Tag: Ronda Rousey

UFC Primetime Rousey vs Carmouche Debuts Thursday Night

Ronda Rousey, the UFC’s first female champion, and Liz Carmouche, the UFC’s first openly gay fighter, will be the subject of UFC Primetime: Rousey vs. Carmouche, the most recent installment in the UFC’s regular program hyping big fights and fight …

Ronda Rousey, the UFC’s first female champion, and Liz Carmouche, the UFC’s first openly gay fighter, will be the subject of UFC Primetime: Rousey vs. Carmouche, the most recent installment in the UFC’s regular program hyping big fights and fight cards, will premiere Thursday night. 

East Coast denizens may have to stay up past their bedtimes to catch the mini-series debut, as it airs tonight at midnight on Fuel TV.

Rousey will defend her title for the first time in the first women’s fight in the UFC, set for the co-main event of UFC 157, taking place Feb. 23 in Anaheim, Calif.

According to MMA reporter Ariel Helwani, the program also will air on select Fox Sports Net channels.

Rousey is unquestionably the biggest star in women’s MMA. She might be the biggest star in the entire sport. But Rousey is more than just a pretty face; she has a pro MMA record of 6-0, with all six fights ending in the first round by armbar submission.

Liz “Girl-Rilla” Carmouche (8-2) is primarily a stand-up fighter, having garnered five wins by knockout or technical knockout. She is also a Marine and a combat veteran.

Carmouche’s two most high-profile fights—against Marlos Coenen and Sarah Kaufman—both ended in losses for Carmouche. When she was signed in December, UFC president Dana White implied that Carmouche was the only fighter willing to face Rousey. However, other accounts, including that of Rousey victim and rival Miesha Tate, have disputed that implication.

Carmouche, a heavy underdog coming into UFC 157, previously said she believes the UFC may be rooting for her to lose, in the name of preserving the mystique around Rousey, the face of women’s MMA. 

As the hype for Rousey vs. Carmouche kicks into high gear with UFC Primetime, the hype is already in overdrive for a potential showdown between Rousey and Cristiane Santos, considered by many the only fighter who could dethrone Rousey.

Also on the UFC 157 card, light heavyweights Lyoto Machida and Dan Henderson do battle in what could determine the next challenger for Jon Jones’s championship. 

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

The Late Ronda Rousey, Kennedy’s Bloody Sheets and the Best of MMA Twitter

A fighter’s life is a daily grind. We only see them during fight week, when they are either competing and super focused or just hanging out, signing autographs, and partying their butts off in Las Vegas.In between is where the real work happens, the ti…

A fighter’s life is a daily grind. We only see them during fight week, when they are either competing and super focused or just hanging out, signing autographs, and partying their butts off in Las Vegas.

In between is where the real work happens, the time spent in the gym and on the mat that turns an average fighter into a champion. Grappling, standup, wrestling, conditioning—becoming a top level fighter isn’t easy. If it was, anybody could do it, not just a select few.

But when fighters aren’t in the gym, you can generally find them with their heads buried in their phones. On Twitter. And, where fighters go, so goes the MMA journalists. I’m there everyday, so you don’t have to be, sharing the best of the best of the MMA Twitterverse.

Tim Kennedy’s Twitter feed is a source of constant amazement. I’m wondering now whether he goes to bed without showering or if he doesn’t put bandages on open wounds and just goes with the flow? And which would be worse?

The main takeaway? Don’t share a bed with Tim Kennedy unless you are some kind of fetishist.

British flyweight Phil Harris takes on Ulysses Gomez 10 days from now on FX. Getting down to 125 pounds won’t be pretty. If you know any fighters you know this drill as well. Welcome to hell week—where the food is in short supply but the gripes are readily available.

Ever wonder who was still making Chuck Norris jokes? In 2013?

Wonder no more.

Stipe Miocic speaks for every human soul who watched The Ultimate Fighter and saw Uriah Hall nearly kill a man. At least Hall still has the humanity left to feel bad about it.

