Although UFC 157 will be a historic night for mixed martial arts, there’s no avoiding the fact that it could also be a death knell for the careers of many female fighters.Despite the best efforts of Ronda Rousey and the UFC, the women’s bantamweight ch…
Although UFC 157 will be a historic night for mixed martial arts, there’s no avoiding the fact that it could also be a death knell for the careers of many female fighters.
Despite the best efforts of Ronda Rousey and the UFC, the women’s bantamweight champion’s debut is being built on a house of cards.
So far, only a small handful of women have officially been signed to the UFC.
President Dana White, for his part, doesn’t seem too committed to women’s MMA one way or the other, constantly claiming that he’s testing the waters. So, what happens if everything goes south and the event is a total bust?
How could that even happen?
Well, there’s more than a few ways Rousey’s debut could flame out before it ever heats up. If any of these five circumstances comes to pass, UFC fans might be saying “so long” to Rousey and the women’s division before the year is even over.
UFC 157—an event meant to showcase the first-ever female UFC champion Ronda Rousey—has sold fewer than 5,000 tickets, according to a report by Dave Meltzer of MMAfighting.com.Rousey can’t armbar fans into parting with their cash, …
Rousey can’t armbar fans into parting with their cash, or so it seems.
Meltzer elaborated the situation:
The location, the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., was also a risk. While Rousey is from Southern California, the Los Angeles/Anaheim market has never been an easy one after the immediate sellout of the company’s debut show there in 2006. Generally speaking, the more a city is run, outside of Las Vegas which is a strong casino market, the harder it is to sell tickets.
While the 2010 Brock Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez heavyweight title fight at the Honda Center got off to a strong start even that wasn’t an instant sellout. But most shows at the Honda Center or Staples Center in Los Angeles have in recent years done more in the range of 6,000 to 7,000 tickets over he first week of sales.
Meltzer also noted that UFC 157’s numbers displayed “slower early sales than most major UFC pay-per-view shows.”
But despite such dolorous tidings, Meltzer also pointed out that it was too early to sound the alarms. “The Southern California market has done strong walk-up business in the past,” he wrote. “[UFC on FOX 4] ended up selling 10,151 tickets to the Staples Center and had 16,080 in the arena.”
Furthermore, UFC 157 isn’t the only PPV to have put up poor initial numbers:
[UFC 157] is also ahead of the pace for UFC 150 in Denver on Aug. 11, headlined by Benson Henderson vs. Frankie Edgar for the lightweight title It’s also selling tickets ahead of the early pace of UFC 133, a show on Aug. 6, 2011, the company’s second trip to Philadelphia, which was originally headlined by Rashad Evans vs. Phil Davis.
The MMA world has gotten a bit carried away with Rousey-mania. True, an attractive, silver-tongued, kick-ass fighter seemed to have “top draw” written all over it (and, generally, web traffic in Rousey articles supported this fact). However, the most sacrosanct of metrics—dollar bills—show that society really doesn’t care all that much.
Perhaps the idea of women in a cagefight doesn’t appeal to a wide audience? Or maybe MMA pundits refused to take off their triumphalism-tinted glasses and recognize that MMA is just a niche sport, even if it’s a highly marketable woman that’s doing the fighting?
Of course, ticket sales are only part of the equation.
The success of Ronda Rousey as a draw will be known for sure once the PPV numbers come in.
Then the world will see if women’s MMA in the UFC will live or die. If the most prominent female fighter alive can’t get PPV buys, the UFC’s great female experiment will likely be considered a failure. The plug will be unceremoniously pulled, snuffing out the dreams of many a female fighter across the world.
Famed MMA nutritionist Mike Dolce might be just the man that UFC president Dana White needs in order to seal the deal on a superfight between Ronda Rousey and Cristiane Justino.Right now, the only thing preventing a match between the two former Strikef…
Famed MMA nutritionist Mike Dolce might be just the man that UFC president Dana White needs in order to seal the deal on a superfight between Ronda Rousey and Cristiane Justino.
