It’s tough coming up with a parallel for what ‘Rowdy’ Ronda Rousey is doing to her mixed martial arts peers in 2015.
It’s not whether or not her opponent will lose (they will) it’s about how quickly and how viciously.
Bethe Correia, Rowsey’s opponent (read: victim) for UFC 190 all week spoke about her advantage is in the stand-up, and how Rousey won’t be able to keep up with her boxing skills.
Well, let’s just say her fans and team-mates won’t be referring to her as Nostradamus anytime soon.
Rousey kept the fight standing for the entire 34 seconds it lasted, and she absolutely manhandled Correia in the stand-up department. Rousey walked right through anything the Brazilian had to offer, landed a left hook that appeared to stun Correia before a follow-up knee to set up the right straight to the temple, which knocked her out cold to end the fight.
Just for fun, let’s list off the time it took Rousey to dispatch her last four opponents. Out of a possible 100 minutes of fight time, Rousey fought for 34 seconds, 14 seconds, 16 seconds, and 66 seconds for a grand total of 2 minutes and 10 seconds in the cage.
Rousey has reached a level of greatness relative to her competition that was perhaps last seen with mid-80s Mike Tyson.
Everyone tuned in knowing that Tyson would win, but what they wanted was violence, and almost every time he delivered. Unfortunately, Rousey has lapped the competition in Women’s MMA when it comes to skill and ability, which brings up another problem.
Walking out with my family is the greatest feeling ever…. #UFC190 #andSTILL pic.twitter.com/eDfjbstlwl
— Ronda Rousey (@RondaRousey) August 2, 2015
Women’s MMA right now is simply not good. You’re right, it’s awful. Excluding Rousey there aren’t any competitors who have developed the requisite training and skill development over the years in the various disciplines.
To emphasise – just three years ago Correia was working in an office as an accountant, and started training MMA to “lose weight”. Not exactly the killer mentality most top level MMA athletes have when they train. With the possible exception of Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino, over the next few years whenever Rousey fights expect much of the same. Violence against overmatched opponents.
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UFC 190 was unusually long with seven main card fights, and unfortunately two of those fights were The Ultimate Fighter Brazil fight that Dana White and co. forced down our throats. Side note – if that’s the best155’ers Brazil has to offer don’t expect any young lightweights from the country to be stars anytime soon.
Aside from those, the card was put together with the usual top Brazilian names. Regrettably, some are now very old, shot fighters.
The Co-Main, featuring two of these veterans turned out to be an excellent fight as Shogun Rua and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira put on a show. Rua was rocked late in the round, and although he turned in to a human zombie for the last minute of the round, he still survived and recovered. Over the next two rounds Rua controlled the pace and action to outland Nogueira and collect the win.
It was a bad night for both Nogueira bros as earlier in the evening Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira was unable to take advantage of the few opportunities he had to close the distance and rock Stefan Struve, and as a result spent the better part of the night eating knees, leg kicks, and punches from “Skyscraper” en route to a unanimous decision loss.
Meanwhile, another fighter you can file under “shot Brazilians” was heavyweight Antonio Silva who was able to make his punches count, with a second round TKO over Soa Palelei.
The best Brazilian on the night wasn’t even on the main card, as Demian Maia the 37-year-old Jiu Jitsu ace stopped the Neil Magny-hype train with a second round rear naked choke.
FIGHTS TO MAKE
Rousey vs Justino
While this seems unlikely given ‘Cyborg’s’ inability to make 135 pounds, it is simply the only fight that is interesting that the UFC can make. A third go-round with Meisha Tate is the next best option, and given that she has received two convincing beatings already, there’s no way to think the third will go any different. Such are the challenges with being so much better than anyone else.
