It’s no secret that this CC is a proponent of Ronda Rousey; I wrote a piece on her feud with Floyd Mayweather a while back. In all her flaws, and there are plenty, her reign as the UFC Bantamweight Champion has given me a lot of hope for the future of women’s athletics. She was undefeated, she was unstoppable, and she was the 100th percentile.
Well, there is no 100th percentile. That was proven this weekend in an incredible upset, when Holly Holm became the girl to beat. There’s a lot of speculation about what this means for Rousey, with plenty saying that now that her streak is over, so is she.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Either we can see this as the end of a legacy, or we can see it as the passing of the torch.
Rousey was the first UFC female champion, and until she came on the scene, UFC President, Dana White, had absolutely no interest in having women compete in his company. Word is, he’s taking her loss pretty hard. Rousey came to UFC to compete, and she came there to win, but in the process, she built up the women’s division.
If we thought that Rousey was an anomaly, a fluke, or the only woman who could possibly draw that kind of attention, Holm just proved us all wrong. She didn’t just win that fight, she knocked Rousey clean out. It was a tough loss for Rousey, but it means so much for the division. She started a bit of a revolution in MMA, showing she was as capable as any man in that Octagon. Now it’s Holm’s turn to continue her work.
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Recently the talk has been all about her legacy. The thing is, Rousey is more than an undefeated record. Maybe it’s a bummer to remember her as the girl who almost retired undefeated, but I’d rather remember her as the girl who changed the way the game was played.
“You have to be able to beat anyone on twice on your worst day,” she says, and this weekend, she couldn’t. That doesn’t change who she is and what she’s done. This isn’t over. Actually, it’s just begun.