Ronda Rousey‘s UFC 184 fight with Cat Zingano was over before it began.
Zingano opened with a flying knee. It didn’t land, and the two wound up in a scramble from which Rousey quickly took her back. Rousey isolated an arm and quickly straightened and contorted it.
Officially, it was announced as a record-breaking 14-second “straight armlock” submission victory. The quickest submission win and the shortest championship bout in UFC history. Unofficially, it was just another Saturday when Ronda Rousey made some poor woman look foolish.
Usually, it’s hard to take lessons away from a fight such as this. More often than not, a fight ending this quickly is a mere fluke—an oddity that comes from a lucky punch or knee.
With Rousey, though—the woman who has finished eight of her 11 fights in under a minute—this is a standard fight for her and if that’s not scary, I don’t know what is.
The time for doubt is over, MMA fans. Accept it. We are all lucky to bare witness to the force of nature that is Ronda Rousey.
She is arguably the pound-for-pound best fighter in the game today. She is indisputably the most dominant fighter in MMA history.
Sure, the UFC women’s bantamweight division is, quite handily, the worst in the UFC from a talent perspective. The fact that fighters with genuinely mediocre skills such as Bethe Correia and Jessica Andrade are no-brainers when it comes to the rankings speaks volumes. Heck, looking at the women’s strawweight and women’s bantamweight rankings side by side on UFC.com speaks volumes.
Does it really matter, though?
Ronda Rousey’s win was the quickest in UFC title fight history (14 seconds).
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 1, 2015
Rousey is, quite possibly, the greatest athlete in the UFC today. She has world-class grappling skills. Her striking skills have advanced at an absolutely ridiculous clip. Her mindset is similar to that of a Tom Brady or Michael Jordan. Her cardio, from what we saw at UFC 168, is not a weakness in spite of the fact that opponents can’t survive a round with her.
Those are all facts, and who she victimizes with those talents is inconsequential. There is no aspect of this sport in which Rousey isn’t fearsome.
The lesson here is that there are no more lessons to be learned in relation to Rousey. She is the best in the business.
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