Former TUF star Mike Swick was watching as well. And while in the form of a joke, there is some truth hidden here as well. For an older fighter, one who has perhaps slowed down a bit in the old reflex department, a knockout like this is a scary thing to ponder.

Ronda Rousey‘s mom is a smart lady. Slow down out there. Especially you fools in my neighborhood!

What I love about Bleacher Report’s Matt Saccarro? Besides his relentless Twitter account?

I love knowing that no matter how old and angry I become, there will always be someone out there who hates everything even more than I do!

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Video Preview: Shit Is Going to Get Violent on Tonight’s Episode of ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ But Will You Be Watching?

As one could tell from the opening moments of The Ultimate Fighter 17 premiere a couple weeks back, some drastic improvements have been made to the long neglected reality show. The sleek production, the lack of fabricated drama, the fight quality — nearly everything audiences were demanding over the past few seasons seems to have improved for the time being and has been reflected in the show’s much improved ratings.

And tonight’s episode, featuring a showdown between the highly touted Uriah Hall (Team Sonnen) and the all but completely overlooked Adam Cella (Team Jones), promises to deliver not only one of the most violent KO’s in the show’s history, but in the history of the sport. That is according to noted TUF hypeman and occasional UFC president Dana White, of course.

So in order to do a little TUF-hyping of our own (I know right? WHAT YEAR IS THIS?!), we’ve thrown a preview of tonight’s episode above for you all to check out. And indeed, if the audience’s reaction is any indication, then someone is going down in a big way during the night’s main event. Unfortunately for you spoilerphobes, if you freeze frame the video around the 45 second mark, you can see that the fighter strapped to the stretcher appears to be of the African American persuasion. A bit of intentional misleading by the TUF production team, or a massive upset in the making? And more importantly, how many of you Taters will be tuning in to find out?

After the jump: A little more video hype, featuring a sneak peak of Ronda Rousey’s special on Real Sports, which airs February 19th on HBO. Liz Carmouche’s special, on the other hand, will be airing tonight on Lifetime After Dark in the form of a 30-second trailer during the network’s coveted 3 a.m. spot. We kid, we kid; Liz didn’t get a special.

As one could tell from the opening moments of The Ultimate Fighter 17 premiere a couple weeks back, some drastic improvements have been made to the long neglected reality show. The sleek production, the lack of fabricated drama, the fight quality — nearly everything audiences were demanding over the past few seasons seems to have improved for the time being and has been reflected in the show’s much improved ratings.

And tonight’s episode, featuring a showdown between the highly touted Uriah Hall (Team Sonnen) and the all but completely overlooked Adam Cella (Team Jones), promises to deliver not only one of the most violent KO’s in the show’s history, but in the history of the sport. That is according to noted TUF hypeman and occasional UFC president Dana White, of course.

So in order to do a little TUF-hyping of our own (I know right? WHAT YEAR IS THIS?!), we’ve thrown a preview of tonight’s episode above for you all to check out. And indeed, if the audience’s reaction is any indication, then someone is going down in a big way during the night’s main event. Unfortunately for you spoilerphobes, if you freeze frame the video around the 45 second mark, you can see that the fighter strapped to the stretcher appears to be of the African American persuasion. A bit of intentional misleading by the TUF production team, or a massive upset in the making? And more importantly, how many of you Taters will be tuning in to find out?

After the jump: A little more video hype, featuring a sneak peak of Ronda Rousey’s special on Real Sports, which airs February 19th on HBO. Liz Carmouche’s special, on the other hand, will be airing tonight on Lifetime After Dark in the form of a 30-second trailer during the network’s coveted 3 a.m. spot. We kid, we kid; Liz didn’t get a special.

–J. Jones

Dana White: Cyborg vs. Ronda Rousey UFC Title Fight ‘Has to Go to 135 Pounds’

Stick a fork in it, folks. Negotiations for a UFC superfight between Ronda Rousey and Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino seem to be done for now.Unfortunately, the two top-ranked female MMA fighters in the world haven’t been able to agree on a set weight, as t…

Stick a fork in it, folks. Negotiations for a UFC superfight between Ronda Rousey and Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino seem to be done for now.

