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UFC: Why We Should Be Thankful That Ronda Rousey Is Not Facing ‘Cyborg’ Just Yet

Female mixed martial arts did its best Neo impression earlier today, when it dodged a Cyborg-sized bullet that could have proved lethal to its future. The announcement that Ronda Rousey will be making her first title defense against Liz Carmouche is th…

Female mixed martial arts did its best Neo impression earlier today, when it dodged a Cyborg-sized bullet that could have proved lethal to its future.

The announcement that Ronda Rousey will be making her first title defense against Liz Carmouche is the best scenario for WMMA that one could have realistically hoped for.

Many of you might be wondering why I am so high on this particular matchup.

Let me preface this by saying that Carmouche is a good opponent for Rousey. However, my glee is more in relation to who the former Olympian will not be facing on her UFC debut.

By all accounts, Dana White has been working overtime to put together a blockbuster contest between Ronda Rousey and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos.

There is no question that is the fight everyone is eager to see. Therefore, it would appear to make sense to book that contest as soon as humanly possible.

But things are not quite that simple.

Although this might initially sound counter-intuitive, we should all be grateful that “Cyborg” has played hard to get in recent months.

Pitting the Brazilian against Rousey at the embryonic stage of the UFC female division’s development is the booking equivalent of playing chicken with a tank.

It is the kind of myopic approach to matchmaking that I have been so vocally opposed to in recent weeks.

Indeed, Dana White’s interview with Ariel Helwani earlier today only served to highlight how mind-bogglingly shortsighted the UFC brass can sometimes be.

In the aforementioned interview, the UFC President made it abundantly clear that he is in the Ronda Rousey business, not the women’s MMA business, stating bluntly:

“I’m not trying to shy away from that and say, ‘Oh no, we’re getting into women’s MMA.’ This is the Ronda Rousey show.”

Let’s leave aside how galling that comment must be for every other female mixed martial artist out there and instead focus on the implications of White’s statement.

If this is indeed the “Ronda Rousey show,” why put her up against “Cyborg” Santos in her UFC debut? One might call it honest matchmaking by the UFC, but that would be missing the point.

There is no doubt that Rousey can win that fight, but is there any doubt that she is equally likely to lose the fight?

Dana White has already conceded that the UFC’s interest in women’s MMA is tied to the fate of their new champion.

With that in mind, one has to wonder why they would play Russian Roulette with their only bankable female star.

We should be equally thankful that Sara McMann had the business savvy to realise that a fight with Ronda Rousey would be pointless at present.

The UFC must build the profile of its female division before it starts matching up the three best fighters in WMMA.

While those who have idealistic notions of a meritocratic matchmaking system might balk at this suggestion, it is critical that Ronda Rousey remains on the throne for the foreseeable future.

Dana White has made it clear that any other scenario puts the future of women’s MMA in serious doubt.

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UFC on Fox 5: Dana White Talks Rousey, Fox and Much More in Video Scrum

SEATTLE — UFC President Dana White met with the media following today’s UFC on FOX media press conference.In the media scrum, White discussed Ronda Rousey’s appointment as the UFC women’s bantamweight champion and much, much more. Check out the f…

SEATTLE — UFC President Dana White met with the media following today’s UFC on FOX media press conference.

In the media scrum, White discussed Ronda Rousey’s appointment as the UFC women’s bantamweight champion and much, much more.

Check out the full video above.

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Dana White Talks Shane Carwin’s Future and Relationship with Stephan Bonnar

Following the UFC on Fox 5 pre-fight press conference, Dana White spoke with attending media about a wide variety of topics. While most of the focus was on Ronda Rousey and this weekend’s event, there were some notable tidbits about the current happeni…

For those that were not aware, Shane Carwin was forced to pull out his fight with Roy Nelson at The Ultimate Fighter 16 Finale in Las Vegas after suffering a knee injury. They coached opposite of one another on the current season of The Ultimate Fighter on FX.

The 37-year-old heavyweight was already coming off an extended layoff due to back surgery that kept him out of action for over a year. The latest injury will keep him on the shelf even longer as he attempts to repair his body for one last run.

The UFC president isn’t too sure that the former UFC interim heavyweight champion can bounce back from such an injury.

“I dunno, man. I just talked to him the other day. He’s so depressed. He’s completely bummed out and depressed and I feel bad for the guy. It’s tough to bounce back,” White told Bleacher Report. “Especially cause he’s not getting any younger and having a major injury like that, it’s tough to bounce back from.”

Judging from his words and mannerisms, White doesn’t see an Octagon return as likely for Carwin, as his body just doesn’t seem to be holding up under the rigors of intense training.

