Tag: The Ultimate Fighter 18

TUF 18: The Ronda Rousey Hate Is Largely Unjustified

Let me start off by saying that I am a fan of Ronda Rousey. This does not make me biased, but I will get that out of the way so I don’t have to answer or defend that numerous times in the comment section.
It wasn’t rare before The Ultimate Fighter 18 b…

Let me start off by saying that I am a fan of Ronda Rousey. This does not make me biased, but I will get that out of the way so I don’t have to answer or defend that numerous times in the comment section.

It wasn’t rare before The Ultimate Fighter 18 began to air to find people who did not like Ronda Rousey. In fact, the way some fans talked about her, they hated her guts.

Furthermore, since the airing of the second episode Wednesday night, all I have seen is negative and belligerent statements being hurled at the champ for her behavior in the show. For those who may not know, she cried for her team member Shayna Baszler, who lost her fight, and vowed to make Miesha Tate pay when they fight and generally may have acted aggressively in the heat of the moment.

Because of those actions and some side “antics” such as rushing Team Tate out of the gym, which is completely warranted if you know anything about their gym schedules, fans have attacked Rousey.

First off, I do agree that Ronda has a unique personality. She is not your average cookie cutter female.

However, if you are going to attack her for showing emotion for somebody she coaches yet still looks up to in this sport in Shayna Baszler, you are off base. Sure, you don’t need to have “gained respect” for her in doing that, but at least look at it as her taking her job as coach seriously.

Too many times have we seen coaches on TUF not take their job seriously. For every Matt Serra we’ve gotten that actually takes their job to heart, we have had guys like Rampage Jackson who don’t care about the fighters and like Ken Shamrock, who didn’t push his fighters nearly hard enough.

Rousey is genuinely invested in her team, and she is super competitive. So you can understand that she was visibly shaken when a fighter that she admittedly looks up to lost a fight, something for which she felt responsible because it was her job to make sure she prepared her. Plus, everybody has maybe said something out of the norm in the heat of the moment. I know I have when I’ve lost a game or a match.

Moving forward, I did a pound-for-pound rankings piece for the women yesterday and the comments were flooded with people, obviously anti-Ronda, who said that Rousey didn’t deserve to be the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world. They said she would get destroyed by Cris “Cyborg” Justino, that she was ducking the 145-pound Invicta champion, that the UFC was protecting her and generally she was not the best female mixed martial artist.

I will break down each assertion right now from an unbiased standpoint.

The whole situation surrounding Ronda Rousey and Cris Justino is a lot of “what if.” As much as I would love to watch these two fight it out to see who was superior, it’s simply not going to happen.

Sure, you can say Rousey would get destroyed by Cyborg if they fought. There is a chance I would agree with that assertion, as there is no better striker in women’s MMA than Cyborg. She hits like a UFC light heavyweight.

However, saying that Ronda is ducking Justino is an absolute joke. Rousey fights at 135 pounds and doesn’t need to move up a weight class to prove a point. It is the same thing we see in Georges St. Pierre and the never-ending saga with him moving up to middleweight to fight Anderson Silva. What does he gain?

Plus, Cyborg would never make 135 to make the fight happen. She struggles making 145, she is a huge woman. Even if they did a catchweight bout around 140, I doubt Justino could make it there. That’s how much she struggles with the weight cut.

People were saying before Rousey made the drop to 135 pounds that she ducked Cyborg in Strikeforce. This is completely unfounded unless you know the history around that time period.

In 2011, both Cyborg and Rousey were featherweights. In December of 2011, Rousey was coming off a win over Julia Budd, considered a top featherweight, and Cyborg had a fight with Hiroko Yamanaka, defending her Strikeforce Featherweight Championship.

In the aftermath of the Yamanaka fight, Cyborg tested positive for steroids (stanozolol) and was suspended for a year. It was a result that did not shock many who had seen the physique that Justino carried around.

So what was Rousey to do? The featherweight division was now folded as a result of Cyborg’s mistake, so she moved down to the bantamweight division where she was given a title shot and won. She found a new weight class to call home, which, to be honest, is her natural weight class.

So how doesn’t she deserve to be the top pound-for-pound fighter? I don’t know, but being 7-0 with seven first-round armbar finishes against top featherweights and bantamweights while being pretty active since 2011 would likely support that claim.

