After the injury to Chris Weidman, Ronda Rousey and Cat Zingano will take center stage Saturday night in Los Angeles for UFC 184.
Weidman was originally supposed to headline the pay-per-view in a middleweight title bout with Vitor Belfort. Then, the champ got hurt in training and had to bow out. Belfort declined to fight Lyoto Machida for the interim belt, which meant Rousey and Zingano would get top billing instead.
Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole argued that this bout could be the tone-setter for the female division in mixed martial arts for years to come:
The Rousey-Zingano fight will attract a horde of celebrities who are coming out to watch what could be the match that, 10 years from now, 25 years from now, 50 years from now, is the one that all other women’s bouts are judged against.
Just as major boxing matches are measured by the standard of Muhammad Ali (31-0, 25 KOs) against Joe Frazier (26-0, 23 KOs) on March 8, 1971, it’s possible that future women’s MMA fights will be judged against Rousey-Zingano.
Given the level of skill for each fighter, there’s a good chance Rousey vs. Zingano could become something special.
The challenger enters with a perfect 9-0 record, with only one of those nine wins going the distance. She’s extremely strong and deadly on her feet. Rousey can’t afford to leave herself open like she has a few times in her previous fights, because one blow is all Zingano needs to turn the tide of a fight.
In addition, Zingano doesn’t tire as the fight goes on, as evidenced by the fact that three of her KO/TKO victories have come in the third round. The longer the bout goes, the more you might favor the challenger.
With that said, getting out of the first round won’t be easy.
Although everybody’s well aware of Rousey‘s dominant MMA record, it’s worth noting just how great she has been so far.
The only person in the world more skilled with the armbar submission might be Chris Jericho.
The best comparison one can make with Rousey is Mike Tyson when he was truly Iron Mike in the late 1980s. No professional athlete since then has had that same kind of aura of invincibility.
And people don’t exaggerate when they say that Tyson’s opponents looked defeated before the fight even began. Prior to Tyson knocking him out in the first round in 1988, Michael Spinks had the look of somebody seconds away from his own execution.
It was one of the few guys who didn’t fear Tyson that finally felled him.
Buster Douglas made no secret that his mother’s death 23 days before he was set to fight Tyson forced him to look at the grand scheme of things and put his title match into perspective.
Anthony Dominic of Columbus Monthly wrote a retrospective piece about that fight earlier this month. In the article, he called attention to the interview in the ring between Douglas and HBO’s Larry Merchant:
“Why did it happen, James?”
“’Cause I wanted it.”
“But why did you win this fight that nobody on this planet—”
“My mother. My mother. God bless her heart.”
After his mother’s passing, Douglas had nothing left to be afraid of in the ring. If Tyson beat him, then so what? That wouldn’t come close to the pain of losing a loved one.
“Fear was the champ’s weapon as much as his punching power and hand speed,” Dominic wrote. “But what did Douglas have to fear? The worst had already happened.”
Zingano has dealt with similar emotional pain in her life.
ESPN The Magazine‘s Allison Glock wrote an in-depth profile of the 32-year-old, chronicling how the death of her best friend in 2001 and husband’s suicide a little over a year ago impacted her outlook on everything. There was also the major knee injury in May 2013 that robbed Zingano a chance of facing Rousey and appearing on Season 18 of The Ultimate Fighter.
In short, Zingano has faced plenty of adversity.
At the end of Glock‘s article, she drew a parallel to her and Rousey‘s shared experiences, arriving at the conclusion that their past helped make them the fighters they are today:
“You know, her father committed suicide,” Zingano says, alluding to Rousey‘s loss at 8 years old, the same age as Brayden. Zingano glances at the horizon, gives her neck a sharp pop. “I remember when I heard that about her, thinking, ‘Damn, that’s why she’s so good. She made it through that.'” Her lips curl at the corners, the hint of a smile. “If you can survive what we have, what’s a fight?”
When people call Zingano potentially the toughest challenge of Rousey‘s career, it’s not merely promotional hyperbole.
Skill-wise, Zingano is talented enough to push Rousey past the first couple of rounds and potentially to the scorecards. Mentally, she won’t be afraid of the armbar or let Rousey‘s reputation affect her fight strategy. Nothing Rousey can do will compare to the difficulties Zingano has faced.
All of this will sound silly in the event Rousey wins yet again with a first-round submission, but don’t be surprised if Zingano remains in the fight through the late rounds before succumbing to the champion.
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