(Hey, I keep tons of random trash in *my* car too! SOUL MATES. / Photo via @RondaRousey)
On March 3rd, red-hot women’s MMA prospect Ronda Rousey will drop to 135 pounds for the first time to challenge Miesha Tate for her Strikeforce women’s bantamweight title. Rousey’s pro MMA career isn’t even a year old yet, and she’s already facing the world’s top-ranked 135′er, a woman who holds victories over such big names as Marloes Coenen and Zoila Gurgel.
And according to oddsmakers, Miesha Tate is dead meat.
Props to MiddleEasy for alerting us to the current betting odds for next month’s Tate vs. Rousey showdown in Columbus, Ohio. Due to her string of armbar victories within the first minute of her fights, Ronda Rousey is as high as a -375 favorite in the matchup, with Tate slated as a +275 ‘dog. That, my friends, is insane.
Should Rousey be the favorite here at all? It’s hard to say. Miesha Tate represents such an extraordinary leap in competition level for Rousey, that it’s nearly impossible to predict how their fight will play out. This will be the match that determines if Ronda is overhyped or the real deal. And yet, the oddsmakers have already decided that this is Ronda’s fight to lose.
With a pairing this volatile, we wouldn’t actually recommend that you bet money on this fight. But if you’re a Miesha fan, you might want to jump on this line early.
Semi-related: Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey is scheduled to take place the same day as UFC on FX 2. For the last time, Zuffa — you own Strikeforce now, so you can stop trying to bury them with counter-programming.