A bit more than a year ago, the MMA world hailed Ronda Rousey as virtually unbeatable.
The UFC hyped its popular women’s bantamweight champion as a “once ever in human history” caliber of fighter. Sports Illustrated dubbed her the most dominant athlete in all of sports. People were basically prewriting obituaries for her opponents before they’d even fought:
Then came Rousey’s aura-shattering loss to Holly Holm at UFC 193 and the protracted absence that followed. Now that she’s finally returning to take on newly minted 135-pound champion Amanda Nunes on Dec. 30 at UFC 207, the narrative has changed a wee bit.
These days people aren’t so much celebrating Rousey’s greatness as they are openly speculating whether she’s bitten off more than she can chew.
They’re wondering aloud if this returning version of her will be somehow “damaged.”
They’re listing reasons why she shouldn’t have returned to the cage in the first place.
Last Saturday during UFC on Fox 22, the fight company’s exclusive broadcast partner even got in on the Rousey-as-pinata party.
For purely unknowable reasons during that event, Fox gave 45 odd seconds of airtime to its resident provocateur, Skip Bayless, who didn’t waste time going in on The Rowdy One.
Here are Bayless’ words in their entirety:
I’m a fan of Ronda Rousey but I fear for her return. It took her 14 months to put herself back together physically and mentally after getting shocked and rocked by Holly Holm. She said she finally crumbled under the pressure to promote and carry an entire sport. She said she fought suicidal thoughts. She’s becoming a movie star. She’s nearing 30. I’m sure she’s feeling pressure to show the world she won’t just up and quit after her first loss—but maybe that would’ve been best. Having to deal with Amanda Nunes is no way to ease back into competition, especially if Ronda’s heart isn’t quite in it. Nunes destroyed and basically retired Miesha Tate and recently told me she plans to do the same to Ronda Rousey. I sure hope this doesn’t end badly for Ronda.
Well, alrighty then.
Here, Bleacher Report’s Mike Chiappetta joins me to debate whether some media pundits and fans may be going a little overboard in writing Rousey off before her comeback even begins.
Chad Dundas: Mike, knowing full well that MMA is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately kind of sport, I confess I’m still bemused every time I see somebody like Skip Bayless throw a handwringing pity party for Rousey.
Considering how dominant she was such a short time ago, I’m shocked by the 180-degree turnabout in public perception of her, at least as it’s coming from certain corners.
Sure, Rousey lost in fairly ugly fashion in November 2015. Yes, she took that loss as hard as any dethroned champion we’ve ever seen and convalesced longer than anyone probably expected before finally announcing her return.
But some of the reactions to her comeback read as though many people have plumb forgotten the nearly three years (longer, if you followed her in Strikeforce) we all spent watching Rousey stomp a mudhole in every 135-pound female fighter matchmakers could scrounge up to throw at her.
Now, suddenly, people like Bayless “fear” for Rousey’s return? They think it “would have been best” if maybe she walked away from the Octagon forever after losing to Holm?
Really? Seriously? Come on, man.
I mean, I guess it’s possible that a combination of ring rust and diminishing competitive spirit causes Rousey to lose to Nunes at UFC 207. But if that happens, I would be slightly more surprised than I’ll be if Rousey throws Nunes on her head and armbars her in 45 seconds.
If anything, I think those two outcomes seem equally likely.
And if I had to bet, I’d wager Ronda Rousey comes back from her time off with a chip on her shoulder and looking a lot more like the killer who terrorized her division through six consecutive UFC title defenses than the hapless amateur who got KOed by Holm.
What say you?
Mike Chiappetta: Like most people, I had an immediate reaction to Hot Take Skip checking in on MMA, mostly because we know he has no interest in it aside from his employer’s prodding.
That said, I have to admit that Rousey’s disappearing act, her candid but worrisome comments on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and her disinterest in speaking with the media prior to UFC 207 combine to make her seem…vulnerable?
That’s not a word we associated with Rousey until she lost last November. Before that, she was dominant, untouchable, invincible. All of those words we throw at undefeated champions. Her reaction to losing was a human one. I can remember talking to Rich Franklin almost a decade ago about his reaction in losing his middleweight title to Anderson Silva. He told me he stayed locked in his hotel room for a few days just staring out the window, wondering how the world could go on as normal.
Losses are dark like that.
But all of the “concern” for her is the projection of the person, and has little to do with Rousey. In a year’s time, she hasn’t forgotten how to fight. She hasn’t lost the judo skills that had her tossing opponents all over the Octagon. She hasn’t forgotten how to armbar someone in her sleep.
