Ronda Roussey

For all her ego she was certainly a winner for a long time. Did she bye into her own hype too much? Before the fight with Holly she seemed really emotional, not normal for her and a bad idea for a fighter. She never recovered from having her ego shattered when Holly knocked her out. Amanda had her all figured out when they fought. She said it was easy to train for Ronda, she knew Ronda has to get in close to use her judo and her hooks. She walked Ronda into a kick and a combo and ronda was done.

Anyway what do you think of Ronda Roussey? Did she take womens MMA to a new level or do you think she was over hyped?

 

her record speaks for itself, not only at the professional level, but also in judo.

 

I think Gina Carrano put WMA on the map then Cyborg and Ronda took it to the next level.

 

Yes and yes. Forget women's MMA...she took MMA itself to a new level. But...she wasn't nurtured very well, picked a terrible coach and didn't develop the skills to really complement her Judo.
Put her in kings MMA, Tristar, Jackson-wink or with someone like Bang ludwig, Henry Hooft or Jason Parillo and she would have been better. Her getting on the cover of ring magazine and being vaunted as a boxer was clear over-hyping.
But make no mistake...it's common to rag on her for her persona and the fact she got beaten and basically backed out of MMA but in her prime she was a hell of a fighter with formidable skills.
Her performance against Alexis Davis shows great transitions through the ranges of MMA that few fighters, men and women, can showcase.
And also...everyone gets beaten at some point. She had a lengthy (very successful) Judo career, bad knees and faced a good fighter in her own right (Nunes) or a fighter with a perfect game plan (Holm).

 

Bad knees?

 

Yep, hence why she never shot in wrestling style, judo can be terrible for the Knees.

Edit torn acl and a multiple knee operations.

UFC’s Ronda Rousey can dish it out, but she’s taken her share of injuries, too – Daily News

 

I guess that’s the downside of martial arts: all the injuries.

I feel for her in later life. She’s gonna have a lot of arthritis.

 

I wouldn't worry about her too much, she has enough money to get good care

Also it's not so much martial arts that have a high rate of injury it's competitive sports, any high level competitive sport has a high rate of injury and judo is probably the most competitive martial sport going
Without RR women's MMA would still be a side show run by small orgs.

She took it mainstream

 

Or developed much of a kicking game. Something that would probably have helped her negotiate the outside range better and the transition into clinch she obviously needed.

 

Maybe that's why she concentrated on her boxing, if she had, had a good coach she might of ended up like a female Randy Couture, with a better submission finish rate (and hair line!).

 

I could have fixed her striking in 3 months - she never took me up on my twitter offer!

 

Ronda is a great fighter and, as others have said, with a decent striking coach she could have taken it further.
Her problem was mental. There were two significant UFC losses in a short period - her's and Conor's. She sulked and disappeared. Conor went away, worked more on his grappling but also changed his ring strategy for the repeat fight to avoid being submitted by a superior grappler. A positive attitude rather than Ronda's negative attitude.

 

Conor got subbed because he was rocked though not because his grappling wasn't up to snuff. He essentially got sprawled on then gave up his back and then his neck. He was a brown belt under JK at the time. Pretty sure he wouldn't have done that under usual circumstances.

I think RR's main problem was her lack of striking and having her strategy picked apart by someone with the ability to keep distance and clinch differently. If she has been at Jackson Wink or TriStar she would have been far more prepared (assuming her knees were well enough, which perhaps they were not).

 

Yes - I agree. He's a great grappler but he was outclassed on the ground, whatever the reason for ending up there there. My point was more about whet he did in response. He got back to training and changed his tactics for the next one, working hard to stay standing and not get into grappling. He was positive and came back motivated.

Agreed. And if she had taken the Conor approach, gone away and done that, she'd probably have had a great return match in due course. She gave every appearance of running away to sulk. I'm a RR fan but I think she could have done more with a more positive attitude.

 

I think...Rousey legit had mental health problems (and may have had for some time).
Considering she got all the way to the Olympics and had to endure her Mother I think she was both mentally strong AND fragile.
She got used to being a front runner, being succesful and perhaps the strong started to overshadow the fragile and so when faced with adversity was less able to deal with the fragile parts of her psyche.
I think people forget how under the spot light she was, especially as a woman.

 

If we are talking solely about their contrasting actions and attitudes in the face of high profile defeat then I find it hard to disagree

 

Not sure I agree. Ronda just picked up where Gina left off. And Cyborg certainly had a hand in taking it to the next level. They were all marketable which is what changed Dana Whites mind about women in the UFC. Also Strikeforce, Invicta, Bellator had a hand in it, Dana had to keep up with the competition.

 

Cyborg was well known to people who follow MMA and combat sports and Rousey was know across popular culture. She was the face of female MMA due to her UFC contract and marketing. Womens MMA was far far less prevalent before she came along.

 

I don't know, I think Gina Carrano was the one who originally put WMA on the map. She certainly was marketable even drawing the attention of Hollywood. Ronda picked up where she left off.

 

Let me be clear, im not saying Ronda didn't help. Im just saying it wasn't just her.