Sports Illustrated World's Most Dominant Athlete

[drop bear]

How hard are they looking though, do you know? Not a sarcastic question btw, a real one.
I know of over 100 female fighters from various countries that could be matched with her, from Russians to Japanese to Thai. These are pro female fighters with very good records against very good fighters. It's a much smaller pool than the men's of course but having Rousey fight some of these fighters would go someway to show the UFC isn't protecting her. Challenging doesn't work, you have to be put on a contract by the UFC to fight on it.
This is interesting but I'm putting it here because it shows you have to have a contract from UFC to challenge one of their fighters.
The Business of Fighting A Look Inside the UFC s Top-Secret Fighter Contract Bleacher Report

Yes you are correct. But going the easy option of using fight matrix

She is still the no.1 ranked mmaer in the world regardless of organization.

Fight Matrix Current MMA Rankings raquo Women s Bantamweight

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Interesting read on the fighter contract Tez3. Thanks for sharing that.

I think the UFC raids other organizations. In general they raid them pick off high level fighter and then bring them to the UFC under contract. Since they pay well in comparison with other organizations and fighters have an opportunity for greater sponsorship they are in general very successful with this strategy. Of course there is always a fighter outside of the organization and in another organization under contract that they will miss. Yet, in general they by all accounts are getting the highest level of fighters.

Getting Eddie Alverez is just another example where they raided Bellator for it's arguably best fighter and brought him to the UFC. Unfortunately for him he then faced Donald Cerrone who dismantled him in his first UFC fight. I am however, interested to see how he does in his next fight against the ever dangerous Gilbert Mennendez.

Look the UFC doesn't always do everything right by it's fighters. Yet, it has made many of them wealthy. Are they rich like some other professional athletes. No! Will they get there. Absolutely in time and when they form a union. It is only a matter of time before that happens.

What is even worse for mma athletes starting out is how the amature circuits are run where promoters are making a ton of cash and the athletes get nothing and even no medical coverage if they are injured. Knowing personally, multiple amatures I can tell you they are in general really, really taken advantage of. However, they are chasing their dream!

 

[Tez3]

I haven't read up on it yet, been busy but I believe the new sponsorship deals are causing a bit of a fuss among the UFC fighters. However my point in posting that article was more for the bit about needing UFC contracts to challenge or just fight anyone. If they accepted challenges perhaps without tying fighters into contracts making them UFC fighters, just the one fight contract they may have more fights for Rousey.
As for fighting Cyborg that is a whole new thread lol. It would be 'interesting' for sure!

 

[elder999]

.
As for fighting Cyborg that is a whole new thread lol. It would be 'interesting' for sure!

And likely just as short as all the others....

 

[Tez3]

And likely just as short as all the others....

I can understand wanting to become the best you can but to do it through doping, ugh. No saying what damage it could do to your body especially when you look at the changes her body went through.

Royce Gracie reckons Kyra could beat Rousey although he 'doesn't believe women should fight'. A backhanded compliment that. Whether she can beat her or not is irrelevant, any woman who wants to fight should.

 

[Buka]

You do see that she's kinda nuts, though, right?

Oh, heck yes.

Not such a bad thing if it's focused on the task at hand, which seems to be the case with her. Especially with the emotional component thrown in. It seems to drive her. And what I think is one of the things special about her - I think she's getting better.

 

[elder999]

r. And what I think is one of the things special about her - I think she's getting better.

You have no idea-most people don't. Fact is, she's only shown a glimmer of what she and her team have developed over the last two years-she hasn't had to show more.......

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Hey Tez3 I don't think Kyra Gracie would stand a chance. She would be dismantled unmercifully. Then again currently most Gracie's are losing everywhere just because of the sheer athleticism in mma and bjj or in specialty grappling tournaments like Metamoris. Kyra might have a chance but with 0 mma fights I would give her much of a chance against many of the current top tier UFC female fighters let alone Rhonda. I love Royce and back in the day Kyra would have had an advantage just not anymore!

 

[elder999]

I
Royce Gracie reckons Kyra could beat Rousey although he 'doesn't believe women should fight'. A backhanded compliment that. Whether she can beat her or not is irrelevant, any woman who wants to fight should.

