August 18, 2012; San Diego, CA, USA; Ronda Rousey (black shirt) celebrates after she defeated Sarah Kaufman (not pitcured) during their Strikeforce MMA women
For any of you that were wondering – yes, I wrote this article by hunting and pecking with my nose on the keyboard. That’s because Ronda Rousey broke both of my arms for daring to write such a headline about her.
In the main event of last night’s Strikeforce card, Ms. Rousey firmly established that she now sits in Gina Carano’s throne as the “face of women’s MMA”. Sarah Kaufman is a talented, experienced former world champion with more than triple Rousey’s number of professional fights. Her kickboxing skills were supposed to give Ronda fits.
Instead, Rousey had her tapping out in less than a minute.
Six professional fights. Six straight victories via armbar in the first round. Despite being a relative neophyte to the MMA game, Rousey has run absolutely roughshod over her division. What’s more, she has yet to look seriously challenged in a fight. She is quickly amassing the kind of hype and mystique about herself that Fedor Emelianenko had back in the PRIDE era, or Jon Jones has today.
She is the future of women’s MMA. So of course, the next question for most fans is “what’s next?”. And the natural answer to said question is Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos, whom Ronda called out in her post-fight interview – before insisting that “Cyborg” come down a weight class to 135 pounds to challenge her.
And just like that, all of the air was let out of what might have been the most anticipated fight in WMMA history. “Cyborg” has made it pretty clear she has no interest in moving down to 135, Rousey fight or not. In an interview with Tatame in Brazil, “Cyborg” said she would rather wait for her walking papers than move down to 135, Rousey fight or no Rousey fight.
Well…so what? To go by most fans, it’s case closed at this point. Ronda is the surging champion coming off an impressive victory who’s skills, looks, attitude and dislike for Michael Phelps are taking women’s MMA to new levels of popularity. “Cyborg” is a disgraced cheater-pants, currently suspended, who was never that popular in the first place and is campaigning for a super fight in a dead division.
I’d like to ask another question, if I could: why is Ronda Rousey going back on her word?
Before the onset of Rousey-mania, “Cyborg” was considered the premier female fighter in MMA. She beat the aforementioned Carano right out of the sport, and ruled the Strikeforce women’s featherweight division with an iron fist. And by “ruled the division”, I mean thrashed a series of undersized challengers to within an inch of their lives.
Her chiselled physique, awesome power, and total domination led to calls by some that she was “on the juice”, a charge Santos adamantly denied – right until she got popped for the steroid Stanozolol after her last fight. Like Alistair Overeem’s failed test from around the same time, this was one of those “I told you so” moments where a fighter’s whole record of achievement is called into question.
But before all that, “Cyborg” was the Queen of the Cage (and yes, I paid a 5 cent royalty to Mauro Renallo for that cheesy expression) when Rousey was just breaking into MMA. Back then, Rousey was…well, wouldn’t you know it, she was a featherweight, just like “Cyborg”.
Indeed, when Ronda started breaking big in the Strikeforce ranks – still at featherweight, mind you – all the talk was about a potential super fight with “Cyborg”. Many thought the inexperienced Ronda wasn’t ready for a mauler like Santos. Rousey agreed, which prompted her original drop down to 135 to fight reigning champ Miesha Tate. That title would simply be a pit stop on the way to Rousey’s true goal – winning the 145-pound belt from “Cyborg”.
Don’t believe me? Here it is in Ronda’s own words, from an interview with Inside MMA from that time:
“I’m planning to drop down and win the 135-pound belt before I go after the 145-pound title,” she says. “I definitely want to win both belts and be the undisputed best female fighter in the world. A fight with Cyborg would be the most important of my career, and I want to treat it like the Olympics and be entirely peaked when that time comes.”
So why the sudden change of heart? Rousey has competed four of her six professional MMA bouts in the same weight class as “Cyborg”. The notion that she’s “undersized” for the division seems pretty silly to me. If her original plan was to win the women’s featherweight belt, why is she suddenly insisting that Santos cut down to face her at 135, knowing full well Santos has no interest in fighting at that weight?
Look, I’m not an idiot. I know that Rousey is worlds ahead of “Cyborg” on the popularity scale, and would likely draw interest, money, and attention just fine without her. But there’s no denying that a fight with “Cyborg” would be the biggest fight you could make in women’s MMA right now – possibly of all time.
And if Rousey beat “Santos”, there would be no doubt that she was the top woman in the game. For a former Olympian, that alone should be enough motivation.
