(Once again, we must turn to Rowdy Roddy Piper to lead by example.)
Although moments were tense in the aftermath of “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey’s brutal first round, title-earning armbar over Meisha Tate, it seemed as if the two competitors had finally found, at the minimum, a newfound respect for one another. Sure, Ronda still referred to Meisha as “fake,” but it seemed like these two had perhaps found a common ground. A close friendship and some drunk photos of them making out seemed to be on the horizon, at least to us.
How optimistic ignorant we were.
It all started when Meisha, who may still have to undergo surgery for the damaged ligaments she suffered in the fight, mind you, requested a rematch with the newly crowned 135 lb. champion, stating the following:
I, personally, would love the opportunity to have a rematch. I think at a high level, it takes one mistake. Anyone can make a mistake at any moment and someone’s able to capitalize on that. I don’t feel that Ronda proved anything other than what she’s already (proved) — that she has one thing that she’s great at. Really phenomenal at. But everything else, I could beat her. Give me another shot. I think it was competitive. I think for the most part I was probably winning. And I think at a competitive high level, one day one person could beat the one person, and the other day the other person would beat the other person.
This statement is…let’s call it ballsy, to say the least. And let’s not get into the fact that, “I think for the most part I was probably winning,” just surpassed Judo Gene LeBell’s “nice big dinner” line as the most hilariously confusing sentence in the history of the English language. A hell of a lot of conviction there.
Well believe it or not, Ronda caught wind of Meisha’s statements, because the Internet is a surprisingly crowded place. And wouldn’t you know, she was not too pleased by them. When asked for a response to Tate’s claims during a recent interview with BloodyElbow, Ronda responded with a shake of her head and the following verbal beatdown:
It just kind of makes her sound dumb. Everyone knows that I wanted to armbar her, and there was nothing she could do to stop me, even with months of preparation. I think that proves a lot. It’s like she’s not even looking at the actual situation. I don’t know what match she was watching, to really think that. One of those pieces of advice that my mom tells me all the time is, ‘Never listen to your own press.’ The second I got out of that cage, my coach was already telling me a million things I did wrong. It just seems tome like she must be surrounded by a bunch of “yes men” all the time, saying stuff like, ‘Oh yeah, you were winning. You were totally dominating.’ If I was her, I would look at that match, look at what I did wrong, and try to fix it next time, and not be like ‘I was totally winning before I lost.’
Ronda went on to say that she would gladly accept a rematch with Tate, as long as it happened this weekend, and with the same referee as in their first contest. OK, so maybe those last two bits were made up.
Given Tate’s probable layoff, coupled with the general belief that Sarah Kaufman will be getting the next crack at Rousey, it doesn’t look like these two will be seeing one another in the ring anytime soon. However, I leave you with two pieces of evidence that argue that this fight should never, ever, happen again.
Exhibit A
Exhibit B
-J. Jones