Nah. BJJ has disadvantage against judo. In BJJ competition they have lots of time to be on the ground and apply a submission-in judo, they have to get it in fast, before the referee stands them up. Ronda's mom became the first American ever to win a World Judo Championship using this methodology-she'd wrecked her knees, couldn't really do nage waza (throws) as well (or, in some cases, at all) and became a newaza-groundfighting-specialist. Ronda learned this methodology from an early age-in addition to having excellent (sometimes peerlessly creative) throws...in any case, a great many of her armbar submissions happened so quickly simply because her opponents were unprepared for the pain coming on that quickly-they're used to rolling around a bit, developing angles, etc., etc., while she's used to locking an arm before the ref stops the action......even with some devlopment and MMA experience, Kyra would be unprepared for what Ronda Rousey has been doing since she was 9 years old......hell, I've seen her submit quite a few big men who were completely unprepared for what she brings.......

 

[Chrisoro]

Norway just had a sell out UFC show in the middle of the night.

Just a correction. It was in Sweden, not here. Professional MMA competition is still banned here, unfortunately.

 

[Tez3]

Just a correction. It was in Sweden, not here. Professional MMA competition is still banned here, unfortunately.

I did wonder about that because I couldn't find it mentioned anywhere. We have some great fighters who come over from the Trondheim MMA club to fight here, I thought it was still illegal in Norway.

As for Kyra Gracie I haven't seen or heard of her since she was pregnant.

 

[Zero]

She's well known to people who are into MMA and in America, she's not well known in the UK or Europe, honestly, she's not. MMA is still very niche elsewhere. I can ask most people here if they know who Rousey is and they will say they don't. We haven't had a UFC here for a long while now so no publicity, TUF is on a small 'to pay for' channel and there's not a lot of interest even among MMAers. I can put Rousey up on my FB page and I guarantee most of my friends will have no idea who she is.
Here, it's athletes like Jessica Ennis ( and you will say who?) that are famous, they do television ads, interviews etc so are in the public eye, Rousey isn't here in any capacity at all. She's never on our televisions or being interviewed by the media.

Not sure about that Tez... I'm based in London and one of my female friends that works out in the gym a lot, she is into fitness but not fighting at all, has never been involved in MA, would be too scared about breaking her nails(!), but I was surprised when she was going on about Rhonda (just a couple weeks back) so much and about how she digs her is and how she wants a body like that, etc, etc...Rhonda is definitely known over here in the UK. The web is a dominant force now, what you don't see on the TV does not necessarily equate to what is the hot topic! I am of course in awe of Jess Ennis' athletic abilities but a few health insurance and bank ads, etc may not actually equate to the same recognition that Rhonda gets online from her own and other sites and SportsIllustrated etc, that goes everywhere.

 

[Tez3]

Not sure about that Tez... I'm based in London and one of my female friends that works out in the gym a lot, she is into fitness but not fighting at all, has never been involved in MA, would be too scared about breaking her nails(!), but I was surprised when she was going on about Rhonda (just a couple weeks back) so much and about how she digs her is and how she wants a body like that, etc, etc...Rhonda is definitely known over here in the UK. The web is a dominant force now, what you don't see on the TV does not necessarily equate to what is the hot topic! I am of course in awe of Jess Ennis' athletic abilities but a few health insurance and bank ads, etc may not actually equate to the same recognition that Rhonda gets online from her own and other sites and SportsIllustrated etc, that goes everywhere.

I didn't say she wasn't known over here, I know she's a 'face' here, she's famous. What's online and in the media is hype, the UFC is very good at that, as any business should. The PR guys are out there earning their crust, pushing the flavour of the month. It makes her famous, not dominant. What we are talking about is the PR hype as opposed to the reality that she's only fought a few girls hand picked by the UFC. And as far as Judo goes she got a bronze so there are always going to have been two women better than her on the day. she's goo, there's no doubt about it but are the UFC going to get her challenging fights or just the same opponents again and again, even Elder said most of her time fighting was against the one fighter.
To be 'world dominant' as opposed to world famous she needs to fight around the world, to fight anyone who challenges her as boxers do.

 

[Zero]

Serena Williams, maybe. Venus is currently ranked... what, like 20? But, it's a poll. It's not a scientific study.

