The March MMA Q&A looks at Ronda Rousey being the biggest star in MMA.
Welcome to the March MMA Q&A. I want to thank all two of you for the comments last month. Especially jball, who I know is a fan of my former partner Samer Kadi. Who says that I don’t read comments?
You admitted that you don’t read them in last months column.
I ANSWER THE QUESTIONS AROUND HERE! Let’s open up the floor and discuss some MMA.
Will Ronda Rousey ever lose?
Not unless she fights Cris “Cyborg” and even then she’ll likely be the favorite. These girls she’s currently fighting are severely overmatched and don’t seem to have the best gameplans. WHO CHARGES AN OLYMPIC JUDOKA?!?!?!
Cat Zingano
Thanks. Anyway, she’s already beaten the top five women in her division and there doesn’t seem to be an emerging contender who poses a real threat. “Cyborg” is the only fight that makes sense for either lady at this point, but it’s a fight that will never happen because UFC rarely delivers on super fights. #silvavsgsp #silvavsjones and, for the first time ever, we have a stand-off where everyone wants one of the fighters to move down in weight. In every other super-fight instance, one fighter has gone up in weight, but it looks like this fight won’t happen unless Cris moves down because Rousey has no interest in moving up.
How come people don’t want to see Rousey vs. Cyborg?
Because they’d rather see Rousey vs. Tate 3.
UFC 184 reportedly did over 500,000 buys. Is Rousey now the biggest star in MMA?
Yes. And it almost pains me to say that because I love making fun of Dana White for his hyperbole, but buyrates are buyrates. Rousey did 500,000 against a no name opponent on an extremely weak card. Jon Jones only gets over 500,000 when he fights someone who knows how to build a fight, Georges St. Pierre isn’t coming back, Anderson Silva is most likely done, Cain Velasquez doesn’t exist, so who else is there? It’s possible that Chris Weidman might be the guy, but he’s only faced Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida in PPV main events and his upcoming fight against Vitor Belfort is going to draw well, especially if it’s paired with Jones vs. Anthony Johnson.
Jones and Weidman have higher ceilings because there is better competition in their divisions, but if you’re looking for someone to draw a 350,000+ against a broomstick, I’d go with Rousey.
Who would win between the Female Tyson and the Irish Ali?
A fight? Ali. Easily. A high jump? Tyson. Easily.
Following the UFC PED Press Conference, will everyone continue to be on drugs?
Probably. I liked what UFC had to say at their press conference, but we need to see action. Their track record on drug testing and penalties for failed drug tests isn’t very good so saying all the right things doesn’t mean much if nothing actually happens. Lorenzo even admitted that this announcement was a bit premature and that they are still working on getting everything figured out. After all, Dana can’t drug test all 500 fighters himself.
We’ll know whether or not the UFC is serious about cleaning up the sport by the end of the year.
Did Rafael dos Anjos really beat Anthony Pettis?
He did.
But I thought Anthony Pettis was the best Pound-For-Pound fighter in MMA.
Not anymore. Next month it’ll be Demetrious Johnson. And 30 minutes later it’ll be TJ Dillashaw.
What happened?
Pettis has always been a fantastic offensive fighter, but he doesn’t fight great when pressured. Clay Guida showed that and Ben Henderson and Gilbert Melendez were both doing good things until they were submitted. Dos Anjos is a more well-rounded striker than Henderson and Melendez with more power as well. He caught Pettis early and often and never let up from there, showing off his much improved offensive wrestling to boot. Pettis is still a very talented fighter, but he still has some things to work on.
How pissed was Dana that Pettis lost?
Probably pretty upset. Pettis had the potential to turn into the first lightweight draw since BJ Penn as he’s fairly charismatic and has a very fan-friendly style. Now dos Anjos is the champion. He’s a good fighter, but doesn’t have much of a personality. He’ll fight the winner of Donald Cerrone vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov and UFC has to pray that Cerrone wins, otherwise they’ll be pairing the lightweight title fight with another title fight because Rafael vs. Khabib isn’t drawing alone.
CM Punk cornered Anthony Pettis. Why?
Publicity.
That’s dumb.
Agreed. Punk was never going to offer any valuable advice so there was really no reason for him to be in the corner. If Pettis actually wanted Punk in his corner, then he really needs to re-evaluate things. He might want to do that anyway as Duke Roufus did him no favors by sending him out there for the fifth round. Pettis explicitly stated that he couldn’t see between the fourth and fifth rounds and Roufus even acknowledge it, yet he sent him out there anyway. Roufus should’ve protected his 28-year-old “son” and stopped the fight. Pettis was never going to land that hail mary head kick in the final five minutes and he risked further eye and brain damage by being allowed to continue to fight.
MMA cornering is often terrible. No real advice is given and the corners don’t actually care about the long-term health of their fighters.
Think Punk will re-evaluate his MMA aspirations after seeing what happened to the Pettis brothers?
Yes. Don’t get me wrong, I still think he’ll want to fight at least once, but Saturday had to be a wake-up call for Punk. He commented that he thought MMA was “easy” because it’s just hard work in the gym and to him, working hard comes easy. I understand what he’s saying, but he has to remember that other guys are working just as hard to beat him up. He saw Sergio and Anthony Pettis work hard in the gym every day. He saw them push each other to be better and he probably thought all that hard work would payoff on Saturday when the brothers fought. After all, they were both heavy favorites and they put in the work. Instead, he saw Sergio get knocked out and Anthony get his ass kicked for 25-minutes.
I’m sure Punk is putting in the work, but the guy he fights will be working just as hard.
KIMBO VS. SHAMROCK!!!!!
I CAN’T WAIT!!!! I’ve already got 2,000 words written in my head, on why this is the new greatest fight of all-time.
Please list everyone with world-class striking.
Yo-Han-Ah Ya-Jay-Check
Jo-Anna Yen-Jay-Check
Jo-Hanna Ya-Dray-Check
Jo-Hannah Ye-On-Dray-Check
Yo-Momma Dey-Took-Der-Job
That’s my top five.
Admit it. You’re excited for Mirko Cro Cop vs. Gabriel Gonzaga 2.
Of course I am. I love these fights that mean nothing but have a story behind him. It’s why I wrote a whole article on Tito Ortiz vs. Stephan Bonnar and why I’ll write a whole article on Kimbo vs. Shamrock. I don’t care enough about Cro Cop vs. Gonzaga 2 to write a whole article on it, but I’m still pretty excited. Cro Cop is pretty much the last of the PRIDE Never Die guys so there’s that as well.
Gonzaga better open with a head kick and a chuckle.
I’ll take one more question.
When is Samer Kadi coming back?
That’s all the time we have. Thanks everyone.
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