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Could UFC champion Ronda Rousey be competitive against male fighters?

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Reflexes don't matter if you don't know shit about good positoning or footwork. Don't laugh - Floyd's footwork is unparalleled as a boxer but the footwork of MMA, wrestling and judo is COMPLETELY different. That's why MMA fighters have such awkward boxing stances when they "box". It's not that they don't know how to box, it's that they have to rethink their tactics around what a grappler might do. Floyd has never grappled in his life so unless he had at minimum, six months of training, he'd be dead in the water.

People who don't know anything about grappling seem to think that all it amounts to is one guy running straight into another guy's legs and using brute force to barrel him down. Well yeah, if you do that against a boxer, of course you're going to be knocked the fuck out. Nobody who knows how to wrestle or do judo ACTUALLY does that in a fight though.

I don't how bias you are with that Gracie Barra avatar, but Ronda would be the slowest and with the worst technique fighter that Floyd ever fought against, also the only one without head movement, you are really believing to much of the Bjj propaganda of one style vs others, good footwork is good foodwork, and with his control of the distance give Floyd a few months and he could do great especially against a grappler that requieres to get to the clinch like Ronda.
 

Meciu

Member
LOL NO! Sorry but in a fight against a male PRO fighter she would be simply destroyed. I mean she's probably good but look at the guys that fit her weight...
 
Knowing that your opponent can 1HKO at any given time if you're in punching distance makes it very dangerous and difficult to go for a takedown.

That's why Mayweather would beat Rousey.
 

Lazyslob

Banned
I don't how bias you are with that Gracie Barra avatar, but Ronda would be the slowest and with the worst technique fighter that Floyd ever fought against, also the only one without head movement, you are really believing to much of the Bjj propaganda of one style vs others, good footwork is good foodwork, and with his control of the distance give Floyd a few months and he could do great especially against a grappler that requieres to get to the clinch like Ronda.

like i said before. everyone thinks they can knock someone out trying to shoot on you. in a sport where it should be common in mma it almost never happens. according to you floyd will develop grappling skills in a week. i mean he will totally keep his boxing stance too without fear of a take down. but he has head movement and wrestles like a sumo (i saw that bad jack slack article)
 

cdyhybrid

Member
like i said before. everyone thinks they can knock someone out trying to shoot on you. in a sport where it should be common in mma it almost never happens. according to you floyd will develop grappling skills in a week. i mean he will totally keep his boxing stance too without fear of a take down. but he has head movement and wrestles like a sumo (i saw that bad jack slack article)

The problem with that argument is that MMA fighters are not on the striking level of Floyd. Not even close. If they were they'd probably be boxers instead, because there's a lot more money to be made.
 

Lazyslob

Banned
The problem with that argument is that MMA fighters are not on the striking level of Floyd. Not even close. If they were they'd probably be boxers instead, because there's a lot more money to be made.

eh not really. there are a lot of talented boxers and a lot of them get pushed aside because of a couple of losses. in boxing there are only a handful of names. sure if you are really into boxing you can name more but if you cant recognize the corruption of that shit i dont know what to tell you. only a small few are making any real money

edit: you cant even say some boxers in mma arent even close. lil nog is a national champion boxer and a bunch of others are golden glove boxers. to say that none are even close is disingenuous
 
like i said before. everyone thinks they can knock someone out trying to shoot on you. in a sport where it should be common in mma it almost never happens. according to you floyd will develop grappling skills in a week. i mean he will totally keep his boxing stance too without fear of a take down. but he has head movement and wrestles like a sumo (i saw that bad jack slack article)

I was referring to the dumb Ronda vs Floyd, against the male champions Floyd, at this stage of his career, doesn't stand a chance, but against Ronda not only she is really slow, is a grappler with takedowns from the clinch, whose only way of blocking punches is with her face, then his chances are great.

Edit: I prefer mma as a whole but if you seriously believe that the striking in mma, with all the differences apply because of takedowns, is even close to boxing or even to kickboxing (when there was still top talent) then you are delusional.
 

cdyhybrid

Member
eh not really. there are a lot of talented boxers and a lot of them get pushed aside because of a couple of losses. in boxing there are only a handful of names. sure if you are really into boxing you can name more but if you cant recognize the corruption of that shit i dont know what to tell you. only a small few are making any real money

edit: you cant even say some boxers in mma arent even close. lil nog is a national champion boxer and a bunch of others are golden glove boxers. to say that none are even close is disingenuous

Didn't say they weren't good, but Floyd routinely outboxes the best boxers in the world.
 

