in the division, though, especially as the other divisions are worryingly old.

Rank	Name			Age	Career	DCF	WRank		Change
[b]1	Khryssa Tau		31	24-4	10-2	1F 1L 11P	-[/b]
2	Caress Nadeau		34	28-8	4-8	2L		-
3	Laura Petrovic		35	16-1	2-1	3L		^ #4
4	Marcia Hall		22	2-0	2-0	4L		^ #5
5	Noel Yang		31	19-3	3-3	5L		^ #6
6	Lirienne Boucher	24	3-0	3-0	6L		^ #11
7	Jill Horn		27	15-4	3-4	7L		v #3
8	Paula Sanz		29	12-6	11-6	8L 17F		^ #9
9	Marie Gurgel		29	12-1	0-0	9L		NEW
10	Laura Nikolic		29	15-1	5-1	15F 10L		^ #14
11	Elmas Aksoy		34	18-1	0-1	11L		NEW
12	Rosa Silva		33	29-2	3-2	12L		v #10
13	Norma Soto		24	10-2	0-2	13L		v #8
14	Megan Whitworth		28	8-1	1-1	14L		^ #15
15	Victoria Death		35	29-6	7-6	15L		v #12
16	Courtney Backlund	29	14-3	12-3	16L 5F 12P	^ #17
17	Marja Grabowska		29	20-6	3-6	17L		v #7
18	Megan Foster		31	8-6	2-6	18L		v #13
19	Jing Su			37	29-6	2-6	19L		v #16

Featherweights

For the first time since 2009 there was a title change, with Karen Hinkle defeating Sherry Clean via a second-round TKO in our most successful show of the year.

It was particularly vital to have a new face at the top, with the other high-ranking Featherweights making for depressing reading. Rock returned from a drug suspension only to get injured and miss the entire year. Evergood lost again, this time to Tremblay. Poirier, Fraser and Braga all won in 2016, but are in their mid-30s and don't loom as great title contenders - Fraser was the only one of those three to have a main event in 2016, and it was our least-successful show of the year. Nanci Oulette looks like a talented fighter, but has only had two DCF fights - submission wins over the lowly Floriana Parent and Zuria Cote. Still, she looms as a better option than those above her.

Juliet Leblanc unfortunately missed the year through injury but should be one to watch next year. She is the only fighter under 27 in the division, and has a convincing win over Anne Newton under her belt already.


Rank	Name			Age	Career	DCF	WRank	Change
[b]1	Karen Hinkle		31	11-1	11-1	1F 3P	^ #2[/b]
2	Sherry Clean		36	17-2	15-2	3F 4P	v #1
3	Stephanie Rock		34	14-0	3-0	-	-
4	Piper Evergood		41	26-9	15-5	4F 13P	-
5	Lorin Poirier		36	13-10	10-7	6F 17P	-
6	Rita Fraser		34	14-0	2-0	7F	^ #11
7	Antonia Braga		36	34-3	5-3	9F	^ #12
8	Nancey Vidal		32	16-10	14-6	10F	^ #10
9	Nanci Oulette		32	7-0	2-0	11F	^ #13
10	Coletta Tremblay	35	17-9	9-6	12F	v #6
11	Anne Frehley		33	15-1	1-1	14F	v #8
12	Paula Jo		28	14-0	0-0	16F	NEW
13	Clementine Blais	34	22-9	2-0	18F	NEW
14	Joslin Whitehead	32	13-1	2-1	19F	^ #20
15	Rohais Laurent		32	10-2	1-1	21F	v #9
16	Miyoshi Ishimaru	35	7-2	5-2	22F	v #14
17	Lisa Fry		35	14-1	2-2	24F	v #7
18	Juliet Leblanc		21	7-1	1-0	25F	NEW
19	Kumi Ozu		31	3-0	3-0	-	-
20	Susan Gilbert		32	12-6	5-6	-	v #18
21	Anne Newton		28	10-2	1-1	-	v #16
22	Yi Ze Lu		33	24-4	3-5	-	v #15
23	Koma Hirano		28	2-0	2-0	-	-
24	Zuria Cote		35	14-17	10-13	-	v #17
25	Brenda Tanner		28	11-1	0-1	-	NEW
-	Darlene Chase		27	5-3	5-3	-	v #25
-	Evelina Mikhailov	34	7-5	3-5	-
-	Floriana Parent		34	11-10	11-10	-	v #24
-	Holly Kowalski		29	5-5	5-5	-
-	Terri Frehley		32	11-9	5-7	-

Bantamweights

After her 25-fight winning streak was broken by a sluggish draw with Brittany Garofalo in 2015, D'Arcy Fortin faced veteran Diana Robert in April. In a much better performance, she won by TKO in the third round. Her next challenge proved too much, though, with Maria Araujo getting her to submit in the first round four months later.