The conversation then switched to Stephan Bonnar, who tested positive for Drostanolone following his UFC 153 bout against Anderson Silva. Bonnar stepped up on short notice to face Silva in order to save the Brazilian event, which suffered numerous injuries at the top of the card.

It was Bonnar‘s retirement fight and the second time that he’s tested positive for a banned substance during his UFC career. While it’s apparent that White is mad that Bonnar was using a performance-enhancing drug (PED), it’s pretty clear that the light heavyweight will always have a home in the UFC.

“I have not talked to Bonnar yet. I’m still mad at Bonnar. I’m mad. I’m mad at him. I don’t hate him. It’s not like I’ll never have a relationship with Stephan Bonnar again. He’ll always be with the UFC. His fight with Forrest, we’re all here because of that. But I’m mad at him. He should have told me.”

All quotes attained by Bleacher Report firsthand.

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UFC 157: What Happens If Ronda Rousey Gets Beaten Badly by Liz Carmouche?

Ronda Rousey is fighting Liz Carmouche and she’s expected to trample her—but what if Rousey doesn’t?What if the unthinkable happens and Rousey, the UFC’s poster-woman for women’s MMA, gets beaten? And what happens if she gets beaten badly?How bad…

Ronda Rousey is fighting Liz Carmouche and she’s expected to trample her—but what if Rousey doesn’t?

What if the unthinkable happens and Rousey, the UFC’s poster-woman for women’s MMA, gets beaten? And what happens if she gets beaten badly?

How badly? Like Mark Hominick vs. Jose Aldo or Joe Stevenson vs. BJ Penn badly. What on earth would happen then? Could women’s MMA really survive that?

No, it couldn’t.

If Rousey loses—even if it’s by a decision—WMMA in the UFC will almost definitely crash and burn.

UFC president Dana White was an outspoken critic of WMMA and once said that women would “never” fight in the UFC. Yet now, here they are, about to fight in the UFC.

Obviously, it’s no coincidence that as soon as an attractive, young, silver-tongued, female fighter showed up that he suddenly changed his tune; Ronda Rousey is an easy sell. Unfortunately, other prominent female fighters don’t have as much earning potential.

Zuffa (the company that owns the UFC and Strikeforce), throughout its voyage through WMMA, has shown that the only way it knows how to market a female athlete is through sex appeal. Why else would they have put Sarah Kaufman in that ridiculous white leather outfit?

The UFC needs Ronda Rousey for their female-fighter venture to be successful. It’s sad that when women are involved, sex appeal has to be part of the equation but that’s the unpleasant truth.

If Rousey‘s star is dimmed by a loss, or if it goes outright supernova by a devastating beatdown, Dana White’s tune will change. After all, his commitment to WMMA seems tepid at best. “We’re kind of playing with it,” he said. “I know this, over the next couple of years we’ve got fights in the 135-pound division, good fights. Ronda’s the champ and she’ll come in and we’ll see how this thing plays out.”

Should Carmouche win, White will likely deem that the foray into WMMA played out poorly, and the plug will in all likelihood be pulled. The upshot of the UFC’s WMMA experiment would be naught but for the disappointment of Zuffa brass.

Follow @MattSaccaro

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Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz: Both Men Want It, so Let the UFC Deliver It

Normally, I sympathize with those who put true title contenders above potential draws.Why, you ask?I do so because at the end of the day, a contender must make sense, even to UFC president Dana White, who consistently reminds us that the best figh…

Normally, I sympathize with those who put true title contenders above potential draws.

Why, you ask?

I do so because at the end of the day, a contender must make sense, even to UFC president Dana White, who consistently reminds us that the best fights possible fall within his strategic plans for the UFC.

So for those who wish for a translation: yes, Yours Truly gets it.

Johny Hendricks earned his shot at Georges St-Pierre. Nick Diaz did not. Diaz must receive his license to compete and he must combat the best of the division before he talks about St-Pierre again.

Understandable as that sounds, however, someone needed to send St-Pierre that memo a while ago, because underneath his skin still lies Diaz. No one should dare question this, because if this wasn’t the case, why would St-Pierre request Diaz over the obvious title contender in Hendricks?

In St-Pierre’s mind, Hendricks deserves the title shot. Looking at it from St-Pierre’s perspective, however, handing Diaz some sort of punishment clearly gives him a deeper and more intense motivation.

With Hendricks, St-Pierre faces a bit of deja-vu in a tough fighter that St-Pierre will need to take the fight away from. St-Pierre will take the time to remind us of the difficulty of his competition while also keeping us wondering about if will take a fight with Anderson Silva down the road.