Finally, the last thing that I have heard that is completely ludicrous is the UFC is protecting Rousey.

It’s hard to take that claim seriously at all, but I will address it.

Before coming to Strikeforce, Rousey was 2-0 against top-15 featherweight Charmaine Tweet and top-three featherweight Ediane Gomes. That puts her at 2-0 against top-15 fighters.

Then she came to Strikeforce and beat top-10 Sarah D’Alelio and top-five Julia Budd on the Challengers cards. That is 4-0 vs. top-15 fighters and 2-0 under the Zuffa umbrella.

She then got her title shot against then-ranked No. 1 Miesha Tate, winning the fight and the title. That put her at No. 1.

The UFC then “protected” her by having her face top contender and then No. 2 fighter Sarah Kaufman, who she defeated very quickly. Of course, when using the word “protected,” I am being sarcastic because Kaufman was a real threat to test Rousey and was made quick work of.

Finally, Rousey made her debut in the UFC defending the title against Liz Carmouche. Let’s remember, Miesha Tate at this time did not feel she was ready for a rematch after her win over Julie Kedzie, so she was out of the picture. Kaufman had just lost, so she was out of consideration. So a top-10 bantamweight who has stepped up on short notice for a title shot in the past threw her name in the hat in Carmouche.

She fought valiantly, but lost. So, in her seven fights, Rousey defeated six top-10 fighters and one top-15 fighter. Five of the fights were under the Zuffa banner.

In her upcoming fight, people still say the UFC is protecting Rousey. But remember this before you hit troll status. Before Miesha Tate got her rematch coming off a loss, Cat Zingano was the rightful top contender. She is undefeated and smashed Tate via TKO to get that opportunity. However, injuries happen and Tate was the best fit to take her spot.

That’s nothing I can call protecting.

So, in conclusion, I know I cannot stop the hate and venom that gets spewed at Ronda Rousey for her personality and other reasons, but at least consider these things before you make a negative assertion about the champ. Most of the hate is unjustified, it’s just personal feelings over fact.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

TUF 18’s Jessamyn Duke: Episode 2 Blog

Note: All quotes and material were obtained firsthand by Bleacher Report through one-on-one between Jessamyn Duke and Bleacher Report’s Riley Kontek.
 
When Episode 2 starts, a whirlwind of activity has just taken place. I won my fight to get into…

Note: All quotes and material were obtained firsthand by Bleacher Report through one-on-one between Jessamyn Duke and Bleacher Report’s Riley Kontek.

 

When Episode 2 starts, a whirlwind of activity has just taken place. I won my fight to get into the house, the team picks were made (I was on Team Rousey), the first fight was picked, and the stage was set for the first female quarterfinal between Julianna Pena and my teammate, Shayna Baszler.

Fight day concluded with our move into the house. I’m not exaggerating when I say it was literally the longest day of my life. We fought, did team picks, gathered all our belongings, piled in a van and went to the house. It was late, and it was crazy! People were scrambling and running around trying to eat, find rooms and settle in.

The rooming arrangements were all in odd numbers. I knew I wanted to room with Shayna because we were friends coming into the house. We found a room with three beds that we claimed, but then we saw Roxanne Modafferi and Jessica Rakoczy would have to sleep in a room with the guys that had five beds, so we traded and took that big room. The downside was there was one small bathroom between us five girls, but we made it work.

Oddly enough, it wasn’t weird having a Team Tate member in our room (Roxanne). We all kind of knew each other before the show, and Roxy is very proper and formal, very Japanese (she lived in Japan previously). She was always polite and respectful to everyone. Plus, she’s funny and easy to get along with, so she brought a great energy to our room.

It was like being at summer camp with all of your friends!

Once we staked claims to our rooms, we all realized we were starving. People converged on the kitchen and were tearing up the pantry, firing up the grill, using the oven and pretty much devouring everything. That carnage lasted a couple of hours because it had been such a long day. It was satisfying, but it wasn’t pretty!

Everyone wants to hear how it went down with eight men living under the same roof with women. I hope I don’t disappoint the drama lovers out there, but the guys were very respectful and treated us like teammates, which I honestly expected.

People think women aren’t used to training with guys, but the fact is that’s what we encounter every day when training at our own gyms. Usually there aren’t more than a few women at most gyms, so you train with whoever is there. They have to respect us because they see how hard we work, and they are typically protective of us, so it’s not like they look at us like girls they want to hook up with.

