Sarah Kaufman shines, in cage and ratings, for STRIKEFORCE Challengers 9.

Sarah Kaufman's relationship with Strikeforce has been rocky. Earlier this year, she talked about being a free agent despite being the SF 135 lb champion. She expressed a desire to get back with Strikeforce, only to later find out that they exercised the championship clause without telling her and extended her previous contract.

Leading up to this card, she talked about being frustrated at not just being relegated to a challengers card, but not even headlining.

Then, on Saturday night, she let her skills do the talking. She stopped Roxanne Modafferi, via a wicked power bomb, in the second round. After the fight, she again talked about wanting to be on a bigger card.

Some have pointed out that very few women fighters draw and that SF is being right by simply having women's fighting. There is a saying, if you are going to do something, you should do it right.

The ratings seem to back Sarah up: While the show averaged 197,000 viewers, it peaked for Sarah's fight with 254,000 viewers.

The idea behind the Challengers cards is to showcase up and coming talent. Sarah is a champion and should be put front and center. If the average fan thinks that SF does not care about the ladies 135 champ and division, it is unlikely that he will either. I am not saying she should be headlining the main cards, but why not have the women's title fights in the middle of the regular cards. If not, why have them at all?

Finally, the Challengers cards feel almost like throwaway cards. If the idea is to use them to build up guys, they should be promoting them a hell of a lot more. less than 200k watched this card and that is a bad number no matter how you spin it. And it is not just the Challengers cards that lack the PR build, we have seen it in the past for some of the regular Showtime cards. Strikeforce is not big enough that they can let cards fly in under the radar, they need to work hard to build EVERY card. They need to not simply establish a solid fanbase, but build it up. That is something they have failed to do.

The SF cards usually have some fun fights, ones that could help convince casual fans that Strikeforce is the real deal and is must-see MMA. If not for Sarah Kaufman, I don't know that anyone would have been talking about this card at all.