Tag: WMMA

Ronda Rousey Has Reportedly Started Training For WWE Career

Recently, former UFC women’s champion Ronda Rousey has appeared at World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) tapings, leading to speculation that ‘Rowdy’ would soon begin a career in pro-wrestling after losing her last two bouts in the octagon. Rousey has been out of action since a first-round TKO loss to current UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes in […]

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Recently, former UFC women’s champion Ronda Rousey has appeared at World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) tapings, leading to speculation that ‘Rowdy’ would soon begin a career in pro-wrestling after losing her last two bouts in the octagon.

Rousey has been out of action since a first-round TKO loss to current UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes in the main event of last December’s UFC 207, a loss that followed her shocking knockout at the feet of Holly Holm in her previous bout at UFC 193.

It’s widely believed the women’s MMA pioneer will never return to compete in MMA, and UFC President Dana White, a good friend of Rousey’s, has repeatedly stated he believes it to be true in interviews. The rumors of her foray into the WWE only serve to give weight to that view, and apparently, she’s becoming quite involved with pro-wrestling.

A well-known lifelong fan, Rousey has already entered into training with the WWE according to Fightful.com (via MMA Mania):

“According to sources, WWE had referred Rousey and company to current superstar Brian Kendrick for training purposes in Southern California. There was also buzz backstage at the tournament — mainly among WWE employees and contractors — that Rousey’s training would start soon. She’s taken some basic bumps among other things thus far.”

Rousey’s ‘Forse Horsewomen’ teammate Shayna Baszler recently competed in and won two matches in ‘The Mae Young Classic,’ a WWE tournament consisting of female competitors, for which Rousey was present ringside, prompting speculation that some sort of angle involving Rousey, Baszler, and the other two ‘Horsewomen,’ Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir versus a team of the top female wrestlers in WWE.

That would be a huge draw for WWE, and based on the situation where they ‘lent’ Brock Lesnar to the UFC so he could face Mark Hunt at UFC 200 last summer, it certainly isn’t a far-fetched possibility in that regard. Rousey doesn’t seem to want to return to fighting, at least not anytime soon, so a stint with the WWE where she’d be an obvious huge attraction without taking any more unnecessary punishment could be a welcome direction for her career.

And with her personal website recently revealing “Big news,” this could be what they were referring to. Stay tuned.

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Invicta FC 25 Heads to Tachi Palace, Two Titles Featured

The fighting females of Invicta FC are headed to California and Tachi Palace Hotel later this month for Invicta FC 25. In the main event, Raquel Pa’aluhi takes on Yana Kunitskaya for the vacant bantamweight title, while the strawweight title is up for grabs in the co-main when former champion Livia Renata Souza battles Jodie […]

The fighting females of Invicta FC are headed to California and Tachi Palace Hotel later this month for Invicta FC 25. In the main event, Raquel Pa’aluhi takes on Yana Kunitskaya for the vacant bantamweight title, while the strawweight title is up for grabs in the co-main when former champion Livia Renata Souza battles Jodie […]

Photo: Rose Namajunas Poses Nude For Women’s Health Magazine

UFC women’s strawweight Rose Namajunas is rumored to be heading for a title shot against dominant champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk at November’s UFC 217 from New York, and she’s also finding more ways to send her message and build on her star power than just fighting. For example, one day after she appeared in a courageous, […]

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UFC women’s strawweight Rose Namajunas is rumored to be heading for a title shot against dominant champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk at November’s UFC 217 from New York, and she’s also finding more ways to send her message and build on her star power than just fighting.

For example, one day after she appeared in a courageous, emotional interview with longtime boyfriend and UFC veteran Pat Barry, Namajunas posted a preview of her nude appearance for Women Health’s Magazine to her Instagram account.

In the caption, Namajunas offered her mantra on life and her own message of inspiration for other women as part of the magazine’s #nakedinthreewords campaign:

“Cut,The,Shit. Be yourself, work hard, love your body and put your best self forward. What are your 3 words?”

She then elaborated on what her body has been through and how it helped to reach the pinnacle she has today:

“My naked body is… the story of my whole life,” Namajunas told Women’s Health. “There’s a lot around us that we can’t control, but my body, my mind, and my soul are pretty much the only things that I can. All the scars on my body, all the bumps and bruises, all the muscles — that is a story of everything I have done. And it’s not just my story. My ancestors who came before me gave me this vessel to sculpt and mold.”

Check out Namajunas’ appearance here:

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UFC 214 Official Weigh-In Video

To the bewilderment of mixed martial arts (MMA) fans and media members across the world, tomorrow’s (Sat., July 29, 2017) stacked UFC 214 from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, appears to be poised to go off without a hitch (fingers crossed), something that unfortunately hasn’t been the norm for a Jon Jones-headlined card in recent […]

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To the bewilderment of mixed martial arts (MMA) fans and media members across the world, tomorrow’s (Sat., July 29, 2017) stacked UFC 214 from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, appears to be poised to go off without a hitch (fingers crossed), something that unfortunately hasn’t been the norm for a Jon Jones-headlined card in recent years.

