On Saturday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Cat Zingano will finally get her chance to dethrone Ronda Rousey and become the UFC women’s bantamweight champion. Rousey has soundly defeated the best fighters the emerging women’s 135-pound division has to offer, but has she ever faced a fighter like Zingano? Can Zingano really be Rousey’s toughest test to date?
At this point, it is almost counterintuitive to envision a fight involving Rousey ending in any other way than with the champion’s hand getting raised. She has been dominant, nearly flawless against her opponents and hasn’t even been slightly hurt in any of her fights.
Not only has she stopped every opponent she’s ever faced, she’s done so quicker and quicker each time out. She blasted Olympic silver medalist Sara McMann with a knee to the body in under a minute, and finished Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Alexis Davis in 16 seconds.
Against Zingano, she faces a much more well-rounded opponent than she has in the past. Zingano’s training in combat sports began at the age of 12 when she started wrestling. She became a national champion wrestler in college and had won several Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournaments before she began her MMA career.
She’s mostly made a name for herself in MMA with her hands, though. Five of her nine professional wins have come by way of KO/TKO. She has forced opponents to submit, as well, but the potent mix of being dangerous on her feet as well as having a grappling base makes Zingano an interesting test for the champ.
Much like Rousey, Zingano has yet to taste defeat in her professional MMA career. But despite defeating all of her opponents inside the cage, Zingano certainly knows the feeling of loss.
She lost out on a previous title fight with Rousey after her April 2013 TKO win over Meisha Tate, along with the opportunity to serve as a coach on the 18th season of The Ultimate Fighter, due to an ACL injury. While on the sidelines she also had to deal with the suicide of her husband Mauricio Zingano, who had been her coach and life partner throughout her career.
A year after experiencing such a tremendous loss, she has shaken off the ring rust and is gearing up for the fight of her life. We’ve seen in the past that Zingano competes with raw emotion and can come back from slow starts.
Rousey acknowledged that she won’t be able to get inside Zingano’s head before the fight, according to an interview with Fox Sports’ Elias Cepeda:
She’s been down in fights before and every single time, she’s come back and finished the other person. And, given everything she’s been through lately, in her life outside of fighting, I really feel like she’s one of those people that’s impossible to intimidate, so I don’t even try.
Zingano’s spirit and will won’t be broken. If Rousey is going to remain undefeated, she’s simply going to have to be the better fighter when the cage door shuts. Rousey isn’t one to give any ground to her opponent ahead of the fight. Her respect and recognition of the threat Zingano poses are signs that the dominant champion might be in for a fight Saturday night.
Rousey also told Elias about Zingano: “She’s the most well-rounded fighter that I’ve come across, and she has the best mentality of any opponent that I’ve come across yet.”
All the signs point to this not being a typical Ronda Rousey fight. Will Cat Zingano be Ronda Rousey’s toughest test to date? Rousey seems to think so, and we’ll find out on Saturday night. But yes, yes she will.
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