Tara LaRosa: a former champ behaves like a bush leaguer

Tara LaRosa

So you might have heard that former Bodog champ Tara LaRosa will be facing Takayo Hashi for some sort of title belt for a new promotion called DaMMAge Fight League on Nov. 24 at the Trump Taj Mahal Hotel Casino in Atlantic City. A title belt? Huh? As great a fighter as Tara has been in the past, the bottom line is that since Bodog closed three years ago, she has been on the outside looking in. Some opportunities have come up in other weight classes but she wants to stay at 125lb. And she's coming off a loss to Roxanne Modafferi at the Moosin show in May. Supposedly Strikeforce is starting a 125lb weight division or Bellator is doing a 125lb tournament in 2011. And Strikeforce owner Scott Coker has expressed interest in Tara. Normally, Tara is a very entertaining fighter but it takes two to tango. And I believe booking Takayo Hashi is a serious error. She hasn't fought since she emptied out the HP Centre in San Jose against Sarah Kaufman. She just didn't seem to want to fight. She's had a good record over the years but most fans here have only seen that fight. That makes her a very tough sell in a big fight situation. Tara is concerned about Hashi's willingness to engage and she also believes that she would have won if her fight against Roxy had gone five rounds. Huh? So LaRosa vs Hashi was scheduled to go three rounds as it should. But Tara has this irrational fear that she will lose a three round decision to Hashi because she lost to Roxy. So she asked the promoter to make it five rounds. And when I told her that five rounds should be reserved for championship fights, they decided to create a bogus title to justify five rounds. It's stupid. That stuff doesn't work. If this fight goes the distance as Tara believes, it could be a real stinker that could easily sink a fledgling promotion. Could this have been avoided? Aisling Daly was the first choice but is under Bellator contract so they understadably wouldn't approve it. The other opponent offered was Carina Damm. She and Hashi have the same manager. But Carina is more expensive and she should be. She's more marketable than Hashi and we know she will come to fight. She's a better opponent. Tara insisted on a top five ranked fighter. I usually don't bother with rankings as there are strong fighters who may not have the best record because they fight top level fighters. WINDY Tomomi is in that category. She may not have the greatest record but she's tough and she puts on a good show. She's been fighting lately at 115 but has also fought at 125. She has won her last two fights and has been working with Megumi Fujii on her ground game which has always been her weakness. Right now, I like her better than Hashi regardless of ranking. So going into this fight, the big guessing game is will Takayo Hashi engage Tara LaRosa or will she do what she did against Sarah Kaufman? I don't think a fledgling promotion should take that kind of unnecessary chance. And turning it into a five round match because Tara LaRosa is unnecessarily insecure about winning the fight in three rounds is bush league. There's no good reason for it.