Ronda Rousey is one of the most dominant forces in sports, and there is no sign of this reign coming to an end. If this wasn’t clear before, it is now, after Rousey dispatched of her latest opponent, just as she has with all her previous, with an armbar in the first round.
There was a thought out there that Rousey would face her first real challenge as an MMA fighter in her her first title defense against Sarah Kaufman.
After all, Kaufman is an extremely accomplished fighter. Heading into Saturday’s bout, she was 15-1 as a professional, and that included her winning the Hardcore Championship Fighting Women’s Bantamweight Championship and beating former Strikeforce champ Miesha Tate by unanimous decision.
During all of this, she had also displayed good takedown defense.
Also, you have to figure in Rousey‘s rush to fame. This was her first title defense, and between the time of her winning the title, which she won by beating Tate, and now, Rousey has increased her stardom exponentially. She has been showing up at Hollywood events and popping off soundbytes left and right.
There was reason enough to speculate that she had been distracted from training and that this would be enough for her to have problems against a tough opponent.
It wasn’t.
Rousey came out of the corner with her unmatched intensity and aggression. There is not another fighter on the planet, man or woman, that is as locked into attack mode as Rousey.
In fact, this style and her dominance are drawing comparisons to those of a young Mike Tyson (via Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports).
So as Rousey charged forward, she quickly found a leg sweep that sent her opponent to the mat and went to work on enough ground and pound for Kaufman to raise her arms up.
She was trying to raise them in defense, but the reality is she just handed Rousey her path to victory, as Rousey quickly put the rising arm in an unbreakable armbar.
Everyone knows the armbar is coming when they fight Rousey; they just can’t do anything to stop it.
Rousey is an Olympic bronze medalist in judo, and it shows in her efficient takedowns. Once she gets her opponent on the mat, it is all over.
The only way she will be beaten is if someone can avoid her takedowns, and given that she has beaten two straight quality opponents who feature good takedown defense in Tate and Kaufman, it is not looking good for anyone to pull that off.
“Rowdy” Ronda Rousey will be the champ until she retires or simply gets too bored to pay attention anymore.
In the meantime, she is simply unbeatable.
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