Unfortunately, the two top-ranked female MMA fighters in the world haven’t been able to agree on a set weight, as the massively-muscled Cyborg has continually states that a 140-pound limit is as low as she can physically go.

That’s not good enough for UFC president Dana White.

White, a firm supporter of Rousey, recently confirmed to MMA Junkie that while he’s still interested in making this fight happen, Cyborg likely won’t be fighting for a title if Rousey meets her at a 140-pound catchweight:

It’s not a title fight. If that’s what [Cyborg] is willing to do is go to 140, let’s let Ronda defend her title a few times and see if Ronda wants to go to 140. If I know Ronda, she probably would anyway, so let’s see what happens. But if [Cyborg] wants to fight for a title and have a title fight, she has to go to 135 pounds.

A fight at 140 would be a fan fight because everybody wants to see it, but it’s not one of those fights that makes sense.

White’s stance effectively kills a superfight between Rousey and Cyborg, although, it remains to be seen if the Brazilian will attempt to cut down to the 135-pound bantamweight limit.

It may be possible, as White previously told TATAME that famed MMA nutritionist Mike Dolce could possibly get Cyborg to trim the 10 pounds.

For her part, Cyborg and her trainer, Tito Ortiz, don’t seem to like this turn of events.

Taking to Instagram in response to White’s claims (via UFC Tonight) that Cyborg wanted “nothing” to do with Rousey, the former Strikeforce featherweight queen called her rival a “bitch,” challenging her to “step up” to 140 pounds.

Notably, Ortiz has also criticized Rousey on The MMA Hour (via MMA Fighting) for buying into her own hype, opining that the UFC women’s champion “hasn’t proven anything” yet.

White’s response to Ortiz was explosive to say the least, as the UFC president slammed his former light heavyweight champion (via MMA Weekly), stating that Rousey’s early MMA career “smokes” Ortiz’s own achievements by comparison.

 

McKinley Noble is an MMA conspiracy theorist and FightFans Radio writer. His work has appeared in GamePro, Macworld and PC World. Talk with him on Twitter.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Gina Carano Talks Her Future in MMA, Ronda vs. Cyborg, And Is Still Cute as a Button [VIDEO]


(Because of its needlessly tall dimensions — you’ll see — we’ve placed the video after the jump.)

Because it has been over three years since Gina Carano has fought, we don’t hear from the former “Face of Women’s MMA” as often as we’d like to, but the fighter-turned-actress was in New Orleans for the Super Bowl over the weekend, and filmed a rare interview with SB Nation in which she tried to clear up whether or not she is actually retired from MMA and what she thinks about the elusive Ronda Rousey vs. “Cyborg” Santos mega-bout.

On being called a current fighter, Carano drew an important distinction. “I haven’t fought in three years and right now I’m focusing on films…that’s what my focus is,” she explained. “I think that if your focus is fighting, then you’re a fighter and that’s not my focus right now.”

“Conviction” wouldn’t close the door on her ever fighting again, however. “You can’t say that.”

“I wake up every morning and I surprise myself. I wake up to a new me. I still train.”

She last sparred about two weeks ago, in fact, and “felt really good.”

Carano went on to say that Rousey deserves the hype and attention, and also called shenanigans on Santos claim that she’d be facing certain death if she were to cut down to 135 pounds — the prerequisite for her fighting Rousey, according to UFC President Dana White. Carano doesn’t believe that Uncle Dana is being unfair to “Cyborg” by making the former 145 pound champ drop down to 135 in order to fight in the UFC and, potentially, against Rousey.

“I don’t think so…she made it down there a lot easier than I made it down there. That’s for Cyborg to figure out,” Gina said.


(We’ve placed the video after the jump; when you see it, you’ll understand.)

Because it has been over three years since Gina Carano has fought, we don’t hear from the former “Face of Women’s MMA” as often as we’d like to, but the fighter-turned-actress was in New Orleans for the Super Bowl over the weekend, and filmed a rare interview with SB Nation in which she tried to clear up whether or not she is actually retired from MMA and what she thinks about the elusive Ronda Rousey vs. “Cyborg” Santos mega-bout.

