There's a blueprint to beating Ronda Rousey ... that's what her next opponent believes, at least
Ronda Rousey is one of the most dominant fighters in the history of MMA. Prior to her only loss, which came a year ago to Holly Holm at UFC 193 in her last outing, Rousey won her previous five fights in less than three minutes.
Combined.
She needed 34 seconds to knock out Bethe Correia. It took 14 seconds to submit Cat Zingano. That came on the heels of a 16-second stoppage of Alexis Davis, which followed a one-minute, six-second knockout of Sara McMann.
That amounts to two minutes and 10 seconds of fight time in those five bouts, or less than half of one complete mixed martial arts round.
Judged by that standard, it’s easy to look at her one-sided loss to Holm as something of an aberration.
But that’s not how UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes sees it. Nunes, who against Rousey at UFC 207 on Dec. 30 will make the first defense of the belt she won in July when she mauled Miesha Tate, said the Rousey who lost to Holm is what she regards as “the real” Rousey.
“I’m the underdog because Ronda is famous and everyone likes to talk about her and all of that,” Nunes said. “I get it. I understand it. But I’m going to win. I know it. The Ronda who fought Holly is the real Ronda. All the other opponents she had, they were [intimidated] and they made the mistake she was waiting for. It made Ronda look great and it made her a [superstar].
“But the only person who did it with a different strategy was Holly Holm and look what happened.”
Everybody knows not to poke the bear, and here Nunes is, poking the fighter who for most of her career has been the biggest, baddest, most ferocious bear on the block.
Her take was so unexpected, so blunt, that it made sense to double check to make sure that was exactly what she meant.
And you know what? It was.
“Her other opponents would engage with her, but Holly worked on controlling the distance and she made Ronda work more than ever with her strategy,” Nunes said. “And then when she did that, we started to see the real Ronda Rousey. She didn’t know what to do when she lost the rhythm. She didn’t know how to adjust because she was never more than a couple of minutes in a fight. She didn’t know.
“She never faced that day where she had to [adjust]. Then, we saw the real Ronda Rousey. She doesn’t know how to re-organize her game plan, because she has only one.”
Well then.
Rousey’s grappling has clearly been the difference between her and her opponents prior to Holm. Not every fight was grappling based, however.
But when it was pointed out to Nunes that Rousey knocked out Correia mostly by throwing hands, Nunes chuckled.
“Bethe Correia? Really? Bethe Correia,” Nunes asked, literally laughing as she said it. “Come on.”
Fighting Rousey, though, is more than just dealing with her in the cage. Rousey is a terrific athlete if not a polished striker, but there is a mental aspect to fighting her that must be overcome in order to be successful.
UFC president Dana White flatly says that Rousey is the company’s biggest star, which is saying something since Conor McGregor’s fights essentially give him a license to print money.
Facing the sport’s most transcendent star brings much more media attention, much more promotion, and many more distractions than most fighters are used to or comfortable dealing with.
Nunes got a glimpse of what the harsh glare of the spotlight can be like in her UFC 200 fight with Tate that came on the most heavily promoted card of the year. She is one of her sport’s few openly gay fighters and spoke publicly both before and after the match about her relationship with Nina Ansaroff, a UFC strawweight fighter.
Nunes is quick to say “I’m not a media girl,” but she passed that test easily. She was engaging and honest and seemed to have no difficulty dealing with the questions about her personal life and relationship with Ansaroff.
That will be multiplied times 100 against Rousey, but she insists it’s not an issue.
“The media is more with Ronda Rousey and I’m cool with that,” she said. “I’m OK with that. I’m not a media girl. I want to be the champion and that’s it. That’s my job and that’s what is going to make my future. I want to be happy and do my job to provide for my family and my girlfriend.
“I know what I’m getting into with Ronda. She is so popular and was the most dominating and everyone wants to see her. That’s why I wanted to fight her, because it would make the fight huge. There will be a lot of talk and a lot of interviews, but this is a fight and fighting is something I know how to do very well.”
She’s going to get her chance on the biggest stage ever. She’s poked the bear, and now she has to prove she knows what to do when the bear gets angry.
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