“Rowdy” Ronda Rousey is starting to make a name for herself in the womens MMA scene. She is already 3-0, winning all of her fights via armbar AND not one of her fights has made it past the first minute of the first round. If that isn’t impressive then I don’t know what is. Her next fight will be on November 18th at the Strikeforce Challengers event where she will take on Muay Thai fighter, Julia Budd, who has a record of 2-1. This should be a good match up as it pits Rousey against one of the better strikers she has faced in her career.
A win on Friday night will put Ronda one step closer to a title shot in the Women’s Featherweight Division, however she has already stated that if she wins then she plans on dropping down to the 135 division to take on the champion, Miesha Tate, who apparently called her out on Twitter. One has to wonder if Ronda is making this move because she is ducking a future fight with the current featherweight champion Cyborg. A win against Budd would make her a serious title contender and most likely Cyborg’s next opponent (if Cyborg beats Hiroko Yamanaka). Strikeforce is having a hard enough time finding people who will even step into the cage with Cyborg– hence her almost year-long absence.
If Ronda Rousey wants to be the best then she needs to beat the best. She can go and fight Miesha Tate down in the bantam weight division, but sooner or later she is going to have to square off with the #1 pound for pound women’s fighter, who just happens to be Cyborg. Rousey’s superior judo skills would be a big advantage in a match with Cyborg, however her almost non existent striking abilities and “nice girl” attitude aren’t going to be key’s to victory if she can’t take Cyborg down.
Rousey still has a lot of growing within the sport of mixed martial arts if she wants to take it to the next level and become the next “Face of Women’s MMA.“ She is a great inspiration for up in coming fighters and will draw a lot of media attention to women’s MMA. The sport needs more fighters like her if it is ever going to develop and be taken seriously by the fans who are such avid supporters of men’s MMA. The fans, promoters, and even Dana White needs to see that women’s MMA is here to stay and needs to be developed, just like Dana did with the UFC when he acquired it and turned it into the powerhouse that it is today.