With Diaz, the picture differs, especially in terms of the fight itself. St-Pierre attacks with elbows, double-legs, a tough jab, a Kyokushin-based regiment that he still keeps at and a top game that few can match. Unlike Condit, meanwhile, Diaz starts a bit slowly, but he never relents, always attacks with his Jiu-Jitsu at every turn and fiercely intends to prove his doubters.

They are the ones who claim Diaz loses nine fights our of 10 when he faces a great wrestler. They are incredibly wrong.

Skill sets aside, though, everything about this boils down to the emotion of the fight, not the fight itself. Not even Josh Koscheck provoked such emotion out of St-Pierre. White knows this, the Fertita brothers know this and the Zuffa marketing machine knows exactly how to make casual fans care about it—even if the fight happens outside of Canada.

Before anyone rants and raves about Hendricks deserving the shot—and unquestionably, he does—take the bad blood into account. Remember that St-Pierre, a man who rarely ever asks for fights of his own accord, personally wanted and asked for this fight before Hendricks or Silva.

If the champion wants to settle his score with Diaz before taking Hendricks, then let the UFC build this potential gem of a title fight up and let the spotlights come to focus on arguably the greatest Canadian MMA athlete of all time.

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Ronda Rousey as UFC Champion Is a Big Step Forward for the UFC, Women in Sports

The UFC took a momentous leap forward into women’s mixed martial arts by officially making Ronda Rousey the promotion’s first ever female champion.UFC President Dana White awarded Rousey with the company’s inaugural women’s championship belt at the UFC…

The UFC took a momentous leap forward into women’s mixed martial arts by officially making Ronda Rousey the promotion’s first ever female champion.

UFC President Dana White awarded Rousey with the company’s inaugural women’s championship belt at the UFC on Fox 5 pre-fight press conference on Thursday. White also announced that “Rowdy” will make her Octagon debut opposite Liz Carmouche when the two headline February’s UFC 157 in Anaheim, California.

As a long-time proponent of women’s MMA, I have to say that I am quite impressed by the promotion’s faith in Rousey and in other emerging female fighters.

Even before the Olympic bronze medalist judoka became the first women’s UFC champ, White and company were already touting her as the biggest name in WMMA.

I have to give the promotion props for laying the groundwork so that Rousey and other female fighters could smoothly transition into the big show.

The company has shown a more enlightened view towards female fighters (and female athletes in general) that other sports should look to emulate. You’d be hard-pressed to find another major sport that actively integrates women into the fold, let alone one that would give a female athlete top-billing.

However, no amount of altruism can overshadow the fact that there’s money to be made by having a women’s division. But by the UFC saying that female fighters are just as marketable as male fighters, the promotion is basically leading the way for gender equality in major sports.

Rather than separating the sexes by relegating women to an entirely different entity, like the NBA does with the WNBA, the UFC has proven that a synergy between the genders has to occur in order to raise the popularity of female athletes. Women could certainly carry a promotion on their own, like Invicta FC, for example, but in order for female fighters to gain mainstream acceptance, they have to be cross-promoted with male fighters.

What’s brilliant about the UFC’s strategy is that, along with cross-promotion, the company is also immediately putting the women’s division to the test by having Rousey versus Carmouche headline a major pay-per-view event as the inaugural women’s UFC bout. This move will instantly garner the division a ton of interest and could possibly help to win over fans skeptical of WMMA.

The UFC’s integration of new divisions, such as the lighter weight classes, hasn’t always gone smoothly, mostly due to marketing failures.

When the promotion announced the addition of the bantamweight and featherweight divisions during the UFC-WEC merger, there was very little marketing done to hype the new additions. While the likes of Jose Aldo and Dominick Cruz gained some attention as their WEC titles transformed into UFC gold, the rest of the division received little hype.

Quietly, the new weight classes made their debuts as part of the non-televised preliminary card at The Ultimate Fighter 12 finale back in December 2010. If it wasn’t for a botched decision during a main card bout later that night between Leonard Garcia and Nam Phan (the second featherweight fight in UFC history), the new weight classes probably wouldn’t have received more than just a passing mention by MMA pundits.

Even with the addition of the flyweight division during this year’s four-man tournament, the UFC still hasn’t done that great of a job of hyping its lighter weight classes.

Luckily, the UFC has learned from its past mistakes.

The promotion is putting Rousey and the women’s division at the forefront of fans minds through constant exposure. When these two women enter the Octagon for their pay-per-view-headlining fight at UFC 157 next year, rest assured that the UFC will go hard on marketing.

Not only is the UFC leading the way for female fighters, but it’s also helping the entire sports world take a step forward by showing them that women and men can harmoniously compete under the same banner.

Be sure to like me on Facebook or follow @MattJuulMMA

Liz Carmouche

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