Ronda Rousey and the biggest hype train the UFC has promoted in quite some time will be blowing through the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA in February for UFC 157.
Not only is Rousey part of the card, but her fight with Liz Carmouche will be the Main Event of the evening. So much for easing Rousey into the Octagon.
The pulse I’m feeling from the majority of B/R readers is that you feel as though Rousey has been hyped up to the point where it’s hard to imagine her stock rising any higher. Yes, she has great judo skills and can pull a mean armbar on everyone, but is the UFC making a wise decision in placing her and Carmouche in a main event for the first female UFC fight?
It’s the hope of fans that placing Rousey as the headliner isn’t foreshadowing the fact that this is going to be a card light on big names. There have been rumors of so many fighters participating in this event, but as of now (just a little over two months from the event) there doesn’t appear to be anything resembling a complete fight card confirmed.
The only other fight confirmed for the event is Urijah Faber vs. Ivan Menjivar.
Perhaps Dana White knows Rousey can sell people on purchasing the fight to see her at this stage of her career. She has no losses and has appeared to be the most dominant female fighter we have ever seen in MMA.
I bet White also knows that she is one loss from losing a lot of her selling influence.
If Rousey was placed as part of a card and not the main event at UFC 157 and went on to lose, who in their right mind would believe she’d be able to sell a main event?
This is a great idea for the UFC. Put their poster girl out there now and have her sell a fight while she is the talk of the MMA world because you can’t be certain that her success is going to continue.
I do feel, however, that this is a bad sign for fans with regard to how the entire UFC 157 card will shape up.
Joe Chacon is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report and a staff writer for Operation Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @JoeChacon.
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