Saddening news from Strikeforce, courtesy of MMAfighting.com,

Jake Shields is not the only Strikeforce titleholder without a contract with the promotion. 135-pound women’s champion Sarah Kaufman is in the same boat.

It’s been two-and-a-half months since Kaufman (11-0) defeated Takayo Hashi for the belt in the main event of Strikeforce Challengers 6 and she still has not been re-signed by the promotion.

“We’ve talked a few times here and there and I think they’re just trying to figure out what their plans are in terms of the 135-pound division since it is a deep division,” Kaufman told MMAFighting.com Tuesday. “They feel I just fought Miesha Tate, Shayna Baszler not that long ago as well, and I just fought the No. 2 girl (Hashi), they’re just trying to figure out what they’re going to do with the division, as they want to have a tournament. I personally don’t want to wait till after the tournament is complete because that’s at least another probably eight months before that’s done.”

Strikeforce’s shoddy handling of female mma is getting ridiculous, with the Megumi Fujii fight coming up along with the 115 pound tourney for the 3rd season maybe Bellator is the promotion that will give female fighters the stage, prestige and most importantly the stability they deserve.

Props to mma photog extraordinaire Esther Lin

From MMA Fighting,

The pound-for-pound best female fighter in the world, Megumi Fujii will fight on the June 10 Bellator event, CEO Bjorn Rebney announced Friday.

Her opponent is yet to be named but Fujii is also likely to compete in the rumored 115-pound tournament to be held in Bellator’s third season which starts in August. Other rumored tournament participants include Rosi Sexton and Elena Reid.

Since Strikeforces proposed April 8 woman tournament has yet to come to fruition and no new developments on the Womens Grand Prix promoted by FCF that featured the likes of Adrienna “AJ” Jenkins vs Jan Finney and Shayna Baszler. And with the unofficial face of female mma Gina Carano off making movies with no return to mma in sight, maybe Bellator can pick up where Gina and Strikeforce left off.