It's not clear who will battle for the title in 2017. Ryland's two wins of 2016 weren't overly impressive, coming against mid-ranked veteran Suzanne Elder and unranked Charlene Eilers, but she does still have an excellent record. Young fighters Makiko Ogiwara and Martha Huge are unbeaten, but are without significant challenges to date. Ann Fly and Diana Robert are thereabouts, and new signing Sanako Sarumana could well make an impact.

Nellie Elwes was out for the year and Lynn Stevenson will miss the next two through injury.


Rank	Name			Age	Career	DCF	WRank		Change
[b]1	Maria Araujo		31	15-1	4-1	2B 6P		^ #5[/b]
2	Virginia Ryland		34	24-7	19-4	5B 5P		-
3	Makiko Ogiwara		26	6-0	3-0	6B 3Fl 7P	-
4	Sanako Sarumana		25	12-1	0-0	1Fl 8P		NEW
5	D'Arcy Fortin		36	26-1	11-1	7B 9P		v #1
6	Martha Huge		25	8-0	2-0	8B 14P		^ #7
7	Ann Fly			33	21-9	4-4	9B 15P		^ #13
8	Mutsuko Kurofuki	33	14-1	8-1	10B 16P		^ #11
9	Xin Qian Hao		31	18-3	6-3	11B 18P		^ #12
10	Suzanne Elder		40	23-12	3-3	12B 19P		v #8
11	Diana Robert		35	18-9	9-2	14B 21P		v #6
12	Orlina Cote		24	9-0	3-0	15B 7Fl 23P	^ #14
13	Irene Liaudin		36	20-9	5-2	17B 25P		NEW
14	Nellie Elwes		31	9-3	0-0	-		v #10
15	Julia Valdez		28	12-0	6-0	18B		-
16	Stella Hall		33	13-7	13-6	20B		^ #21
17	Katrine Knudsen		26	8-2	1-0	24B 12Fl	NEW
18	Suko Nishiwaki		28	11-7	1-2	11Fl		v #16
19	Antonia Lopez		32	13-7	0-2	13Fl		v #17
20	Sheila Hupp		29	7-1	4-1	-		^ (unr)
21	Amber Joslin		38	18-6	3-2	-		v #19
22	Amanda Salmon		31	7-3	0-2	-		v #9
23	Ryoko Wakai		34	15-10	4-4	-		-
24	Ellen Gonzalez		26	7-2	4-2	-		^ (unr)
25	Umeka Matsuoka		27	6-2	2-1	19Fl		v #18
-	Andrea Zwygart		33	8-8	0-4	-
-	Asako Fukumitsu		30	8-5	5-5	-
-	Asami Godo		32	9-4	2-4	-
-	Asunta Silvera		34	2-2	2-2	-
-	Caparina Gouveia	25	6-1	1-1	-
-	Charlene Eilers		33	11-7	8-6	-
-	Cherree Barry		26	1-0	0-0	-
-	Clara Dahl		34	15-12	1-1	-
-	Denyse Blais		34	14-13	3-5	-
-	Francisca Van Imburgh	27	4-4	4-4	-
-	Honami Isoda		34	11-4	5-4	-
-	Letya Turner		36	11-9	6-8	-
-	Lynn Stevenson		32	10-8	6-7	-
-	Maja Mikhailov		34	11-6	0-6	-
-	Mita Gallo		30	2-0	2-0	-
-	Primavera Thomas	27	1-1	1-1	-
-	Rhonda Levesque		33	6-6	4-5	-
-	Ryo Asahi		33	9-5	6-5	-
-	Tuleva Pedersen		26	3-0	3-0	-
-	Yan Yan Lin		35	29-7	5-7	-
-	Yuki Iwahashi		30	9-2	2-2	-

Donners · May 15, 2015

<div style="text-align:center;">2017 in review</div>

Shows

2017 was a bumpy ride for DCF, with the first three shows of the year being poorly-received. The first was a particular concern, given that it was headlined by a Featherweight title match - with Hinkle losing the title in her first defence. Former champion Sherry Clean also had a mediocre main event at DCF 105, and five of our eight shows in 2017 earned under $20 million - compared to just one in 2016.

