Cat Zingano was supposed to be the most difficult test of Ronda Rousey‘s career to date.
The reasons for believing this were plentiful leading into the bout. The Alpha Cat came into the bout undefeated, winning eight of her nine bouts by either knockout (KO or TKO) or submission.
She passed the eye test. The highlight-reel suplex of Amanda Nunes and the vicious knockout of Miesha Tate were evidence that her strength and power would be enough to match up well with Rousey.
None of that mattered.
Zingano also had one fatal flaw leading into the championship bout. She got off to slow starts against the likes of Tate and Nunes. The 32-year-old made a habit of dropping the first round before triumphantly rallying in the later rounds.
In her attempt to overcorrect that flaw, Zingano found herself in Rousey‘s signature armbar. An ill-conceived flying knee attempt to open the round ultimately led to a submission loss in just 14 seconds.
For Rousey, the win was historically good, via UFC:
So after all the buildup for this fight and the subsequent 14 seconds that it lasted, where do both fighters go from here? Here’s a look at what the bout means for both fighters.
Cat Zingano: Next Bout Is a Must-Win
This fight is not the most important of Zingano‘s career. That will be her next one.
In the long run, Zingano‘s loss won’t hurt her viability as a contender. Yes, she lost in devastating fashion, but it isn’t too hard for the UFC hype machine to spin the loss when setting up a rematch. Anyone can get caught in Rousey‘s explosive submission game.
The division is getting to the point where most of the top fighters have already been cleared by Rousey. Damon Martin of Fox Sports did a nice job of summing up that phenomenon:
All Zingano needs to do to get a rematch is to go out and get back to her winning ways. If she goes out and gets that win against one of the top fighters in the division and things don’t work out for a few prospective opponents, it could conceivably only take one fight.
To her credit, she appears to want to get right back in the Octagon with the best fighter she can, per Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting:
If there’s one thing that was evident in the buildup to this bout, Zingano has heart. From the way she rallies in fights, to how she’s handled adversity outside of it, she’s the epitome of tough. The smart money is on her bouncing back in a big way and earning a shot at redemption.
Ronda Rousey: Deserving of a Pound-for-Pound Jump
Ronda Rousey currently sits at No. 7 on the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings.
The idea of pound-for-pound rankings are inherently subjective, but how can a fighter this dominant not be ranked higher?
Yes, Rousey is dominating a division that has only been around for two years. In its infancy, the competition isn’t quite as stiff if is in other divisions. Then again, none of the six champions ahead of Rousey in the rankings dominate their opponents quite like Rousey does.
Jose Aldo—currently No. 2 in the rankings—is undefeated in the UFC just like Rousey, but he’s only finished two of his seven bouts as the champion. That doesn’t mean that he’s not worthy of being in the pound-for-pound discussion, but it should be a factor.
As far as where Rousey goes from here, there isn’t an apparent answer to that. The possible opponents range from highly unlikely to make weight (Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino) to untested (Bethe Correira) to been there, done that (Miesha Tate and Alexis Davis).
For now, she’ll ply her secondary trade as an actress on the set of a movie. According to Jeff Cain of MMAWeekly.com, the superstar made a deal with Dana White to shoot a movie before she makes her next title defense.
That should provide the division with some time to play itself out a little bit until an apparent opponent for Rousey comes up. Until then, we’ll all have another dominant performance from the phenom to debate.
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