Ronda Rousey: There’s a possibility ‘I could beat 100 per cent’ of 135-pound men
COULD we see Ronda Rousey fighting men? The UFC women’s champion believes she could beat every man in her weight class.
UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is running out of challenges in her own division after finishing off her past two opponents in a total of 30 seconds.
Rousey most recently dispatched previously undefeated contender Cat Zingano with a first-round armbar in just 14 seconds, which set the record for the fastest finish in UFC title fight history.
The question has come up quite often lately — is there any woman who could actually challenge Rousey or even come close to taking her belt? Or is Rousey just that far ahead of the competition that no one is on her level?
“It’s not that they’re lacking anything so much, they decided later in life that they wanted to be a fighter,” Rousey said on ESPN SportsCenter on Friday.
“A lot of these girls already developed a personality and had a life and one day decided ‘Hey I’m really good at this stuff, I should give it a try.’ Whereas this is literally what I was raised to do.
“I have so much more mat time and experience than these girls, they just can’t catch up.”
Rousey’s dominance over the women’s division has even landed the bantamweight champion in the illogical debate about how she would do matched up against male fighters in the same division.
UFC colour commentator Joe Rogan started the controversy following Rousey’s latest victory, when he said he believes she could not only compete, but beat half of the roster of male bantamweights in the world.
“There’s a lot of guys her size she could beat. I mean a lot,” Rogan said. “If you took the roster of the UFC’s bantamweights, 135-pounds, and you paired them up against Ronda Rousey, she might be able to beat 50-percent of them. That’s not a joke.”
It only furthers the debate when UFC president Dana White says in jest that he might have to match Rousey up with the men to finally give her some competition.
While the argument is probably pointless in the grand scheme of things considering the UFC would never actually pair Rousey up with a male opponent, the reigning queen of MMA won’t shut down the possibility that she could win if it ever happened.
“I never say that I’m incapable of beating anybody because I don’t believe on putting limits on myself,” Rousey said. “If we are just talking about what in the realm of possibilities is possible of who I could beat — well I could beat 100-percent of them.
“You can’t tell me there’s a zero-per cent chance that I can’t beat anyone on the planet so I’m never going to say that.”
The hypothetical debate can rage on forever, but the reality for Rousey right now remains a debate as the women’s bantamweight division attempts to find her a worthy contender.
Rousey will act in a new film that begins shooting in mid-May although she stated there is a meeting set up with the UFC on Thursday to discuss her next move.
Whether the matchup ends up being against Bethe Correia or possibly Jessica Eye, the only thing certain is Rousey won’t be finding out how she will do against anyone from the men’s bantamweight division.