Still, things picked up later in the year, with a solid Lightweight title match and the success of new signing Lacee Vidal against Orlina Cote. Now that Oulette and Araujo have managed a title defence, they should be reasonably well established as main eventers and will hopefully provide some more successful shows next year.

# Main Event Crit Comm Att Pop Profit

103 Nanci Oulette D Karen Hinkle 72% 67% 7098 -2.5% 17,612,716

104 Irene Liaudin D Julia Valdez 76% 63% 6776 -3.5% 15,611,968

105 Sherry Clean D Antonia Braga 76% 73% 7073 - 20,771,252

106 Maria Araujo D Diana Robert 73% 75% 8299 2.0% 17,520,089

107 Khryssa Tau D Laura Nikolic 79% 82% 9290 3.6% 22,575,830

108 Lacee Vidal D Orlina Cote 80% 91% 11383 5.2% 31,817,291

109 Nanci Oulette D Juliet Leblanc 84% 77% 8221 2.4% 17,875,383

110 Suko Nishiwaki D Irene Liaudin 80% 77% 7526 2.0% 17,377,714

</pre><div></div>

Arrivals

The third season of our reality show, Path to Stardom, focused on the Lightweight division and saw the addition of Khloe Herring, Lana Tanner and Tayla Ward to the roster. Herring didn't even make the finals, but still looked like enough of a prospect to justify signing her (with few female Lightweights in the world, I can't be too picky!).

The Featherweights were boosted by world #12 Mary Wu, with Ashley Hill, Francena Martin, Karolina Nemec and Tiffany York also joining to bolster the ranks.

Deborah Grunge re-joined the Bantamweights, having been cut in 2015. World-ranked Umeka Minamoto and Lacee Vidal were the highlights of the new signings, coming in on 10-fight deals, while Blanch Bernier, Jane Combs, Joan Lopez, Lee Liu, Oharu Nakadai and Yow Shen

made up the numbers.

Departures

Three former champions retired in 2017.

Given her recent decline, it was perhaps no surprise to see D'Arcy Fortin (26-2-1, 10-2-1 DCF) go. After an extraordinary 25-fight winning streak, she had a draw, a win and two losses - her last fight a flat loss on points to 40-year-old Suzanne Elder. She was a two-time champion, winning in 2005 (leaving for XCC without a defence) and again in 2014. Although her DCF run was relatively short, her success in between at XCC made her a certainty for the hall of fame.

Virginia Ryland (24-8, 19-5 DCF) was champion from 2011-2014, dropping the title to Fortin. She was with us from the beginning in 2001, main eventing 13 times. Although she was not always an exciting fighter, with 11 of her 19 DCF wins by decision, she was a consistent performer at the top of the card.

Sherry Clean (18-2, 16-2 DCF) was a two-time champion, highlighted by a legendary duel with Piper Evergood. She took the vacant title in 2006, dropped it to Evergood in 2007, then won it back in 2009. Clean held it, with six successful defences, until 2016. Clean main-evented a remarkable 16 times in 18 DCF fights, with five fight of the night awards and 6 Kos, 7 TKOs and 3 submissions - not a single win by decision.

The other departures were naturally overshadowed by those three, but still had some significant names. Stephanie Rock (14-0-1NC, 2-0-1NC) ended her strange career, which in DCF consisted of two wins, a win overturned by a failed drug test, a drug suspension and then a major injury). Floriana Parent (12-10, 12-10 DCF) spent her whole career in DCF and was a consistently decent performer. Irene Liaudin (21-10, 6-3 DCF) was an exciting kick boxer who had two runs in DCF and main evented three times, with two fight of the night awards. Antonia Braga (34-4, 5-4 DCF) main evented against Sherry Clean in her last fight.

Of the less significant names, Maja Mikhailov (11-7, 0-7 DCF) was cut, Ryoko Wakai (15-11, 4-5 DCF), Andrea Zwygart (8-10, 0-6 DCF) and Yan Yan Lin (29-8, 5-8 DCF) retired while Nastasya Svoboda (5-1, 0-1 DCF) joined SIGMA.