Lazyslob

Banned
I was referring to the dumb Ronda vs Floyd, against the male champions Floyd, at this stage of his career, doesn't stand a chance, but against Ronda not only she is really slow, is a grappler with takedowns from the clinch, whose only way of blocking punches is with her face, then his chances are great.


floyd wont stop shit from the clinch because he doesnt know how.
 
I think she could hold her own for a few rounds against a fellow MMA male fighter in the same weight class. Could she win though? I'm not sure...

The Floyd comparison is just silly though. Might as well have asked who would win an MMA fight between Rousey and Usain Bolt.
 
Maybe. Not sure i want to see her get a beating. Not sure any man would like to give her one ore receive one from her. I'm all for equality in rights and opportunities (though we are different physically) so if she and some guy want to give it a try then i'm all for it. Would spectacular if she wins.

I don't think a pro boxer stands a chance against a pro freefighter in a freefight, by the way.
 

Lord Panda

The Sea is Always Right
Against males? Probably, maybe.

Against male fighters? Hell no.

She would wreck the average joe.

Against male fighters? We'll never know (I'd laugh so hard at Mayweather being submitted by Rousey though - I'd die happy).
 

Timedog

good credit (by proxy)
I dont think she could beat a ufc caliber fighter, but I also, like everyone else in the thread, dont really know what im talking about.

I also think floyd would either land or get destroyed and the fight wouldnt last 1 minute either way, and could go either way. I know nothing.
 
I dont think she could beat a ufc caliber fighter, but I also, like everyone else in the thread, dont really know what im talking about.

I also think floyd would either land or get destroyed and the fight wouldnt last 1 minute either way, and could go either way. I know nothing.

I'm glad you at least admit it

I know nothing either
 
I don't how bias you are with that Gracie Barra avatar, but Ronda would be the slowest and with the worst technique fighter that Floyd ever fought against, also the only one without head movement, you are really believing to much of the Bjj propaganda of one style vs others, good footwork is good foodwork, and with his control of the distance give Floyd a few months and he could do great especially against a grappler that requieres to get to the clinch like Ronda.

1. Not biased at all. I train out of Gracie Barra but I'm not one of those fools who believes that BJJ prevails over all. An elite grappler with rudimentary striking will beat an elite striker with rudimentary grappling 9/10 times though. There are so many inherent strategic and technical advantages to being able to grapple.

2. Slowest? Probably. Worst boxer? Absolutely. Technical ability? Absolutely not. Floyd has trained to fight boxers. Punching is one (important) aspect of fighting but it doesn't paint the whole picture. Being a good boxer doesn't make you a complete fighter.

3. Good footwork is not goodfootwork across the board. I've already made this point. Judo footwork is based on the idea of setting yourself up at specific angles to where you can get your hips underneath your opponent. The methods in which judokas do this are vastly different from boxers. What is good footwork in judo doesn't necessarily translate to good footwork in boxing - and vice versa. What constitutes good footwork and positioning are determined by the rulesets of their respective sports. To illustrate this, I'm going to use two striking arts.

4. Ronda doesn't require a clinch to take someone down. Judo up until 2012 had singles, doubles, ankle picks as a part of their curriculum. Those things are also important in MMA as well. There isn't a single UFC fighter that does not know how to do a single or double leg takedown. Ronda doesn't show it off in fights because she's much better at the clinch and that's where her opponents are the weakest.

Lets use an example from two sports that are more closely related than MMA and boxing: Muay Thai and American kickboxing. Here is the breakdown. The TL;DW version:

  • Muay Thai fighter vs American kickboxer who came up under WKA rules.
  • Muay Thai doesn't score punches as much as kicks so the boxing isn't as developed. WKA Kickboxing doesn't allow for kicks below the waist.
  • Thai fighter comes out in a straight stance and plods straight ahead - this is a terrible strategy vs a guy who can box. Terrible footwork and terrible positioning right? He is punished as the WKA guy just out boxes him.
  • In the later rounds, the Thai guy figures out that while the WKA guy's footwork is good at setting up punches, it leaves him open to brutal leg kicks. One of the reasons why Thais square up straight vs their opponents is to check legkicks. WKA guys don't do this because they don't have leg kicks in their system. Now all of a sudden, the American guy has shitty footwork and positioning.
  • Fight ends with the American guy getting TKO'd on legkicks and has to be carried off on a stretcher.

