Ronda Rousey And The Bantamweight Chaos
No MMA pundit doubts that any mention of Women’s Division is complete without including Ronda Rousey. The Rowdy has been quoted as the most dangerous unarmed woman in this universe. At the age of 17, she qualified to participate in Judo tournament at Athens Olympics 2004 and in 2008 she became the first American to win a medal in the sport since its introduction. She retired soon after her bronze medal victory, only to become an annihilator in the octagon.
Rousey later signed with Strikeforce and disarmed a heap of athletes to win the Bantamweight Championship defeating Miesha Tate. She was the last women to hold the title when UFC acquired Strikeforce and she became UFC’s very first female fighter signee and inaugural UFC Bantamweight Champion. For years the Bantamweight was just a tale of Rousey competing with opponents she had already disarmed and opponents to-be-disarmed. And, received the title “The Arm Collector”. She never let the fight be dragged to a second round in all her career.
The Queen was dethroned then. A hugely shocking news surfaced from Melbourne, where Holly Holm kicked Rousey—in the co-main event of UFC 193—into a knockout for her first career loss and to grab the Bantamweight Championship.
However, Holm did not succeed in keeping the title for long, losing to Rousey’s arch-nemesis Miesha Tate. While, Tate had her nose bashed by the Brazilian Amanda Nunes who beat the newly christened champion in her only title defense. Since Rousey disappeared into Hollywood, the title has been a free-for-all up-for-grabs.
“When Rousey had it, it was Good Morning America and magazine covers and Beyoncé. ‘When Holm had it, it was Good Morning America and movie scripts and the Albuquerque Journal. When Tate had the belt it was Good Morning America and magazine covers and morning radio. Don’t expect Nunes to get the call from Saturday Night Live, or even Good Morning America. And, definitely not after that belt has become polygamous.”
With every time the title changes hands, a significant aura fades. This phenomenon is not something new. The Lightweight Championship witnessed this before Jon Jones. The Heavyweight division has never been able to recover out of this comatose from the early Shamrock days to reign of Cain Velasquez.
Even as Rousey stays away in Los Angeles, she has never drifted away from the title picture. She, simply on the pretext of being Ronda Rousey, need not be in the queue to get her hands at ‘Her’ Championship. And everything that’s been going on since she left is nothing but a crumb trail back to that conversation. The field went from being hopelessly imbalanced to being equal to the point of agitation. In the past it were the complaints of shallow talent pool and now it is flooded with contenders.
Women’s bantamweight is delved deep into a pit of chaos era at the moment. The way it looks at a glance is anyone can beat anyone. Being champion is an achievement, but also a kind of a passing phase. All you have to do to know who the best female fighter is, is to scroll through the rankings on a weekly basis.
The Queen is rumored to make her return soon against the ‘Cyborg’ but can she restore an equilibrium in the division? That is a story for another day. A second straight loss can doom the former Olympian’s career, much like that of her former opponent Holly Holm, while a heroic comeback to re-establish the hierarchical division won’t do the Bantamweights any good.