Lightweights

Khryssa Tau remained dominant atop the Lightweight division, defending against Laura Nikolic. Laura Petrovic beat Megan Foster and Paula Sanz in the first round, while Lirienne Boucher did the same with Megan Whitworth and Noel Yang. Both loom as potential challengers, especially with Caress Nadeau losing to Rosa Silva. Marcia Hall is the other obvious contender, with wins over Norma Soto and Jing Su in 2017, but she might need a bit more experience.

Rank Name Age Career DCF WRank Change

1 Khryssa Tau 32 25-4 11-2 1L 9P -

2 Laura Petrovic 36 18-1 4-1 2L 20P ^ #3

3 Lirienne Boucher 25 5-0 5-0 3L ^ #6

4 Caress Nadeau 35 29-9 5-9 4L v #2

5 Marcia Hall 23 4-0 4-0 5L v #4

6 Rosa Silva 34 30-2 4-2 6L ^ #12

7 Paula Sanz 30 13-7 12-7 7L ^ #8

8 Laura Nikolic 30 16-2 6-2 8L ^ #10

9 Noel Yang 32 19-5 3-5 9L v #5

10 Jill Horn 28 15-5 3-5 10L v #7

11 Courtney Backlund 30 15-3 13-3 11L ^ #16

12 Marja Grabowska 30 21-6 4-6 12L ^ #17

13 Marie Gurgel 30 12-2 0-1 13L v #9

14 Norma Soto 25 10-3 0-3 14L v #13

15 Megan Whitworth 29 8-2 1-2 15L v #14

16 Elmas Aksoy 35 18-2 0-2 16L v #11

17 Megan Foster 32 8-7 2-7 17L ^ #18

18 Victoria Death 36 29-7 7-7 18L v #15

19 Jing Su 38 29-7 2-7 20L -

- Khloe Herring 22 0-0 0-0 -

- Lana Tanner 21 0-0 0-0 -

- Tayla Ward 23 0-0 0-0 -

</pre><div></div>

Featherweights

The Featherweights underwent something of an upheaval, with Rock and Clean (previously ranked #2 and #3) retiring. The big winner was Nanci Oulette, who got Hinkle to submit in a matter of minutes in her first defence. Oulette successfully defended against Juliet Leblanc later in the year. Hinkle's year got worse as she defeated Coletta Tremblay but then failed a drug test, putting her out for the next year.

In her absence, fast-rising Joslin Whitehead looks like a contender, having beaten Piper Evergood and Lorin Poirier in 2017. Nancey Vidal also looms as an option, particularly as the other top-ranked Featherweights don't inspire much confidence.

Rank Name Age Career DCF WRank Change

1 Nanci Oulette 33 9-0 4-0 1F 6P ^ #9

2 Karen Hinkle 32 11-2 11-2 2F 7P v #1

3 Joslin Whitehead 33 15-1 4-1 3F 21P ^ #14

4 Nancey Vidal 33 18-10 16-6 4F 25P ^ #8

5 Lorin Poirier 37 14-11 11-8 5F -

6 Piper Evergood 42 26-10 15-6 6F v #4

7 Rita Fraser 35 14-0 2-0 7F v #6

8 Clementine Blais 35 24-9 4-0 8F ^ #13

9 Coletta Tremblay 36 17-9 9-7 9F ^ #10

10 Juliet Leblanc 22 9-2 3-1 10F ^ #18

11 Miyoshi Ishimaru 36 8-2 6-2 11F ^ #16

12 Kumi Ozu 32 3-0 4-0 13F ^ #19

13 Mary Wu 31 9-1 0-0 12F NEW

14 Rohais Laurent 33 11-3 2-2 18F -

15 Susan Gilbert 33 14-7 6-7 21F ^ #20

16 Lisa Fry 36 14-2 2-3 22F ^ #17

17 Koma Hirano 29 3-0 3-0 23F ^ #23

18 Anne Newton 29 11-3 2-2 24F ^ #21

19 Paula Jo 29 14-1 0-1 - v #12

20 Tiffany York 24 8-0 0-0 - NEW

21 Karolina Nemec 27 10-1 0-1 - NEW

22 Anne Frehley 34 15-3 1-3 - v #11

23 Zuria Cote 36 14-18 10-14 - ^ #24

24 Yi Ze Lu 34 24-5 3-6 - v #22

- Ashley Hill 33 2-1 0-1 -

- Brenda Tanner 29 12-2 0-2 - v #25

- Darlene Chase 28 6-4 6-4 -

- Evelina Mikhailov 35 7-5 3-6 -

- Francena Martin 27 4-2 0-0 -

- Holly Kowalski 30 5-6 5-6 -

- Terri Frehley 33 12-10 6-8 -

</pre><div></div>

Bantamweights

The Bantamweights were a bit more stable, with Araujo retaining the title with her only defence of the year (albeit by split decision in five rounds against Diana Robert) and Vidal replacing Ryland around the top of the rankings. Bantamweights main evented five of our nine shows for the year, with Ogiwara v Ryland and Vidal v Cote particularly successful.

