It took Ronda Rousey less than a minute to dispatch of Sarah Kaufman. It took her less than 10 seconds to make her look like a rank amateur who had no business being in the same building as her, much less the same cage. It took my mother less than 20 seconds into the fight to go “oh my God, that poor girl” about the Canadian KO artist as Rousey opted to kill her prey quickly as opposed to play with her a bit before the coup de grace. And Rousey, who looked markedly improved as a striker before she just absolutely destroyed the former women’s bantamweight champion, has entered into a rare zone of athletic intimidation at this point in her career.
Rousey is the Mike Tyson of women’s MMA; not in the bizarre behavior and shenanigans of the former boxing champion, of course, but in the way Tyson dominated heavyweight boxing in his prime. She’s a scary, scary woman and at this point in her career no one looks like any sort of serious challenger. A rematch with Meisha Tate looks like a worse beating for the former champion than the first time around and no one else in the division looks to be any serious challenge. No one in Invicta FC looks to be any sort of challenge, either, as right now Rousey is so scary that anything less than a -600 betting line in her favor would seem appropriate.
She’s the fighter Strikeforce wanted to make Gina Carano into before she opted to become a minor actress instead.
Carano was a nice fighter but not an overly great one; she was exposed early and often against Cris “Cyborg” Santos as an average fighter with Hollywood starlet looks. She has talents as a fighter, don’t kid yourself, but she was promoted much more significantly due to her looks and the fact that she was the “hot chick” on American Gladiator than because of her overwhelming fight career. She had a name and a face but not the body of work to match up with it.
Rousey has all of these things and then some. When she walks to the cage now it’s much like Tyson in the ‘80s coming out with Public Enemy; she’s there to do some hurting and go home, nothing more. It’s the fact that she looks like she wants to strangle everyone on the broadcast from Heidi Androl on down that makes it all that much more delightful in many ways. As soon as she steps into the building she wants to grab someone’s arm and rip it off.
She still has Santos to deal with, whom she explicitly called out after her win tonight. Cyborg is the name lingering right now, as her one shot KO power and first rate grappling credentials could pose a challenge to her, but Rousey would have to be an overwhelming favorite going into the fight. Once Rousey grabs the clinch it would feel all but academic. When her biggest opponent feels almost like another victim in wait then you know someone is viewed as dominant.
It’s a double edged sword now for Rousey, though, as now every fight is going to be that much tougher. It’s not enough to just destroy her challengers in the same way; closing the gap, getting the fight to the ground and then go for broke with armbar attempts is going to turn off any number of fans after a while. We don’t mind dominant wins but eventually the catcalls are going to come about Rousey not wanting to stand and trade, etc.
Dominant champions are nitpicked much more significantly as well; Anderson Silva being questioned as a great fighter is borderline ridiculous but happens because we’ve run out of things to talk about. Once a fighter is built up it’s all but inevitable that we want to see them torn down as well.
While one imagines that you won’t be hearing Rousey tell an opponent that she’ll have sex with her until she loves Rousey, like Tyson did but in much more graphic and vulgar terms, Rousey is in that same zone Tyson occupied at his prime. She’s the baddest woman on the planet, bar none, and every woman in the division should rightfully be scared.
