Tag: Ronda Rousey

Unless Ronda Rousey fights Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos, women’s MMA will inevitably fall flat on its face as a pay-per-view headliner.

In 2011, Dana White said women would never fight in the UFC.

Now, women won’t only be competing in the UFC, but according to the UFC president, Rousey‘s debut will likely serve as the headliner of a pay-per-view card.

“She’s the champ. Unless there’s a weight division higher than her that the champ would be defending the title, then yeah, she’d be the main event,” White told MMAFighting.com.

Unfortunately for women’s MMA, Rousey is a big fish in a small pond.

No other woman possesses her combination of world-class skills and charisma. There really isn’t any fighter the UFC could match her with at 135 pounds that warrants a main-event spot on a pay-per-view card.

Most fans are still warming up to the idea of women fighting in the UFC. It’s highly doubtful the vast majority would be willing to fork over 54 bucks to watch Rousey armbar a non-marquee name in the first round.

There is the chance the UFC overloads a card with big names and tacks the Rousey title bout on top, but this tactic would have to be used every time she headlines a major event. Anything less would most likely lead to incredibly low pay-per-view numbers.

If Rousey is to headline a UFC pay-per-view, her debut on the mainstream stage should be against Cyborg, who is the only woman capable of matching her skills and notoriety.

It doesn’t get any bigger than Rousey vs. Cyborg, which could be considered the women’s version of Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva. Why not jump start the division with the most talked-about fight in women’s MMA?

The only hurdle is the 10-pound weight difference, but this could easily be surpassed by making 140 pounds the official weight of the women’s division. This would also open the doors to other female talent who can’t make 135 pounds.

Bottom line, women’s MMA really needs Rousey vs. Cyborg.

It is the only bout worthy of headlining a UFC pay-per-view. Rousey gives even Chael Sonnen a run for his money when it comes to hyping fights, and there is plenty of bad blood to play off on in her ongoing feud with Cyborg.

First impressions only come around once, and the UFC needs the right fight to get fans excited about women’s MMA. One name can’t do it alone.

For Rousey and the UFC, it’s Cyborg or bust for women’s MMA as a pay-per-view headliner.

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Miesha Tate needs to leave Ronda Rousey alone. 

The former-Strikeforce bantamweight champion Tate recently took to Twitter to express her displeasure over Rousey receiving the credit for the UFC’s recent addition of some female talent to its already-deep roster. 

In a segment with MMAweekly.com, Tate said:

It’s not just Ronda, it’s not just myself, that’s for sure. If Ronda’s coming over to the UFC obviously there’s going to be a division around that, it’s not just Ronda. I know Ronda’s getting a lot of the credit and what not, but she didn’t have a lot to do with from the ground up.

Guess what, Miesha? It kind of is all Ronda’s doing. I know you hate to hear that, but she is the reason you can now fight inside the legendary Octagon. 

Dana White clearly took a liking to Rousey after her big win over Tate at Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey, and his obsession with the female ground technician became immediately apparent. 

White was showing up here and there with Rousey, and it became clear White was either working his love magic on the bantamweight star or trying to get her inside the Octagon as soon as possible. 

The latter turned out to be true, as was announced recently. 

Now, this isn’t about Ronda Rousey giving birth to women’s MMA. If that was the case, Tate would be absolutely correct in her sentiments. 

What this is about, though, is the formation of a women’s division inside the world’s premiere mixed martial arts promotion, the Ultimate Fighting Championship. That one was all Ronda. 

As recently as August 2012, White was clueless about women’s MMA in general. Later that month, however, Rousey emerged victorious in her title defense against Sarah Kaufman, and White was sold. 

White knew she could be a star, he knew should would put fans in seats, and he knew he had to have her on his roster. 

After courting her for a few months, he got his wish. Ronda Rousey became the first woman on the UFC’s roster, and Miesha Tate followed shortly after. 

Maybe the reality of the situation hurts Tate’s ego, or maybe she just wants the credit to go beyond her arch nemesis—this I do not know.

What I do know, however, is that Dana White was not interested in a women’s MMA division until he saw Ronda Rousey, her knack for first round finishes and her polarizing personality. He was sold, and Rousey’s commission check will be in her mailbox shortly, signed by White himself. 

Ronda Rousey does not deserve sole credit for the rise in popularity for women’s MMA as a whole, but she does deserve the credit for getting women into the UFC; White’s actions make that perfectly clear. 

It’s a tough pill to swallow for Tate, but it is a fact she must face. 

Something tells me she’ll get the opportunity in due time (thanks to Ronda, of course)…

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Last week Dana White and the UFC made it official by signing Ronda Rousey to a UFC contract. Many fans are already calling for a superfight with Cyborg Santos and Ronda Rousey as the first women’s UFC fight.

However, with Cyborg being unable to make 135 pounds, the fight seems to be nothing more than a dream for MMA fans. So now the question remains: What does Zuffa do and what other women can they bring in that will get the fans excited about the division?

 “You have to give Gina (Carano) credit when she passed on the WEC to go into Strikeforce,” Invicta FC’s Julie Kedzie stated. “She did it to build a women’s division rather than do a series of one off fights.”

In the fall of 2009, the biggest worry was that once Gina Carano was gone, the women’s division would fall apart since she and Cyborg were the main draws. There was no real young star waiting in the wings and no group of young, rising talent that was being cultivated.

However, Scott Coker and Strikeforce officials deserve some credit in that they stuck with the women’s division. They developed the bantamweight division which featured Miesha Tate, Sarah Kaufman, and Marloes Coenen.

And they developed U.S. Olympic judo bronze medalist Ronda Rousey, who has been everything the UFC and Women’s MMA could have hoped for. Now comes the tricky part for the UFC in that they need to figure out how to build this division and how to keep it sustained for the long haul.

Fans have seen what happens when the UFC is fully behind a division that they truly believe in. Witness the flyweight division in which they signed Jussier Formiga, Ian McCall, Ulysses Gomez and John Moraga. Add to the fact that The Ultimate Fighter 14 was mostly about adding fighters like John Dodson and Louis Gaudinot, and you realized that Zuffa was serious about the flyweights.

One of the things that Dana and company need to do is find female fighters who are ready to compete and have passionate fanbases to tap into. Former bantamweight champion Miesha Tate is one fighter who has churned out great fights and maintained a fanatical Twitter following.

Another young fighter to keep an eye on is 2004 U.S. Olympic wrestling silver medalist, Sara McMann. The powerful Lock Haven graduate is 6-0 with wins coming over Shayna Baszler and Hitomi Akano. Tonya Evinger seems to be the next challenger.

There are also a slew of talented fighters, such as former bantamweight champion Sarah Kaufman, Alexis Davis, Cat Zigano and Amanda Nunes, who appear primed and ready. But what Zuffa needs is for leagues such as Invicta FC, JEWELS and the Pink Fight League to thrive in order to get more women into MMA.

Zuffa has made the decision to get into women’s MMA by bringing Ronda Rousey into the fold. Now the question is whether they are serious about it or just riding the momentum until it dies.

You can listen to Chris Connor every Friday night from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. ET as the executive producer and host of LAST CALL radio show on Cyberstationusa.com.

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