Given Araujo's unimpressive defence, it will be interesting to see how the challengers go in 2018. Makiko Ogiwara has been ranked highly for a while without getting a title shot, and had convincing wins over Virginia Ryland and Stella Hall in 2017. Newcomer Lacee Vidal won her first DCF match, getting Orlina Cote to submit in a few minutes. Unfortunately, Sanako Sarumana missed the year through injury, and won't be back until 2019. Suko Nishiwaki was the big riser, with first-round wins over Ryoko Wakai, Rhonda Levesque and Irene Liaudin, but probably needs a big win to put her in contention.

Rank Name Age Career DCF WRank Change

1 Maria Araujo 32 16-1 5-1 2B 4P -

2 Makiko Ogiwara 27 8-0 5-0 5B 1P ^ #3

3 Lacee Vidal 28 12-1 1-0 6B 3Fl 3P NEW

4 Sanako Sarumana 26 12-1 0-0 4Fl 5P -

5 Suko Nishiwaki 29 14-7 4-2 8B 10P ^ #18

6 Diana Robert 36 19-10 10-3 9B 13P ^ #11

7 Martha Huge 26 8-0 2-0 10B 14P v #6

8 Umeka Minamoto 31 13-2 0-0 11B 15P NEW

9 Suzanne Elder 41 24-12 4-3 12B 16P ^ #10

10 Mutsuko Kurofuki 34 14-1 8-1 13B 17P v #8

11 Stella Hall 34 14-8 14-7 14B 19P ^ #16

12 Xin Qian Hao 32 19-4 7-4 15B 22P v #9

13 Nellie Elwes 32 10-4 1-1 18B ^ #14

14 Katrine Knudsen 27 10-2 3-0 19B 10Fl ^ #17

15 Orlina Cote 25 9-1 3-1 20B v #12

16 Julia Valdez 29 13-1 7-1 22B v #15

17 Ellen Gonzalez 27 9-2 6-2 23B ^ #24

18 Antonia Lopez 33 13-8 0-3 12Fl ^ #19

19 Sheila Hupp 30 8-2 5-2 - ^ #20

20 Ann Fly 34 21-12 4-7 - v #7

21 Mita Gallo 31 4-0 4-0 - ^ (unr)

22 Ryo Asahi 34 11-5 8-5 - ^ (unr)

23 Blanch Bernier 29 3-0 2-0 - NEW

24 Umeka Matsuoka 28 6-2 3-1 17Fl ^ #25

25 Amanda Salmon 32 8-4 1-3 - v #22

- Amber Joslin 39 18-6 3-2 - v #21

- Asako Fukumitsu 31 8-7 5-7 -

- Asami Godo 33 9-5 2-5 -

- Asunta Silvera 35 3-2 3-2 -

- Caparina Gouveia 26 6-2 1-2 -

- Charlene Eilers 34 12-8 9-7 -

- Cherree Barry 27 3-0 2-0 -

- Clara Dahl 35 16-13 2-2 -

- Deborah Grunge 27 7-5 3-5 -

- Denyse Blais 35 15-13 4-5 -

- Francisca Van Imburgh 28 4-6 4-6 -

- Honami Isoda 35 12-5 6-5 -

- Jane Combs 23 4-0 0-0 -

- Joan Lopez 25 1-0 0-0 -

- Lee Liu 25 7-4 0-1 -

- Letya Turner 37 12-10 7-9 -

- Lynn Stevenson 33 11-9 7-8 -

- Oharu Nakadai 28 10-2 0-1 -

- Primavera Thomas 28 2-2 2-2 -

- Rhonda Levesque 34 7-7 5-6 -

- Tuleva Pedersen 27 3-1 3-1 -

- Yow Shen 27 6-1 0-1 -

- Yuki Iwahashi 31 10-3 3-3 -

</pre><div></div>

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Resisting the tide - The History and Future of DCF

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