There’s a famous line in the 1984 science-fiction classic The Terminator when Kyle Reese (played by Michael Biehn) says, “Listen and understand. That terminator is out there. It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop.”
The terminator in the film played by Arnold Schwarzenegger is an unstoppable killing machine, hell bent on eliminating whatever target its been programmed to destroy.
In mixed martial arts, the role of The Terminator could easily be played by a few fighters, maybe none more fitting that UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, whose path of destruction rivals that of the fictional cyborg in the movies.
A new contender to that crown has risen lately, however, and that’s UFC bantamweight women’s champion Ronda Rousey.
The biggest difference with Rousey is outside the cage—she is as engaging as any fighter in the UFC. Brutally honest and refreshingly unfiltered, as she puts it, Rousey is a rare combination of charisma outside the cage and unbelievably talented when she straps on the gloves.
Through seven professional fights, Rousey still has no clue what the second round even looks like, and she’s only technically been in bad positions a couple of times in her whole career thus far.
When she’s inside the cage, Rousey possesses a steely grin like a lot of fighters, but much like the terminator in the films, don’t expect her to crack a smile or even show emotion of any kind until after she’s torn her opponent’s arm away from their body and feels the quick tap on her leg to signify the fight is over.
“I fight emotionless. I have no emotion when I fight,” Rousey said recently when speaking to the Dan Patrick Show. “Like I’m entirely in the present moment, and I just observe everything and make quick, snap decisions off of all those observations. It’s really hard to describe.”
Trying to give a little more detail in her detached nature when she steps into the cage, Rousey says when a fight is over she barely remembers anything. Almost like a blackout where instinct takes over, Rousey is a force of nature, and then it takes some time and a little bit of playback to remember exactly what just happened.
“Sometimes when I walk out of the ring like I’m spending so much time on play that it’s not recording,” said Rousey. “I’ll walk out and be like “what?”, like I’ll remember little snippets of what just happened and then I’ll go back and I’ll watch the replay and then I’ll remember oh I was thinking this here and thinking of that here, so it’s very hard to say. I think I’m just focused in on the moment when I fight.”
Though she’s only had one fight in the UFC so far, Rousey is already one of the most popular fighters in the sport and already on another whirlwind media tour that never seemed to slow down for the former Olympian over the last several months.
If Rousey can continue her current workload promoting her fights and then turn into that blank, emotionless, wrecking machine inside the Octagon, there’s no telling just how far she can go.
She won’t feel pity or remorse for any of the women she has to beat to maintain her spot at the top of the division, and it’s not likely Rousey will ever stop until she’s reached her goal of being considered one of the greatest fighters of all time.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report
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