Depending on who you ask, UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey should be ‘top three’ in the promotion’s pound-for-pound rankings, or removed altogether.
With Rousey sandwiched between heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez at No. 6 and bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw at No. 8, women’s bantamweight contender Jessica Eye isn’t sure she should even be ranked.
“Listen, I am 100 percent sold on the fact that this sport, as a female, I don’t ever want to do it without the men,” Eye told Rick Lee. “I don’t ever want the men to feel like we’re in competition with them. It’s kind of a hard situation when you ask those pound for pounds.”
“I don’t think the women should be in the pound-for-pound [rankings]. I really don’t. I think we should be in our own division, pound-for-pound.”
When it comes to talk of how Rousey might fare against her male colleagues, Eye doesn’t like her chances.
“I can train with them and compete with them but no, man,” Eye said. “They’re men. Come on. Let’s not screw up what we know already. Men have testosterone. I go with these 125ers and these guys are fast. If they really wanted to put it on me, they would put it on us. I think they are kind of losing sight of what we already know and that’s that they’re men.
“They have testosterone. We’re women. We have estrogen. There’s that difference. If guys want to put it on us and beat us up they can. Come on now. Who we kidding?”
With Eye set to spend the weekend at South by Southwest in Austin, TX alongside Rousey and UFC president Dana White it doesn’t sound like fellow contender Bethe Correia will be challenging the champ in Brazil after all.
“I leave on Friday to go to Southwest Southwest [sic] with Ronda and Dana for the whole weekend,” said Eye. “I feel like both of us being at Southwest Southwest [sic] for the weekend with the three of each other, plus my manager’s going to come, I think some serious negotiating is going to happen over this weekend.”
Last week Rousey told Dan Patrick that she believed her next fight could be around August, but that it would be hammered out in a meeting with UFC brass March 5.
Rousey begins shooting for her first starring role in the film Mile 22 in May, so her training camp will have to come later.
5 MUST-READ STORIES
‘I didn’t appreciate it.’ Burt Watson sets the record straight on what exactly led him to quitting his role with the UFC.
Update. Duke Roufus lets us know how CM Punk, ‘a natural striker,’ is looking in the gym.
The Chris. UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman could stand to see Vitor Belfort tested a few more times before they fight at UFC 187. ‘If he passed seven pre-fight tests, that’s great; I hope there’s seven more.’
‘Equal system.’ Vitor Belfort has some issues with ‘the fairness’ regarding the drug testing of athletes and the UFC’s uniform deal with Reebok. ‘I believe that when we implement something, like a regulation or a rule, we have to apply to everybody equally.’
Mayhem. Jason Miller was arrested again this weekend and has been charged with suspicion of resisting arrest, battery on a peace officer and unlawful fighting.
Watch The MMA Hour with Burt Watson, Vitor Belfort, Duke Roufus, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Ryan LaFlare, Elias Theodorou and Fat Joe.
MEDIA STEW
UFC 185 embedded episode 1.
Countdown to UFC 185: Carla Esparza vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
UFC fighters wish Burt Watson well.
Free Fight: Demian Maia vs. Rick Story.
Laila Ali aint losing sleep over Ronda Rousey.
The guys who made ‘Cocaine Cowboys’ and ‘The U’ made a documentary about street fighting in Miami.
DAWG FIGHT trailer from rakontur on Vimeo.
A guy in Seattle is fighting to support his hobby of being a superhero. (via ESPN)
Long watches.
Knuckle Up #375: The Final Word on Ronda, Blood-from-a-rock-o-logy + How We Came to Love Mike Patton
…
Alistair Overeem: Staying in the Fight
TWEETS
Dolce-less.
Weight cut update….look at these abs – http://t.co/KeoEv3Auj2 Feeling great! #UFC185 @Reebok
— Johny Hendricks (@JohnyHendricks) March 9, 2015
Good to hear.
Out early morning shopping at Target and NO I’m not here puttn in a job app just chilln Baby pic.twitter.com/8GO8qCU8Gb
— Burt Watson (@BurtWatson4real) March 9, 2015
“@MensHumor: About to do a line… pic.twitter.com/uw1mH24QbR” My kind of doing a line. Ah @IKEVF
— Cowboy Cerrone (@Cowboycerrone) March 9, 2015
Not happy.
Laila you’re cool & errrthang but put $ where mouth is. Smh these boxers… http://t.co/gFjqcRSORT
— Marcelino Evil (@KCBanditMMA) March 9, 2015
I love it when boxers think they can beat high level mma fighters. I could lay face down flat and still beat floyd maywether.
— kajan johnson (@IamRagin) March 9, 2015
Congrats.
That’s a wrap on Extraction. Vic and Harry http://t.co/AXkeHairRX
— Gina Carano (@ginacarano) March 10, 2015
Check it out.
Here’s the video from my @mmapfc title fight last Friday https://t.co/BQ7NZWNSEy @jameyjasta @PerformanceMMA @coldcockwhiskey #mma #muaythai
— Chris Camozzi (@ChrisCamozzi) March 10, 2015
Be careful.
@joejitsu is a real dare devil. #FrankMirFace #DontTellDana https://t.co/JTSorRHGs0
— Danny Castillo (@lastcall155) March 9, 2015
Get well soon.
Got done with my elbow #MRI with Dr. Kvitni today and I’m good to go 🙂 thank u @danawhite @ufc for the support pic.twitter.com/mWTciDAyFJ
— Manny Gamburyan (@MannyGamburyan) March 9, 2015
Never forget.
Jotorious. pic.twitter.com/XnhOkOcJXl
— Joseph Benavidez (@JoeJitsu) March 9, 2015
FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Announced yesterday (March 9 2015)
Luke Barnatt vs. Mark Munoz at UFC Fight Night: Edgar vs. Faber
FANPOST OF THE DAY
Today’s Fanpost of the Day comes via jaywolf1.
Finally, ONE FC RETURNS This FRIDAY March 13
Hello again MMAFighting!
Finally, my favorite MMA promotion ONE Championship returns this Friday, March 13 with ONE Championship: Age of Champions in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
ONE Championship is THE most exciting MMA promotion on the planet with their superior ruleset. ONE FC created the Global Ruleset that combines Western (UFC) and Eastern (PRIDE) rulesets to become the most awesome MMA experience the world has ever seen…
The ONE Championship ruleset creates a more dynamic environment and allows fighters to showcase more of their martial ability than anywhere else. It’s as real as it ever gets and forges true champions.
The action ONE’s superior ruleset brings makes every single ONE fight exciting from the main event on down to the prelims. It is an incredibly fun and entertaining experience. Even if you don’t know all the fighters on the card yet, you will enjoy seeing them unleashed under ONE FC’s awesome ruleset and remember them afterwards.
…
Check out the rest of the post here.
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