Right now, the only thing preventing a match between the two former Strikeforce women’s champions is a difference in weight.
But while Cris “Cyborg” insists that there’s no way that she can cut 10 pounds to challenge for Rousey’s UFC women’s bantamweight title belt, White tells TATAME that Dolce’s patented system can get the featherweight bruiser to safely and efficiently cut down to 135 pounds (translation via Google):
“She can get to this weight, we have an expert who can help you lose weight in a healthy way, [he] does so with all our athletes. We have Mike Dolce, who has the system to [get] wrestlers [to] lose weight and still feel good, and it’s all about your diet. He is 100% ready to work with her and [it] will not cost anything to Cris,” said Dana, who has even [compared] the Cyborg x Ronda [rivalry to] boxers Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather.
Bloody Elbow followed up with Dolce himself, who stated that not only would the weight cut be possible, but that he could also get Cyborg down to 135 pounds with very little difficulty:
It is absolutely possible for her to make 135. I believe 135 will be her best weight class. I think she’s a legitimate 135 pounder. I think as good as she was at 145, she’ll be even more dynamic at 135. I believe it wouldn’t be that difficult at all.
Dolce also told Bloody Elbow that Cyborg would actually be better suited fighting at the bantamweight limit and would be an “amazing” competitor at that weight. Even while competing at 145 pounds, Cyborg racked up an impressive 11-fight winning streak.
However, Justino’s career was put on hold due to a one-year suspension after testing positive for anabolic steroids in January 2012. Regardless of Cyborg’s schedule, Rousey will still make her first UFC title defense against top-ranked challenger Liz Carmouche at UFC 157.
If Rousey walks out of her first UFC main event as the champion, it’s highly possible that Cyborg will be next in line to fight for the women’s bantamweight title at a future UFC pay-per-view.
Both women have spent over a year trading heated words, with Rousey famously telling TSN Radio’s The MMA Report with John Pollock that she didn’t care if Cyborg was injecting “horse semen” into her eyes, but her foe simply needed to “stop doping” in order to successfully cut to 135 pounds.
UFC bantamweight women’s champion Ronda Rousey is one of the most outspoken personalities in the sport, so it should come as no surprise that she opened up about her sex life in an interview with Esquire magazine. “Rowdy,” who was ranked 43 out of…
UFC bantamweight women’s champion Ronda Rousey is one of the most outspoken personalities in the sport, so it should come as no surprise that she opened up about her sex life in an interview with Esquire magazine.
“Rowdy,” who was ranked 43 out of 99 on AskMen.com’s “Most Desirable Women of 2013,” inevitably talked about how the dating scene has been treating her since becoming a household name.
I haven’t had less sex in my life … It’s really funny, actually. I either get men coming up to me like, ‘Oh, my God, baby, I love you!’ or else they’re too shy to approach me. Can I get just a little in between?
On that note, Rousey, the first female fighter signed by the UFC, discussed whether or not she would considering having a romantic relationship with a fellow fighter.
Hell no I ain’t gonna hook up with no fighter. I know these guys. They’re like a sewing circle and everyone tells everyone everything.
The former Olympic bronze medalist in Judo brings a perfect 6-0 record to the Octagon and will headline UFC 157 in February when she defends her title against Liz Carmouche.
Rousey has never gone past the first round in her career, finishing all of her opponents with an armbar.
Do Rousey‘s latest comments about her sex life come off as shocking but true or just downright unbelievable?
In a recent interview with our home girl Steph Daniels over at Bloody Elbow, Strikeforce middleweight Tim Kennedy expressed his displeasure with any number of items, ranging from gun control to fighters using steroids in both intentionally and unintentionally hilarious ways. An intentional example being when he tells fighters who use banned performance enhancing drugs to “stop injecting horse cum into your eye.” An unintentionally hilarious example being his weird rant about gun control and how the only way he can prevent his wife from being raped and killed in their home is if the federal ban on assault rifles is not reinstated by the U.S. Congress.
