Forget about being one of the biggest female stars in MMA. With her armbar submission of Sarah Kaufman on Saturday night after just 54 seconds, Ronda Rousey proved that she is one of the biggest stars in MMA.
She’s now won all six of her professional fights via her trademark armbar. Only one—the title fight against Miesha Tate—has lasted for more than a minute, though that was over before the first round concluded. For good measure, she also won all three of her amateur fights via the armbar.
She’s already collecting the praises from a slew of MMA writers.
Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole has compared her and her meteoric rise in the sport to a young Mike Tyson dominating boxing early in his career.
Sports Illustrated’s Jeff Wagenheim has called her the most dominating fighter in the sport, more so than Anderson Silva, Jon Jones or Georges St-Pierre.
It isn’t premature to compare Rousey to fighters with much longer resumes, not with how convincingly she has dominated her opponents. No, she can’t yet top Silva’s 16 consecutive wins, nor can she brag about dismantling the level of opponents that Jones or St-Pierre have.
But she has thoroughly destroyed whomever has lined up opposite of her.
Stardom isn’t just about what you do in the Octagon. Rousey is also the consummate promoter, calling out Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos immediately after dispatching of Kaufman.
I particularly enjoyed her calling Santos “Miss Cy-Roid” and adding “People want to see you have the first fair fight of your life.”
Rousey also seems to understand that she can be an ambassador for women’s MMA. She appeared in ESPN the Magazine‘s Body Issue. She publicly blasted Kim Kardashian as a terrible role model for young girls and noted she’d like to beat her up.
She’s promoted herself intelligently and made herself a household name. She has a trademark move that she can market. She’s been absolutely dominant and doesn’t look like she’ll slow down anytime soon. And she happens to be gorgeous, which always helps.
Before you tell me I’m missing the point, ask yourself how many women would give a crap who Tom Brady was if he wasn’t attractive. Like it or not, from a marketing standpoint, looks matter.
And the biggest stars are always marketable.
Rousey is a superstar. She’s as big a star as MMA has today, and I dare any man or woman to say otherwise.
Hit me up on Twitter—my tweets are cracking like a Ronda Rousey armbar.
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