MONTREAL — Here’s how much the UFC thinks of Ronda Rousey and her exploding star power: the newly signed women’s bantamweight champion will most likely main event a pay-per-view in her octagon debut, UFC president Dana White said.
“She’s the champ,” he said. “Unless there’s a weight division higher than her that the champ would be defending the title, then yeah, she’d be the main event.”
That’s quite a turnaround for White, who as recently as 2011 said women would “never” fight in a UFC cage.
White specifically said that Rousey would be placed on a pay-per-view event instead of a FOX or FX card, with the hope of popping a big buy rate based on Rousey’s crossover appeal and proven ability to lure in mainstream media. The 25-year-old former Olympic judo bronze medalist has already done major spots on late-night talk shows, been on magazine covers and kept her name in the news through well-crafted sound bytes.
She recently moved to 6-0 after beating Sarah Kaufman via her favored victory method, a first-round arm bar.
The only thing White didn’t know is when she would be likely to make her octagon debut, though from his answer, it seemed the sooner, the better.
“Next Saturday,” he said when asked when he’d like to see it happen. “But I don’t know when she’s going to.”