Our favorite awkward holier than thou moments in this excellent interview with Kennedy, however, came when the fighter criticized other Strikeforce fighters who have pulled out of the organization’s last few scheduled events due to injuries and when he claimed that Ronda Rousey has it easier in MMA because she’s a woman.
“Maybe [the injuries are real], maybe they aren’t,” Kennedy told Bloody Elbow.
“It’s pathetic and convenient for every single marquee fighter in all of Strikeforce, that we all know to be going over to the UFC, are pulling out of their fights, two weeks before the final card. It’s like, are you guys fighters, or are you just a bunch of little vaginas?”
On that subject, Kennedy also apparently has a problem with Strikeforce 135 pound women’s champ Ronda Rousey being made the first UFC 135 women’s champion.
(Takes one to know one?)
In a recent interview with our home girl Steph Daniels over at Bloody Elbow, Strikeforce middleweight Tim Kennedy expressed his displeasure with any number of items, ranging from gun control to fighters using steroids in both intentionally and unintentionally hilarious ways. An intentional example being when he tells fighters who use banned performance enhancing drugs to “stop injecting horse cum into your eye.” An unintentionally hilarious example being his weird rant about gun control and how the only way he can prevent his wife from being raped and killed in their home is if the federal ban on assault rifles is not reinstated by the U.S. Congress.
Our favorite awkward holier than thou moments in this excellent interview with Kennedy, however, came when the fighter criticized other Strikeforce fighters who have pulled out of the organization’s last few scheduled events due to injuries and when he claimed that Ronda Rousey has it easier in MMA because she’s a woman.
“Maybe [the injuries are real], maybe they aren’t,” Kennedy told Bloody Elbow.
“It’s pathetic and convenient for every single marquee fighter in all of Strikeforce, that we all know to be going over to the UFC, are pulling out of their fights, two weeks before the final card. It’s like, are you guys fighters, or are you just a bunch of little vaginas?”
On that subject, Kennedy also apparently has a problem with Strikeforce 135 pound women’s champ Ronda Rousey being made the first UFC 135 women’s champion.
“It’s kind of sexist that a girl that has six professional fights, gets a double standard her very first fight in the UFC. She gets to fight for the title,” Kennedy said, presumably with a straight face, somehow.
“Guys like Luke Rockhold and Nate Marquardt are going to have to come over and fight a contender, then they’ll be allowed to fight for a title if they win. She, of course, can come over, and her first fight is defending her UFC title.”
Yeah, it will be, Tim. The same way it was for Jose Aldo after the UFC merged the WEC into itself. Ronda, like Aldo before her, was the champion of a division that did not previously exist in the UFC. Of course she’s automatically the champion of the division once it has been merged into the UFC.
Rockhold and Marquardt, on the other hand, are coming into organization divisions that already exist and have champions. But please tell us more about how easy it is for women to break into the high levels of professional fighting and how they get preferential treatment over men, Tim.
We can’t blame Kennedy for being so mad, though. He’s in the middle of a no doubt grueling training camp for a fight, he hasn’t gotten to fight very often a midst Strikeforce’s mess, and President Obama wants to take all his guns away so that his wife and family can be killed by a talkative home invader.
Even though he whines, like all the time and about everything, we still love Tim Kennedy because he’s a hell of a fighter and one funny dude. Hopefully he takes care of business on January 12th and gets brought into the UFC where he belongs.
Maybe he can challenge Ronda Rousey for her paper title…
For that matter, could Good Guy Junior have saved last season?
We’rejust finishing up with a season of The Ultimate Fighter that most of us didn’t even pretend to watch, and are getting ready for a season that we’ll only watch to see how creatively Chael Sonnen can troll Jon Jones. Okay, perhaps some of us actually want to watch TUF for less cynical reasons – say because it’s free MMA or to see if the show discovers a legitimate fighter who has slipped through the cracks – just like how some professional football fans actually keep up with the UFL.