The all-time great, who was only beaten by himself and his outside-of-the-cage problems with drugs, will have yet another attempt at a comeback when he meets archrival Daniel Cormier, the stalwart champion who has won four fights in “Bones’” absence but was still beaten by the troubled ex-champ, in the UFC 214 main event. The co-main event features a closely-matched welterweight title affair between power slugger Tyron Woodley and peerless grappling whiz Demian Maia, why consensus women’s No. 1 pound-for-pound star Cris Cyborg meets former Invicta champ Tonya Evinger for the women’s featherweight belt in the event’s third title fight.

The fighters weighed in according to California’s increasingly strict weigh-in standards this morning, the results of which can be seen here. Now, the fighters will square off in the final media event of the UFC 214 build-up when the ceremonial weigh-in begins shortly at 8:00 p.m. EST. Watch the video streaming live right here:

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Five Reasons UFC Ratings Are Tanking In 2017

It’s no secret that the UFC is having a tough run in the first seven months of 2017. After a banner year in 2016 with multiple pay-per-view (PPV) events eclipsing the coveted one-million buy threshold, new owners WME-IMG are finding out just what it’s like to run the world’s biggest MMA promotion in a time […]

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It’s no secret that the UFC is having a tough run in the first seven months of 2017.

After a banner year in 2016 with multiple pay-per-view (PPV) events eclipsing the coveted one-million buy threshold, new owners WME-IMG are finding out just what it’s like to run the world’s biggest MMA promotion in a time of downward-trending PPVs without flagship stars Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey anywhere close to the octagon.

True, McGregor will return to the ring against Floyd Mayweather, on August 26, but that could be hurting the UFC’s actual numbers more than helping them. We’ll get to that shortly.

Regardless, both the preliminary card television ratings and pay-per-view buyrates for July 8’s UFC 213 from Las Vegas were recently revealed, and the numbers ultimately amounted to some of the most dismal overall viewership turnouts the UFC has ever seen. Now, women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes’ extremely late withdrawal from her championship bout versus Valentina Shevchenko most definitely caused the lack of buys, but the numbers are concerning nonetheless.

Things didn’t get better two weeks later when UFC on FOX 25 aired live from the Nassau Coliseum on July 22. Despite former middleweight champion Chris Weidman securing an emotional headlining win over Kelvin Gastelum in his hometown, the card had the lowest-ever ratings for a UFC on FOX event in overnight ratings, a number that rose to “only” the third-worst of all-time when the time slot spillover numbers for the main event were factored in.

That continued a disturbing decline for big FOX-aired cards in 2017, but those numbers are also simply indicative of the overall trend of the year, where pay-per-view rates have went down drastically in addition to TV-aired events and PPV prelim numbers.

There are several big underlying factors for this sharp and disturbing decline. On the eve of the biggest pay-per-view of the year, let’s take at the five most impactful.

Promoting Only McGregor & Rousey:

The UFC enjoyed their most lucrative two-year stretch in history from 2015-2016, a time when their biggest-ever crossover stars in Rousey and McGregor were winning big fights in dominant fashion. Rousey was being called the most dominant fighter in MMA, and McGregor won both the featherweight and lightweight titles while becoming the sport’s biggest star.

But that time period simply couldn’t be sustained, as Rousey infamously lost the belt to Holly Holm at UFC 193, following it up with another unsuccessful title fight in her 48-second loss to Nunes at 2016’s UFC 207, after which it appears Rousey may never fight in the UFC again.

McGregor is not gone; at least not in the same sense as Rousey. He’s obviously involved in his hyped-up boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, and while the UFC will obviously get a ton of attention and hype from that massive spectacle, it brings up one vital, overarching point – the UFC simply promoted only their top two stars in recent years, and while it clearly worked in that regard, it left them much too dependent on McGregor and Rousey for success, because their other fighters just aren’t bringing in any numbers at all.

If they ever want to get back to the level where they have their big draws and their mid-level stars; say in the time of dominant champions Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre where mid-level stars like Rashad Evans and Rampage Jackson could still sell an in-between card for 350-400,000 buys, they’re going to have to diversify their promotional strategy.

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Former UFC Title Contender Sara McMann Joins Team Alpha Male

Sara McMann has herself a new gym to train at, as the former UFC female bantamweight title challenger is now part of Team Alpha Male. McMann, who won silver at the 2004 Summer Olympics in wrestling, has won her last three UFC fights. “Excited to have Sara (and daughter) Bella make the move to TAM […]

Sara McMann has herself a new gym to train at, as the former UFC female bantamweight title challenger is now part of Team Alpha Male. McMann, who won silver at the 2004 Summer Olympics in wrestling, has won her last three UFC fights. “Excited to have Sara (and daughter) Bella make the move to TAM […]