Take a look back at her career and early UFC brutality.
UFC 157
To start her career in the UFC, Rudy Ronda Rousey headlined the historic UFC 157 tournament. An Olympic bronze medalist in Beijing in 2004, she was making a name for herself even before her Strikeforce days. She rushed to a career-high 3-0 with all finishes via armbar, and recorded only two professional victories before joining the strike force.
The four names on Strikeforce’s track record alone mean Rousey deserves a lot of credit. Sarah DalioAnd Charmaine tweeted, future career contender and UFC champion, Misha Tate And the future Invicta Fc Women’s MMA Champion and Legend, Sarah Kaufman They all fell to Rousey, none of them being able to protect their arms for more than a round and each suffering an arm end.
Her first defense of the UFC title came at UFC 157 against fellow Major, Liz Carmouche. Carmouche was hitting from behind on two consecutive outings and had an 8-2 record at the time. The match was definitely a buzz, it was the first ever women’s fight in the UFC, however, people were definitely worried.
A grudge match and four blowouts
Next came The Ultimate Fighter 18, where he was scheduled to face Rousey Kat Zingano. Zingano had just defeated Meisha Tate, however, he suffered an injury and had to withdraw from filming and the fight itself. The intervention of Rosie’s former sworn enemy, Tate, surprised and angered Rosie. The two will continue to build on their rivalry via filming of TUF 18 and will go to war at UFC 168.
UFC 168 was themed Chris Weidman And Anderson Silva In their highly anticipated rematch is a feather in the cap for Rousey and Tate as they were placed in the co-main event spot. The fight would mark a turning point in Rousey’s career. This was the first time she had been extended to the second and third rounds in her MMA career. Tate put up a great fight against Rousey, eliminating her in the first round and not collapsing under the pressure. 0:58 into the third round, however, Rousey’s ground game got the upper hand and broke her arm cupcake On her way to defend another title.
Then, back-to-back finishes came in a total of just 1:22 seconds. Claim with welcomed Sarah McMahon Before finishing things with the knees to the body before taking it apart Alexis Davis in 16 seconds.
Kat Zingano She finally got her title, however, a 14-second tape saw her crash at the hands of Rousey. Neither fighter attempted a single strike, making it the only fight in UFC history without any strikes or touchdowns. Many wondered if the fellow was undefeated Beth Corea He will be the one to annoy Rossi. Rossi entered the match as an -1800 favourite, and treated Correa in a way the odds suggested. She didn’t feel the need to use her wrestling and became a kicker for this boxer, knocking Correa off the feet and upsetting the Brazilian fans.
Heading into Australia, many thought grappling Rousey would be too much for her opponent, Holly Holm. The boxer has been in the UFC Hall of Fame 2-0 and has not been seen as a finishing force. However, what happened in history is one of the most shocking moments in UFC history. Holm dominated Rousey, made her miss her, embarrassed her and ultimately showed that she was the superior woman in the cage that day. She defeated Rousey in the second round, sending her from a worlds undefeated tournament.
With the belt passed, Rousey returned a year after her devastating loss to Holm to challenge Amanda Nunes for the belt in the main event of UFC 207. Nunes proved that she was much better than Rousey, that bitchy She had major holes in her game in the stand up division and was no longer good enough to cut it at that level. We’ll never see Rousey compete in MMA again, but we have to ask if her impact on the sport is truly underappreciated.
Does Rossi deserve more respect?
Few have started their careers with such dominance. Yes, she was a well-respected and well-known name in MMA, however, headlining a UFC card on your debut shows just how much the UFC trusts her. No one would have questioned it if it had been put into the main post for the first time. TUF has only coached one fight in her career, and she’s proven just how gigantic she is. Dana White doesn’t give this privilege to everyone. With six PPV titles under her belt, she was a guaranteed ticket seller.
Moving on to her actual fights, she was dominant… until she wasn’t. Over her first six fights, she was only knocked out 52 times, for context, Meisha Tate was responsible for 24 of those hits. John Jones He was over through his first two fights, Conor McGregor I landed it 52 times over four fights and Khabib Nurmagomedov He took 54 strikes in his first four fights as well. This proves how much control Rossi has.
Compared to the aforementioned three men, it took Jones nine promotional fights to score six finals, McGregor doing it in seven and Khabib in 12. Rossi scored six out of six.
Although Nunes has gone on to have a bigger MMA career than Rousey, she’s nowhere near her in terms of star power. Nunes’ biggest selling PPV is her UFC 207 fight with Rousey. Next up was UFC 200, which was built largely from the back of the stacked card that was included Brock Lesnar. After that, it dropped dramatically to UFC 215, which didn’t sell well. Every Rousey PPV sold better than Nunes’ third-highest, even when fans weren’t captivated by the discount.
It’s time to respect the impact Rousey has made in putting women in the spotlight in the UFC and MMA in general.