Who’s ready for another episode of “Could Ronda Rousey beat down [insert man/woman/dinosaur here]?”?
Apples-to-oranges hypotheticals are becoming as much a part of Ronda Rousey’s legacy as her first-round arm-bar victories. Such is her dominance in the Octagon that every day another #HotTake seems to emerge about which bipedal individuals could or could not defeat her in combat.
Throwing out a percentage of male MMA fighters Rousey could beat up is all the rage these days, but the most recent “what if” scenario involves Laila Ali, former professional boxer and daughter of Muhammad Ali.
TMZ recently caught up with the 37-year-old retired pugilist at Los Angeles International Airport. The conversation started with her opinion on the upcoming Mayweather-Pacquiao superfight (she thinks Floyd Mayweather Jr. will pull out the win), but shifted, as common law decrees all fighting conversations must do, to whether she could take Rousey.
An undefeated (24-0) super middleweight during her fighting career, Ali initially said the question was pointless. She’s a boxer, Rousey is a mixed martial artist. These are not one and the same.
“That’s like a question I’m not even gonna answer,” Ali said. “Because, for one, I’m not a UFC fighter. She’s not a boxer.”
That’s it. That’s all Ali had to do—state the obvious and dismiss the question as dumb hypothesizing over a bout that will never take place.
But then Ali gave an answer.
“And no woman in the world can beat me. Period,” Ali added.
Not even Rousey?
“Of course not,” Ali said. “She’s too much smaller than me anyways. She’s like the size of my daughter. My 3-year-old.”
Welp. She is her father’s daughter.
As for the size issue, Ali isn’t exactly a giant. The boxer measured 5’10”, 167 pounds during her fighting career. Rousey fights at 135 pounds and is listed at 5’7,” 5’6” and 5’4” in different places (we should probably get that nailed down, guys).
It’s a solid difference, to be sure, but the disparity becomes less of an issue when Rousey’s folding your elbow like a lawn chair in the wrong direction.
Anyways, keep the hypotheticals coming. I can’t wait for Joe Rogan to prognosticate on which extinct species of elk Rousey could kimura the fastest. My money’s on Irish.
Dan is on Twitter. Could Rousey beat Kentucky?
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