As you saw, Anthony Gutierrez’s commentary was shown about several women on the show, including me. I’m sure some people took him seriously, but it really wasn’t. He was trying to be playful and charming with us. Even so, it quickly got kind of obnoxious and irritating. He was like a stray puppy yipping around.

It was cute at first, but once you’ve shown it some attention and it doesn’t leave you alone, it gets annoying. What part of, “Seriously, this is not why we’re here” don’t you understand?

Tim Gorman was the exception to treating us like teammates as seen with his conversation with Sarah Moras, but I don’t think it was meant to be offensive. He just had an ingrained moral standard. He didn’t want to scrap with a woman. So what he was saying wasn’t malicious; it just came from his personal conviction on the subject. I don’t think he’d ever trained with a woman before the show, so I’m sure that contributed to why he acted that way. It was harmless.

It was unfortunate that Timmy had to leave after just a couple of days. I’m not sure what the situation was because he wasn’t on my team, but from what I heard he came into his elimination fight with a hamstring injury and fought on it. I believe he actually aggravated it worse in the fight, which is why he was sent home. Again, I’m not completely sure, but that’s what I heard.

Whatever the reason, it was devastating when we heard he had to leave. It was almost like someone had died when the reality set in that he was really going home. Everyone’s mood was somber. Timmy has a large personality, and we were all sad because it seemed so cruel that he had to leave after he fought his ass off to get into the house.

It was a stark reminder that it can be over just like that. Timmy deserved to be there and would have fought on the injury regardless, but he had to go home for something out of his control.

We all missed Timmy. The first or second night, he was up at like 3 a.m., sitting in the kitchen by himself with a quilt wrapped around him, eating pancakes with syrup and Captain Crunch. He was really loud, but he was just super excited to be there.

I actually had to go out and ask him to take it down a notch because he was being so loud, and he was immediately super apologetic. He just had a big personality. The house was quieter without him there, but it also wasn’t nearly as entertaining.

This episode was really the first time people got a good look at Ronda interacting with our team and Miesha‘s team. People are going to view Ronda how they are going to view her, but she was not out of line when she was running Miesha‘s team out of the gym.

We had set practice times that were two hours. You can’t come in early, and you can’t train at the same time as the other team. So if Team Tate is lingering around the gym, we are losing out on training time.

So it might have ticked people off, but Ronda took her role as coach seriously and made sure we had the gym during our time. Plus, she was respectful of Team Tate’s time by not going in early or staying late.

When it came fight time, you could tell the house was pretty much leaning toward Shayna over Julianna. Even Julianna’s teammates were confident Shayna would win.

At the weigh-ins, Shayna showed her character when she slipped the queen of spades card in Julianna’s sports bra. She always did things like that. She’s not being disrespectful, it’s just her personality and it’s endeared her to a lot of fans. I mean, I have seen her pull out a light saber during weigh-ins before!

She’s just an entertaining person and was demonstrating some of her trademark showmanship.

I do think Shayna came into this fight overconfident, but it wasn’t unjustified. She was the best girl in the house with a ton of experience. However, she was also confident that Julianna couldn’t do anything to her, so when the fight started and she got hit, I think it shocked her.

Before the fight started, you could tell Julianna was scared. So when Shayna got cracked with a punch, Shayna immediately took her down and dominated her on the mat. She actually got Julianna in a spladle, which is a really difficult wrestling move to get. She let her go, which in retrospect, she knew should have finished her there.

The first round was definitely a 10-9 round for Shayna.

When the second round began, I think Julianna knew she needed to ramp thing up if she didn’t want to lose the fight, and she came out hard. Shayna just didn’t kick it into fifth gear like she needed to.

Julianna obviously caught Shayna with a rear-naked choke, but I think 99 out of 100 times, Shayna would win the same fight. She had a great weight cut and looked fantastic, but a huge part of this game is mental, and nothing is ever a guarantee in MMA.

The better fighter doesn’t always win. Julianna saw an opening and capitalized on it, and that’s why she won.

I viewed Julianna the same after that fight as I viewed her going into it. There were no chumps in this house, but she was a girl whom I would want to fight somewhere down the road in this competition. I have seen her fight before, I have fought one of her teammates before (Elizabeth Phillips), and I thought it would be a good fight for me.

