Gina Carano

Gina Carano has a smile that could warm the polar icecap, if it weren't already a little slushy. She steps outside a downtown San Jose hotel looking as if she just stepped out of Vogue. "My looks have caused people not to take me as seriously," Carano said. "I've been laughed at before fights by opponents.

Other sports have their glamour girls - Danica Patrick in auto racing, Maria Sharapova in tennis, Natalie Gulbis in golf, Cal alum Natalie Coughlin in swimming and Tanith Belbin in ice dancing to name a few. None of them makes a living swapping kicks to the head. This is a combat sport that combines kickboxing, wrestling and jiu-jitsu, or what the squeamish would call "the dark arts."

Carano, 27, was a standout basketball, volleyball and softball player in high school, as befits the daughter of a former pro athlete. Glenn Carano was the backup quarterback to Roger Staubach and later Danny White on the Dallas Cowboys of the late '70s and early '80s. He had an excellent, and painful, view of "The Catch" by Dwight Clark when Joe Montana worked his magic in January 1982. Anybody who laughs at Carano before getting into a steel cage with her does so at her peril. She has won all seven of her pro MMA fights going into Saturday night's Strikeforce World Championship showdown with Brazilian Cris Cyborg (7-1), a.k.a. Cristiane Santos.