Rousey probably walks around at 145lbs, so it's not a big cut to the 135 limit. I don't like big cuts, but it's a level playing field and I don't see how you can stop it without endangering fighters even more.
Rousey did say on TUF that her mum made her compete in judo at a higher weight class. Dunno if thats relevant at all.
Is that what it was? Bleedin hell, I thought he was saying asenipine ( drug used to treat dementia ) all this time. I couldn't imagine why he kept mentioning it. Afraid to ask.
Fair enough. I'm probably taking the Rousey-McMann fight too seriously and thus being overly sensitive. That or my hemerrhoids are flaring up again. Most of the people I argued with in person over this topic were more or less fanboys who greatly exaggerated Rousey's abilities. I'm not saying you're one of them. The exaggerations haven't really happened on this thread either. There have been a few moments in the course of this discussion when I've read a reply and thought, "Damn it. They're right." Do I still think the fight was stopped early? Yes, but I realise Herb Dean didn't act as prematurely as I first thought. His job is to protect fighters and he did exactly that. My opinion on the power in Rousey's punches which came after the knee is secondary to McMann's health. I do think McMann has better striking technique but there can be no doubt Rousey dominated the fight. Still not buying her claims that the knee was as planned as she made it out to be, though. I believe she worked on it in training and put it in when she saw the opening. I don't think she went in with the primary intention of dropping McMann with a knee. Instead, she looked like she was using the clinch to tie up McMann in preparation for judo throws. I can't keep contributing to the thread without being honest and admitting my opinion of the result is coloured by a desire to see Rousey lose. Southpaw mentioned in another thread that there is a fine line between respecting someone's skill and liking/disliking them as a person. I think Rousey's striking (outside of the clinch) is sloppy, so when she declares herself to be the greatest striker in MMA, I'm left scratching my head wondering if she's for real. I get the impression she is based on interviews, vlogs and TUF. She appears to believe the hype surrounding her game (obviously the praise for her grappling is warranted) so I don't buy into the excuse she is simply playing the heel to generate publicity. And that frown/pout... why, Ronda? You look silly. Anyway, I believe the key to beating her is superior striking, i.e. striking that is on the same level as Rousey's grappling. I guess I'm just frustrated that such a person doesn't exist at 135 lb yet.
Now that I can agree with wholeheartedly (although I like her walk out face/mean mug!). I think Rousey saying she planned the knee is mind games for the benefit of future opponents. Making herself out to be more calculating, well rounded and dangerous than she actually is (even though she is clealry dangerous). I think you can plan to soften someone up with knees but not to get quite such a good effect from them as that one.
Compare your image of Rousey with the one in the following link, after she has rehydrated for the fight. She's the 135 lb champ but she's not fighting at 135 lb. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...each-weight-division-following-ufc-170/page/2 As far as the actual weighing in goes, I understand the UFC's weight cut policy. I also understand how and why fighters cut to make weight. But I strongly disagree with both. I prefer weigh-ins on the day (the closer to the fight the better imo) because it forces people to fight at their natural (walkaround) weight. The way it's done now basically means a fighter cuts for the weigh-in (usually through dehydration) and comes into the fight heavier. How can Rousey be the 135 lb champion if she's heavier than 135 lb when she gets in the Octagon? This applies to all divisions and (imo) makes it unfair on fighters whose walkaround weight is the division they fight in I say this from the experience of someone who has regularly fougnt fatties who nearly killed themselves to make weight the day before a match, rehydrated and came in heavier (sometimes by 1 or 2 stone). They not only have the weight advantage but also height and reach that comes with being bigger.