With the show in desperate need of a mix-up, Dana White has been open to the idea of casting Ronda Rousey as a coach, while still keeping the contestants themselves men. The idea picked up even more steam yesterday when White suggested that Ronda Rousey could be coaching against Miesha Tate on an upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter. Via MMAFighting:
“It could happen,” White said. “If there’s two people who would probably coach, you kick [the idea] around, this could happen, that could happen. If they did, it could be [Rousey] and Miesha. You know, we’ll see. Timing has a lot do with it.”
For that matter, could Good Guy Junior have saved last season?
We’rejust finishing up with a season of The Ultimate Fighter that most of us didn’t even pretend to watch, and are getting ready for a season that we’ll only watch to see how creatively Chael Sonnen can troll Jon Jones. Okay, perhaps some of us actually want to watch TUF for less cynical reasons – say because it’s free MMA or to see if the show discovers a legitimate fighter who has slipped through the cracks – just like how some professional football fans actually keep up with the UFL.
With the show in desperate need of a mix-up, Dana White has been open to the idea of casting Ronda Rousey as a coach, while still keeping the contestants themselves men. The idea picked up even more steam yesterday when White suggested that Ronda Rousey could be coaching against Miesha Tate on an upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter. Via MMAFighting:
“It could happen,” White said. “If there’s two people who would probably coach, you kick [the idea] around, this could happen, that could happen. If they did, it could be [Rousey] and Miesha. You know, we’ll see. Timing has a lot do with it.”
Having Rousey and Tate coach a season of TUF is an interesting idea on paper. The show would give WMMA exposure, Rousey and Tate would have some memorable clashes throughout the season and the season-ending coaches’ fight would actually be meaningful. It may not be a drastic change, but simply making two skilled female fighters coaches may be able to regenerate interest in the show.
But if the UFC really wants to give the show a complete overhaul, why not cast an all-female season?
My biggest gripe with The Ultimate Fighter is that the show hasn’t been producing relevant fighters, because talented prospects no longer have to go through reality television in order to get a shot in the UFC. Case in point, Hacran Dias was a 20-1-1 fighter when he tried out for TUF Brazil. Rather than being sent through the show, Dias was offered a contract on the spot, and won his UFC debut over Yuri Alcantara at UFC 147. The lesson here is that if you have a shot at immediate relevance, you aren’t fighting on The Ultimate Fighter anymore.
An all-female season could be different because WMMA is still in the early stages of its development. Much like how the first two seasons of The Ultimate Fighter made plenty of previously unknown fighters staples in the UFC for years, it’s possible that there are enough skilled females flying far enough under our radars to be willing to go through a season of TUF in order to land a contract.
For that matter, it’s also possible that established female fighters like Sara McMann would be willing to compete on the show simply because WMMA gets practically zero exposure. Just look at the first article we wrote about Ronda Rousey. When Strikeforce first inked a deal with her, she was…some sort of vegan Olympic judoka, I guess? In hindsight, it’s comical that the collective MMA community wasn’t shitting bricks over such an important signing, but we simply hadn’t heard of her until then. It’s very possible that even more potentially great fighters are going undiscovered due to the lack of coverage that WMMA has been receiving.
The catch is that while fans are more than happy to accept Ronda Rousey as a world-class athlete, they may still not be ready to accept WMMA as a legitimate competition. Female athletes in America simply do not receive the same coverage as their male counterparts, which may make the TUF formula even more stale with the inclusion of women. For example, will an altercation in the TUF house between two women be interpreted by viewers the same way as an altercation between two male contestants, or dismissed as just petty female drama? Logically, the sexes of the contestants shouldn’t make a difference, but it does, and it could wind up turning even more people away from the struggling franchise.
So that leads us directly into our question: Assuming that the editting crews do their best to portray the fighters in a positive light and as serious athletes (i.e. none of this), do you think an all-female season can save The Ultimate Fighter? Would you be more likely to watch the show if Ronda Rousey and Meisha Tate are coaches? And what are the odds that something like this happens if they’re coaching an all-male season? Keep it civil, you guys.
