mma / Columns

Rousey vs. Holm Makes More Sense Now

August 27, 2015 | Posted by Jeffrey Harris

Recently, the UFC announced that Ronda Rousey’s next opponent will not be Miesha Tate for a third fight between the two top women’s bantamweight fighters. Instead, Rousey will now face the undefeated former boxing champion Holly Holm in the main event of UFC 195. The move was somewhat surprising. Following UFC on FOX 16, UFC President Dana White had declared Tate the No. 1 contender and said she would face the winner of Rousey vs. Bethe Correia at UFC 190. It seemed the fight was all but confirmed after UFC 190. Tate had already lost and been submitted by Rousey twice. However, Tate arguably did better than any of Rousey’s other competition in their two fights. Tate’s the only fighter who has gotten out of the first round with Rousey. So a third fight between the makes sense, right? Not so much. It might suck for Tate, but Rousey vs. Holm makes a lot more sense right now.

Back when Tate was declared unequivocally the No. 1 contender and the next title challenger, it was a bit annoying. Why? Because the situation here is exactly one I foresaw possibly happening. The UFC should not have publicly put themselves into a corner by declaring Tate a contender. The main reason is because she already fought Rousey twice and was submitted by her twice. When push comes to shove, it seemed like there was a good chance that another title fight between Rousey and Tate would not happen for a third time for those reasons, and that’s exactly what ended up happening. Tate may be ranked in the top 5. She may have taken Rousey to a third round, but do fans really want to see that fight again? Seeing as how the UFC brass have changed their minds and changed courses on title main events before, it was a mistake to declare that Tate was the next in line. It should have been a more vague situation until Rousey definitively beat Correia, and the UFC was ready to plan her next opponent. Or in the eyes of the fans, Rousey’s next victim.

The UFC has stumbled on to something incredibly significant with Rousey. She is an amazing crossover superstar and a main event PPV draw. A couple years ago, this is something the UFC was in short supply of, when PPV and revenue had alarmingly dropped for the UFC. Rousey is a rare, one-in-a-million type of fighter. So now that Rousey is huge and in the prime of her career, the UFC has to ride the Rousey gravy train until it stops. Because eventually, this train is going to stop. Rousey could move on to Hollywood. She might eventually want to leave the spotlight behind. Maybe she decides to leave MMA and pursue a career as a pro wrestling superstar. Or maybe she eventually has that mythical fight with Cyborg and leaves after that. But just like Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture or Brock Lesnar (in the UFC), the Rousey era will eventually end. We will all miss her and what she brought to the table. However, for now, she is on top of the world. So UFC has to exploit her star power for all it’s worth.

So with all that in mind, what makes more sense right now for Rousey? A third fight with Miesha Tate? Someone she’s already fought and wrecked *TWICE* before, or a fresh and undefeated opponent? I’ve seen arguments that Holly Holm is not ready for this fight. Well, to that I say, who the frell is? If you look at Rousey’s resume, no one has been ready to face her. Two of Rousey’s opponents were bantamweight champions (Sarah Kaufman and Tate). One was an undefeated fighter who was an Olympic silver medalist in wrestling (Sara McMann). Two were undefeated in MMA and the UFC, soundly dominating everyone put in front of them (Bethe Correia and Cat Zingano). Rousey crushed every single one of them, and ended most of those fights in the first round. Joe Rogan thinks Amanda Nunes should get the nod because she’s won her last two fights and looked like a badass. That means nothing. A lot of Rousey’s opponents had looked like badasses in their UFC wins up to their fights with Rousey, except for Tate, who lucked into a title shot against Rousey due to Zingano getting injured.

On paper, Holm is a more compelling match-up. She’s undefeated in MMA. She’s unbeaten in the UFC. She’s a former championship boxer. It doesn’t matter that her fights so far in the UFC have looked less than impressive. People are going to tune into this fight mainly because of Rousey and the Rousey aura she brings to the table. The UFC will market Holm as this undefeated boxing champion. When this gets coverage on ESPN and the like, maybe people will think, “Oh Holm has really good standup and boxing, and that could be one of Rousey’s weaker areas.” Do I think Holm stands a snowball’s chance in hell against Rousey? Probably not, but who does? The only compelling match-up for Rousey right now is Cris “Cyborg” Justino, who is fighting in Invicta and walks around at 175 pounds. The only reason she is such a compelling match-up is because she is huge and previously abused steroids, which have radically altered her body type. So unless this hypothetical match-up with Cyborg ever happens, pretty much no one Rousey faces is a compelling or believable opponent that can beat her.

Before she came into the UFC, the MMA community hailed Holm as a strong contender and potential opponent that could topple Rousey. This was before Rousey showed off her striking skills and knockout power. So here was a talented boxer who had taken well to transitioning to MMA, despite not facing any top level competition. Either way, this is basically a striker vs. grappling match-up. That will give a lot of mileage to the promotion of this fight. You can also promote how Holm has shown impressive takedown defense before. Again, casual MMA fans that the UFC will be shooting for here are not going to whine and cry about Tate getting passed over or Holm’s less than spectacular UFC outings. They will watch just for the Rousey experience, or because they like that Rousey’s next victim is an undefeated MMA fighter and former championship boxer. That adds another impressive feather in Rousey’s cap.

A fresh match-up with an undefeated contender does more for Rousey and the UFC than a third fight with Tate that the MMA community was not all that enthusiastic about in the first place. It wasn’t a rubber match for an intense rivalry. Tate taking Rousey to round 3 does not matter. At the end of the day, Tate couldn’t even win a single round over Rousey. So to say she could get to a third round with Rousey without winning a single round is hardly some amazing accomplishment. It’s like a jobber boasting about working a five-minute squash match with Brock Lesnar instead of a 30-second squash. No one cares you got squashed in several minutes instead of just seconds.