Well when what you are saying clearly doesn’t match with my experience (and you can see strikes in the clinch I can’t see) and your opinion also differs from others who I know have extensive experience in MMA and Thai training I think it is ok to ask what and how long you have trained to see where you are coming from. To be fair here is my experience (the relevant parts anyway): I started training MMA and submission wrestling back in 2003 and still train both now a few times a week, I trained straight kick boxing from 99 to 01, and whilst I have never done pure Thai boxing my old MMA gym produced the likes of andre winner and jimmy wallhead, and when I started there paul daley was a regular for about a year so I have good experience in Thai for MMA,. I know from sparing and hitting (and getting hit) that knees to the body hurt and can drop you, especially if you are not in top fighting shape that is my experience anyway……curious to hear yours?? There are a number of reasons in my opinion you don’t see too many knees to the body ending fights in MMA (although it does happen and to insinuate they cant do damage is a bit silly) 1) people are hesitant to throw hard knees to the body for fear of the takedown, people may ride a knee to the body in order to take the single leg, so knees to the head or leg are easier and more productive because the leg is a quick easy target and the head…well people cover they don’t think about grabbing the leg they worry about getting their face caved in 2) As a result when you do throw knees to the body they tend to be quick fast knees thrown a lot of times thrown off the front leg without a skip step, not the deep hard knees that finish a fight 3) People hip in to defend the knee to the body making it hard to throw them, of course this sets up the body lock takedown (the defence came from thai boxing and even in thai where throws aren’t scored you see a lot of body lock dumps from people hipping in too deep) Now why did Rouseys knees finish the fight? Well since she dominated head position and grip control she didn’t fear the takedown off the body knee: the finishing knee was thrown when she had double underhooks and Sarah was defending the takedown with overhooks, there was no way for her to grab the leg (or block the hip to take the power out of the strike) so she was able to throw deep hard knees with her hips behind them without fear of anything happening to her As pointed out elsewhere sarah was dropping her hips back to defend the takedown, perfectly acceptable wrestling defence but one which gets you kneed unless you can shut down the attacking hip with your hands, which she couldn’t because rousey was dominating the grip fight with underhooks and head position Rousey is not known for throwing knees in the clinch, the fact she did it so much in this short fight suggests her coaches saw something in her opponents game which made her susceptible to said knees, so if you train for something and then implement and low it works it its hardly lucky is it?? Now im going to confess something here, I don’t actually like Rousey, I was cheering for tate in her last fight (why tate didn’t stay on the outside and throw punches but decided to come in and clinch I will never know, what were her coaches thinking) but to ignore the fact she dominated this fight like she has the whole division is silly, only 1 person has managed to take her out of the first round and actually made her sweat for lords sake. She is getting bigger stronger and more technical with each fight, she isn’t the best striker but is improving and she is good enough at striking to take the fight where she wants it and no one seems to be able to stop her doing that…..and again who on this thread has claimed she is a stellar striker??????
I partly agree but so long as everyone is playing by the same rules I say it's all good. Or as good as it can be. Virtually no one in MMA, wrestling, Judo or boxing fights at the weight they walk around at. If Ricky Hatton had to fight at his walk around weight he'd be in the heavy weight division! Perhaps one reason Ronda fought at 145 for Judo is because comps are run round robin, multiple fights in a day and over a couple of days sometimes (I think) and so much harder to make a targetted weight cut for a particular day. Perhaps if Cyborg competed in Judo she'd have to fight at 155 or 165 instead of the 145 she does in MMA? Because she couldn't target weight cut either? Same day weigh ins would see people trying to cut slightly less weight perhaps but there'd still be weight cutting and an increase in dehydrated fighters come fight time. A recipe for deaths IMHO.
I know some Judo tournaments have spot checks during the competition where you'll be disqualified if your weight is more than x% above what you weighed-in at - that might explain why she used to fight a class heavier.
Yeah...I'd be down for a fighter having to be within a certain % of their previous day weigh in weight as they walk into the cage. So the extreme weight cutters would have to maintain their weight for 2 days (something that'd be impossible for the ones that nearly collapse on the way to the scales) or go up a division to a weight that's more natural. So if they weigh in at 135 they can't weigh any more than 140 or 145 on fight night.
You don't think Cat Zingano has the striking ability to challenge Rousey? Or are you not counting her because she is out for the time being?
Cat is a wildcard for various reasons. On paper there is a lot to suggest she could give her a run, but my gut says she doesn't offer much that would trouble Ronda
There are a lot of exciting fights on the horizon in the Women's 135lb class, but none of them involve Ronda Rousey. She's beaten pretty much everyone who could pose a threat to her at the moment and it's going to be at least a year, probably two before anyone works their way up through the division to challenge her.
I think films will draw her away from MMA. Sad really. Can't be easy competing your whole life for virtually nothing and then being offered thousands to act for 10 minutes with virtually no risk of physical harm.
These are the released pay days from UFC 170 - Ronda could make more for one movie than she earns in a year Ronda Rousey: $110,000 (includes $55,000 win bonus) def. Sara McMann: $16,000 Daniel Cormier: $160,000 (includes $80,000 win bonus) def. Patrick Cummins: $8,000 Rory MacDonald: $100,000 (includes $50,000 win bonus) def. Demian Maia: $64,000 Mike Pyle: $96,000 (includes $48,000 win bonus) def. T.J. Waldburger: $18,000 Stephen Thompson: $28,000 (includes $14,000 win bonus) def. Robert Whittaker: $15,000 Alexis Davis: $30,000 (includes $15,000 win bonus) def. Jessica Eye: $8,000 Raphael Assunção: $56,000 (includes $28,000 win bonus) def. Pedro Muhnoz: $8,000 Aljamain Sterling: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus) def. Cody Gibson: $8,000 Zach Makovsky: $24,000 (includes $12,000 win bonus) def. Josh Sampo: $10,000 Erik Koch: $30,000 (includes $15,000 win bonus) def. Rafaello Oliveira: $14,000 Ernest Chavez: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus) def. Yosdenis Cedeno: $8,000
As well as a % a fighter can put on above their weigh-in weight there needs to be a ratio of fighter pay when two guys fight too. I know Cummins was a late replacement nd debut in the UFC but $160,000 versus $8,000 for co-main eventing is sad indeed.
Do you mean to say that people need to get paid more fairly, or if their payment is representative of their skill level you shouldn't have a 80K guy fighting an 8k guy?
