Women’s UFC Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey (11-0) says she’s confident she could beat ‘100% of the UFC’s men’s Bantamweights.’
With ‘Rowdy’ requiring a mere 14-seconds to dispatch of her latest victim, Cat Zingano at UFC 184, talk soon switched to a hypothetical bout against male competition, with UFC co-commentator Joe Rogan saying she ‘might beat 50% of men’ at 135lbs.
Rogan’s comments angered some fans and fighters, most notably UFC Flyweight Ian McCall who took exception to the remarks and responded by saying he ‘can’t compartmentalize it,’ and that he’d ‘throw her on her head,’ in a grappling match.
But Rousey – who once said she believes she could beat heavyweight kingpin Cain Velasquez – wasn’t happy with Rogan’s assessment, and claimed she could have the beating of not half, but all of the men’s UFC bantamweights.
“I never say that I’m incapable of beating anybody, because I don’t believe in putting limits on myself,” Rousey said on ESPN’s SportsCenter. “So I mean, I would have to say if you’re just talking about what’s in the realm of possibility of what’s possible of who I could beat, well I could beat 100 per cent of them. You can’t tell me that there’s a zero per cent chance that I can’t beat anyone on the planet, so I’m never gonna say that.”
There’s no doubting Rousey’s a competitor through and through, and perhaps this is merely her way of avoiding admitting the uncomfortable reality that she’s beatable – albeit by male fighters. But, something in the way she delivers these comments suggests she wholeheartedly believes them.
The question of whether she could defeat male competition inside the Octagon is one that will almost certainly remain unanswered. Any such bout would attract a colossal amount of criticism, and a fight between a man and woman would do nothing to improve the reputation of the sport in the eyes of those who already consider MMA to be barbaric.
But then again, it wouldn’t be the first time the promotion’s given two fingers to potential criticism (E.g. the signing of CM Punk who hadn’t a single MMA contest under his white-belt), and if she keeps disposing of female opposition with such embarrassing ease, who knows?
What do you think? Would she beat some of the men’s Bantamweights, or has her dominance in the women’s division gone to her head? (The head Ian McCall intends to throw her on if given the chance).
Article by Darly Rigby