She didn’t do anything differently in this fight than she does in any other of her fights. She just caught Shayna in a lull and took advantage.

Shayna knew it was a rookie mistake. Julianna was a hungry fighter who was ready to take advantage of an error. Shayna knew she should have won, and that’s why it hurt so much.

Shayna is one of my idols and heroes in the sport. It hurt to see her lose, but it didn’t make me lose faith in her as a fighter. I am a “Queen of Spades” fan because of the type of fighter she is and what she brings to the cage every time.

She had an off day and lapse in focus, but that’s the name of the game. The general populace has no idea what the fighters go through to try and peak at fight time. We have weeks of preparation to try and be perfect for 15 minutes. If you falter for even a second, the fight can be over, and that’s what happened to Shayna.

Ronda was obviously just as upset as Shayna when she lost because she truly thought she had failed her. She made it very clear that she was there for us and wanted us to succeed. She took this job as a coach and mentor very seriously.

She is so competitive and enthusiastic, that’s why she’s a great champion. But that’s why she was such a great coach and role model for us on the show. Ronda’s a natural leader and has tremendous team-building powers. When Shayna lost, she brought the team right back together.

She gave us the mantra, “Every single second.” She told us that in a fight, we have to fight to win every second. If there are 900 seconds in a fight, you can’t concede a single one. It was powerful and motivating.

So, still somewhat shell shocked, we gathered for the next fight pick. Miesha picked Chris Beal, our top pick, against Chris Holdsworth. Beal had a hand injury, so I could see where the strategy came from. It’s a competition, I get it. But I personally would have a hard time picking a guy because he is hurt. It feels so wrong and it brought up ugly feelings in me.

I was thinking, “I don’t like that at all.” I can’t say I disagree with Ronda when she said, “That’s some (expletive) ass (expletive).”

If Beal were 100 percent healthy, I don’t think they would have made that pick. But with an injured hand, it might be a totally different fight, and they knew that would be their only chance to take him out. But, Beal isn’t afraid to throw an injured hand and has dynamite in his punches…

 

**Tune in next week to hear Jessamyn’s thoughts on the Ronda-Miesha tension that will continue to grow throughout the season, more in-depth stories from the house and her thoughts on the fight between Chris Beal and Chris Holdsworth, as well as the next female fight pick.

X

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Miesha Tate on Ronda Rousey: ‘People Are Finally Seeing Her True Colors’ on TUF

Ronda Rousey is already blaming the editing booth for how she will be portrayed on The Ultimate Fighter Season 18, but according to Miesha Tate, the only person Rousey should be pointing fingers at is herself.
The top women’s bantamweight contend…

Ronda Rousey is already blaming the editing booth for how she will be portrayed on The Ultimate Fighter Season 18, but according to Miesha Tate, the only person Rousey should be pointing fingers at is herself.

The top women’s bantamweight contender recently made a guest appearance on Sports Illustrated Now to dish some dirt on the UFC champ and a potential falling out with fans from the show:

I think people are finally seeing her true colors a little bit. This is a six-week thing. It’s not like you can really hide who you are over a six-week course. The cameras are always there. I think people are finally starting to realize exactly why I haven’t been able to get along with her and what the problem has been, and I think it’s hilarious that she’s already making up excuses for how she behaved and saying that I ‘emotionally manipulated’ her and all this stuff. She actually already seems embarrassed, like looking back on it, knowing people are going to see the truth.

Rousey has seemed rather agitated in the weeks leading up to the show, which aired for the first time on Wednesday night.

In an interview with USA Today, she described the show as an emotional roller coaster that will likely give fans an inaccurate perception of who she really is as a person. She even went as far as saying the UFC couldn’t pay her $10 million to agree to do it all over again.

Women’s MMA owes a debt of gratitude to Rousey.

If it wasn’t for her, there still wouldn’t even be women fighting in the UFC. She is credited for bringing the much-needed attention to elevate women’s MMA in the public eye. Initially, UFC president Dana White even referred to it as “the Ronda Rousey show” during an interview with MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani.

As time passes, the ladies are slowly moving away from the Rousey crutch and making their own names.

There is a certain star quality about Tate, who smiles for the cameras and says all the right things. Rousey’s mean-mugging, “I don’t give a damn” attitude isn’t for everyone.