In fact, it’s quite probable she is even better now that she was then.
The thing is, MMA is always a brutal game. The consequences can be horrific and can stay with you forever. Both physically and emotionally. So is it possible she has been affected by the loss in a way that changes her in the cage? Yes, it’s possible. But we don’t know. She didn’t have to come back. She chose to. That tells me something about her fortitude. She wants to fight. She wants to prove something to herself and everyone else.
So, to me, she’s already passed that test. The Nunes test? That’s a whole other story.
Chad, the people over at OddsShark have Rousey as a slight favorite. Will she win? Does she shut down the Skip Baylesses of the world? Does she start chapter two of her story and then think about becoming a two-division champion?
Chad: My favorite kind of fight is one where I have no idea what’s going to happen, and this bout certainly qualifies as that.
A lot of people reacted to Rousey‘s loss to Holm as if it unearthed some secret blueprint of how to beat her when, in fact, it merely reinforced the one thing we already knew: That Rousey was a fairly one-dimensional fighter. It just so happens that her single dimension—her preternatural judo skills—had been dominant enough to lead her to crushing victories in the first 12 fights of her professional career.
Even before UFC 193, we all knew Rousey‘s weakness was her standup game; it was just that none of her opponents had been able to steer clear of her grappling long enough to exploit it.
To do so took a very specific matchup of styles.
It just so happened that Holly Holm was and always is at her best when her opponent brings the fight directly to her, as Rousey tried to do with reckless abandon during their fight. Holm was impeccably well prepared by her coaches at the famed Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA team to avoid Rousey‘s judo takedowns and was big, athletic and dynamic enough to go out there and pitch a shutout.
In short, she was the perfect opponent, with the perfect training and perfect skill set who then put on the flawless performance of a lifetime. The fact Holm turned around and went 0-2 in her next two fights only underscores the lightning-in-a-bottle nature of that victory.
The million dollar question, obviously, is whether Nunes will be able to recreate that performance.
Obviously, she’ll have the edge in the standup, but will she be able to ward off Rousey‘s takedowns? Can she muster the mobility, game-planning and stamina to follow Holm‘s lead? Especially if Rousey has changed her own tactics and doesn‘t just throw herself straight into the teeth of Nunes’ offense, like she did against Holm?
I honestly can’t predict, but I also refuse to believe Rousey is the lost cause a lot of people seem to think she is after that single loss.
What do you think, Mike? Does Nunes confirm everyone’s suspicions about Rousey? Or was Holm just indeed the exact right person for the job at exactly the right time?
Mike: I’m leaning Rousey in this fight just on the merits of what I see in their games. Nunes has some dangerous attributes—namely her power and aggression—but I don’t think she’s slick enough in her striking to really dismantle Rousey in the way Holm did.
Nunes certainly has the ability to land a facebuster that changes everything in a blink, but if she doesn’t do so, she’s been known to fade, and this is a five-round bout. That’s a lot of time for her to be trying to suck in air while attempting to avoid the arm collector.
Additionally, Nunes’ aggression plays into Rousey’s hands. Where Holm hung back on the periphery and waited for Rousey to cross into her striking range, Nunes comes forward at all times. Historically, Rousey has feasted on this kind of approach. They wade their way into her clinch, she tosses them on their ass and thus initiates the beginning of the end.
If Nunes is overaggressive, the same fate may await her. If she alters herself and turns into a counterstriker for the evening, she lessens Rousey’s risk. I agree with Chad’s assertion that Nunes has an edge on the feet; I just don’t think it’s as sizable as others have suggested. Because of it, I think Rousey can hang with her striking long enough to put Nunes were she wants her.
Incredibly, after five years and 13 fights, Rousey is still a mysterious fighter in that we don’t know the full depths of her game. Nearly all of her bouts have lasted only a minute or two, and in the two bouts that went past the first round, we’ve seen very different results.
If anyone thinks Nunes is better and will win because of it, that’s perfectly fine. But the “broken” narrative is just a lazy way to suggest Rousey’s more vulnerable as a fighter than she used to be, which we already knew.
The bottom line is I find it hard to believe that Rousey was somehow compromised in an eternal way by the Holm loss. This is a woman who experienced crushing defeats in the Olympics, fought an eating disorder and lost her father to suicide.
And came back from it all to become one of the most famous combat sports athletes in the world. A loss may have been a blow to her confidence and self-belief, but if there’s one thing Rousey loves, it’s a good fight. And on Dec. 30, I have no doubt she’ll give one.
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