I think Rhonda Rousey is a good pick. She's head and shoulders above anyone else in her field. She is fully as dominant in MMA as Mike Tyson at his peak.

Rousey is awesome but am not sure about world's most dominant(??!), for a start this is very much a short term "here and now" approach, and even in the "here-and-now" there are others with arguably greater standing and coupled with a longer track record. How can you say someone dominates more than the simply awesome Floyd Mayweather?? He gets on the front page of the press all over the globe when he fights (unlike Rousey) and is all over the net as well. He may not finish fights so fast so often but then his is a different arena with different options and he's a counter fighter.

Surely even if we just put it into different categories, such as "most dominant of the world's fighters", Mayweather would have to be tops?

And then if we are going for a "sports in general" approach, how can you say Rousey stacks up to or is more dominant than LeBron James? Again, Rousey is great but I would not say she is a "once in a generation" fighter or athlete (at least it's far too early as yet to determine that) with stand alone ability. Someone like LeBron is just that, kind of like Jordan in his day.

 

[Zero]

I didn't say she wasn't known over here, I know she's a 'face' here, she's famous. What's online and in the media is hype, the UFC is very good at that, as any business should. The PR guys are out there earning their crust, pushing the flavour of the month. It makes her famous, not dominant. What we are talking about is the PR hype as opposed to the reality that she's only fought a few girls hand picked by the UFC. And as far as Judo goes she got a bronze so there are always going to have been two women better than her on the day. she's goo, there's no doubt about it but are the UFC going to get her challenging fights or just the same opponents again and again, even Elder said most of her time fighting was against the one fighter.
To be 'world dominant' as opposed to world famous she needs to fight around the world, to fight anyone who challenges her as boxers do.

I think then we kind of agree with each other...what a shame!! : ) I agree, she is "well recognised" but as per my above post, am not sure she is the "most dominant" - there seem to be plenty of others who are just as dominant in their fields, have more PR and press and who have a much more established track record.

 

[Zero]

Hang on, having just seen the below, she now gets my vote for world's most dominant athlete!! She deserves this more than anyone else. You are clearly wrong Tez

 

[Tez3]

I would really like Rousey not to be a 'one off', and that's nothing to do with her because I think she'd agree. I want there to be loads of 'Rousey's'. I want scores of female fighters in different weight categories to be as good as her, I want female MMA to be as accepted as the men's, with as many young fighters coming up as possible.
What is happening now is that everyone is treating Rousey as a marvel, that she is exceptional because women can't/don't fight as she does. A lot of people like to de-feminise her, to say she can fight men etc because this makes her seem less female, more bloke like and therefore able to fight.
In 50 years time I don't want her to be the only female fighter that people talk about, I want there to loads of arguments over lots of amazing female fighters in all the weight divisions.
I'm not taking anything away from her saying this, I just don't want her to be the one and only female fighter people talk about. I want WMMA to expand to build and to become amazing. You can say she's the latest in a line of amazing female fighters but we need more, we need as many women as there are men fighting. Will it happen? Who knows but I would be sad if it all ended with Rousey. I want to see her out there fighting, being challenged showing whether she can do it or not, it's no good saying she has more in the tank if she's only going to fight the same opponents or those hand picked by the UFC. It would also show us how deep the UFCs commitment to female fighters is other than earning money from them.

 

[Tez3]

Hang on, having just seen the below, she now gets my vote for world's most dominant athlete!! She deserves this more than anyone else. You are clearly wrong Tez

ah that photo. It was photo shopped, she wasn't happy with it at all, don't blame her she has a fantastic body and they do that to her. Look at her naval and see how far it is from the bottom of the photo, they 'slimmed' her waist down. It's as if they thought she was fat!

 

[Zero]

ah that photo. It was photo shopped, she wasn't happy with it at all, don't blame her she has a fantastic body and they do that to her. Look at her naval and see how far it is from the bottom of the photo, they 'slimmed' her waist down. It's as if they thought she was fat!

? maybe you're right...?? It would be a bit of a "peeve" thinking you are in good shape and then they go and photo-shop you anyhow! hehe!

 

[Tez3]

Try this one.