On being called a current fighter, Carano drew an important distinction. “I haven’t fought in three years and right now I’m focusing on films…that’s what my focus is,” she explained. “I think that if your focus is fighting, then you’re a fighter and that’s not my focus right now.”

“Conviction” wouldn’t close the door on her ever fighting again, however. “You can’t say that.”

“I wake up every morning and I surprise myself. I wake up to a new me. I still train.”

She last sparred about two weeks ago, in fact, and “felt really good.”

Carano went on to say that Rousey deserves the hype and attention, and also called shenanigans on Santos claim that she’d be facing certain death if she were to cut down to 135 pounds — the prerequisite for her fighting Rousey, according to UFC President Dana White. Carano doesn’t believe that Uncle Dana is being unfair to “Cyborg” by making the former 145 pound champ drop down to 135 in order to fight in the UFC and, potentially, against Rousey.

“I don’t think so…she made it down there a lot easier than I made it down there. That’s for Cyborg to figure out,” Gina said.

“It bummed me out that Ronda and Cyborg weren’t the first [women’s] UFC fight..at least we’re in there.”

– Elias Cepeda

UFC 156: Dana White Slams Tito Ortiz, Says Ronda Rousey ‘Smokes’ His MMA Career

Mainstream fame is a rare thing to see in the world of mixed martial arts. But if you ask Dana White, international judo champion Ronda Rousey is light years ahead of the pack.And that includes Tito Ortiz—even in his prime.On a recent episode of …

Mainstream fame is a rare thing to see in the world of mixed martial arts. But if you ask Dana White, international judo champion Ronda Rousey is light years ahead of the pack.

And that includes Tito Ortiz—even in his prime.

On a recent episode of The MMA Hour (via MMA Fighting), the former UFC light heavyweight champion gave some pointed criticism that Rousey was buying into her own hype far too soon.

White voraciously defended his bantamweight women’s champion (via MMA Weekly), directly comparing both fighters’ credentials:

Tito Ortiz came out the other day and said, “What has Ronda Rousey [done]? Ronda Rousey hasn’t even proven herself yet. She hasn’t proven herself.” What the f—! Tito was a junior college wrestler. [Rousey‘s] an Olympic-level athlete who won a f—ing medal at the Olympics. Ronda Rousey‘s first nine fights have gone nine minutes and 28 seconds. Tito Ortiz’s first nine fights went 40 minutes and 45 seconds.

But as the UFC president continued on, he didn’t just refer to the pace of their early careers in their respective weight classes:

What the f— are you talking about, Tito? She blows you out of the water when it comes to accomplishing things at the same point in your age and career. She smokes you. She buries you. She’s in another universe. I get it–he’s a manager now and he’s got to get out there and say some goofy s—. But c’mon. Do your homework, Tito.

Ortiz is retired from MMA after 15 years in the sport that saw him win and successfully defend the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship five times over two years and seven months—a company record that has yet to fall.

But after suffering a 1-7-1 slide, Ortiz turned to the business side of MMA, where he currently represents former Strikeforce champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino. Despite a dominant career, Cyborg has been sidelined for over a year due to a positive test for anabolic steroids.

Although the UFC is trying desperately to put a super-fight together between Rousey and Cyborg, the two have been at an impasse on an agreed weight.

So far, Cyborg and Ortiz have claimed (via MMAInterviews.TV) that Cyborg is simply too large to cut down from her normal 170 weight.

Unfortunately for Cyborg, Rousey will only take the fight at her division’s 135-pound limit, while White suggested to Fuel TV that the Brazilian simply wants “nothing” to do with Rousey.

Cyborg replied with an extremely heated Instagram post, calling Rousey a “bitch” and daring her to fight at a 140-pound catchweight. For now, Rousey will be mostly occupied with her first title defense, as she faces off against Strikeforce and Invicta FC veteran Liz Carmouche at UFC 157.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com