Tate is likely right in thinking that some will probably find their initial perception of Rousey way off by the conclusion of this season of TUF. Like her former training buddies Nick and Nate Diaz, Rousey could soon become the fighter people love to hate.

It still won’t change the fact that she is the best in the world when the cage door closes.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

TUF 18 Episode One Results and Recap: Early Matchups Surprise Rousey and Tate

The Ultimate Fighter kicks off its historic 18th season tonight on Fox Sports 1 at 10 p.m. EST.  
With women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey coaching against bitter rival Miesha Tate, this season promises high drama and heated exchanges …

The Ultimate Fighter kicks off its historic 18th season tonight on Fox Sports 1 at 10 p.m. EST.  

With women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey coaching against bitter rival Miesha Tate, this season promises high drama and heated exchanges inside and outside of the Octagon. 

Also revving up the intensity this season is the introduction of a new format. Whereas previous seasons featured all-male casts, season 18 will showcase both men and women bantamweight hopefuls inside the same house. 

When you put a cluster of testosterone-filled men in a secluded house and surround them with women, imminent chaos looms. 

Check back here as the episode airs to see how the action unfolds. 

 

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Ronda Rousey: “You Couldn’t Pay Me $10 Million to Do TUF Again”

“The Ultimate Fighter” Season 18 was Ronda Rousey’s first stint as a coach on the show, and after several headache-filled weeks, it will likely be her last.
The UFC women’s bantamweight champ spent six weeks coaching a group of …

“The Ultimate Fighter” Season 18 was Ronda Rousey’s first stint as a coach on the show, and after several headache-filled weeks, it will likely be her last.

The UFC women’s bantamweight champ spent six weeks coaching a group of men and women vying for a UFC contract. Back in April, Rousey said during an interview on FUEL TV that she wasn’t expecting the same reality TV-based drama viewers were typically exposed to in shows like Jersey Shore.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to avoid drama when you’re coaching opposite and competing against your longtime rival.

Miesha Tate served as the opposing coach for Rousey on TUF 18, replacing injured top contender Cat Zingano. While the UFC has done a great job of preventing spoilers, the official preview video for the show hints at overflowing emotions and several tense moments involving one of MMA’s biggest feuds.

With the show behind her, Rousey should now be able to rest easier and spend time preparing for her highly anticipated rematch with Tate in December at UFC 168. Sadly, she still spends most of her days worrying about how she’ll be portrayed on television, according to an interview with USA TODAY:

“How could people possibly know who you are from a couple of clips of a video that people are seeing out of context? That’s no way for people to get to know you, so I’m just preparing for people to get the worst idea of who I am.”

In speaking with USA TODAY, UFC President Dana White said that Rousey’s concerns were normal. It’s easy to get caught up in the moment and say or do things you later regret.

Everything is fair game when a reality TV show is being pieced together in the editing booth, and those emotional outbursts may come back to bite you.  

Rousey doesn’t plan on putting herself through this kind of stress ever again. She claims she wouldn’t take another coaching gig on TUF even if the UFC offered her $10 million: “I think it was very good for the women’s division, and I think it definitely needed to happen, but you couldn’t pay me $10 million to do it again.”

The season premiere of TUF 18 is expected to air tonight at 10pm ET on Fox Sports 1, following UFC Fight Night 28.

Could Tate rise as an unlikely heroine in this ongoing rivalry, or is Rousey overreacting to a potential fallout from the show?

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

The Ultimate Fighter 18: Team Rousey vs. Team Tate, Episode 1 Live Results

The Ultimate Fighter settles in for its 18th season with new coaches Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate on Wednesday evening at 10 p.m. ET.
The storied program will make the switch to its new home, Fox Sports 1. The premiere episode will feature 32 UFC hopef…

The Ultimate Fighter settles in for its 18th season with new coaches Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate on Wednesday evening at 10 p.m. ET.

The storied program will make the switch to its new home, Fox Sports 1. The premiere episode will feature 32 UFC hopefuls, 16 male bantamweights and 16 female bantamweights, squaring off and trying to make it into the house.

The UFC released the names of the 32-person cast.

Stay tuned for live coverage of The Ultimate Fighter 18 as the highly anticipated season gets underway. It will be a fight-filled first episode that you won’t want to miss.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com