So the point of this is to illustrate something. The Muay Thai guy had just enough training in regular kickboxing to recognize the openings whereas the American guy had no prior experience in dealing with lower body kicks to shore up his defenses. This is my point with Ronda Rousey vs Floyd Mayweather. All you the people here who are making claims about how Floyd is going to defend Ronda's attacks don't realize he understand that if never trained vs anyone who actually grapples in his life, you can't just pick it up in the middle of a fight. Ronda has trained enough boxing to recognize that she is going to be outboxed and will switch to a different tactic.
 
r7umf6_jpg.gif

Look at the .gif carefully. Couture is not just barrelling into Toney there. He shoots in for a low single and switches to an ankle pick midway.

I knew there would be a lot of skeptics to my post but it comes with the territory. People who don't train wrestling have no clue what's going on most of the time.
 
I don't know why this is even a discussion. There are weight classes for a reason, and man vs woman is, and correctly so, a completely different category altogether. A 135lb man and a 135lb woman are not equals. Floyd would be stronger, quicker, able to take on more of a beating than any opponent that Ronda has ever faced. Have Ronda fight women in an upper weight class first and see how that goes before any discussion of fighting males. Or listen to the words coming out of her own mouth when the idea she should fight a trans fighter comes up.
 
Comparing Rousey to male MMA fighters does a disservice to her accomplishments as an MMA fighter.

Claiming that female and male MMA fighters are not inherently unequal is even more ridiculous.
 

v1oz

Member
Ronda Rousey is fighting a bunch of cans in all honesty. She's like Tito Ortiz was when he spent years easily defeating cans in the UFC. However out of the available talent pool I think girls like Cyborg and Gaby Garcia would give Ronda serious problems. But they're all in different weight classes. Honestly there are very few competitive female MMA fighters. The most athletic females are all playing other sports that get them Olympic medals.
 

masud

Banned
Ronda would get beat down by almost all pro male ufc fighters. Against Mayweather I'm not so sure. Idk if his strength and speed would be enough to get a couple shots in on her before she takes him down. If he connects with her at all it's over but if she gets him to the ground it would be over for him.
 
Lol no chance.

She's good but honestly, if she was to be struck properly from a guy, who goes in there not giving a shit that she's a female, it would be game over.
 

ItAintEasyBeinCheesy

it's 4th of July in my asshole
I think people saying she would beat Floyd need to go have a look on youtube for boxers vs a group of average joes. She isn't an average joe but disregarding someone with hands like Floyd is deluded as fuck.
 
If WSHH has taught me anything it's that gender means jack shit when it comes to a person's ability to take a punch.

Genetics, bone structure, muscle structure etc are all different between males and females.

It matters.

She may take a few punches, but those punches would have a greater effect on her than if the male was to take them. That's just how it is.
 

SmokeMaxX

Member

Video was posted before and one of the Youtube comments sums up the video pretty well:
Ronda competes at bantam weight and Mousasi competes at light heavyweight. So there's a 70 pound weight disparity: Ronda's weight class maxes out at 135 lbs and Mousasi's weight class maxes out at 205.

Funnily enough, this is actually a better argument FOR Rousey since people on here are convinced that she only trains against 70 lb girls. She trains against professional MMA fighters that are much bigger than Mayweather. I think she'd know exactly what she's up against if she fought him.
 

ItAintEasyBeinCheesy

it's 4th of July in my asshole
Video was posted before and one of the Youtube comments sums up the video pretty well:

Not really. They both cut a lot of weight to make those weight divisions but Mousasi probably drops a heap more than she does. Probably closer to 80-90 pounds.

And professional MMA fighters trail against professional boxers. If they where good enough to be professional boxers, they would be.
 
Holy crap, that was awesome. Thanks for sharing and the post.

No problem.

That's a very famous fight as well. The corner man of the American guy in that fight was his brother - Duke Roofus. Duke in the post fight interview decried leg kicks as a dirty tactic. He later travelled to Thailand, learned Muay Thai and changed his mind completely. Today, he manages a very famous MMA gym that currently houses the current lightweight champ, Anthony Pettis.

Roofus, realized what most posters here don't. No martial art is so comprehensive that it can cover for all your deficiencies in another sport.
 

v1oz

Member
1. Not biased at all. I train out of Gracie Barra but I'm not one of those fools who believes that BJJ prevails over all. An elite grappler with rudimentary striking will beat an elite striker with rudimentary grappling 9/10 times though. There are so many inherent strategic and technical advantages to being able to grapple.

That's not true at all. If we look at modern day MMA - the fights are heavily biased towards stand up and striking. Most top ranked fighters are winning fights mainly because of their striking ability; guys like Anderson Silva, Jon Jones and Cain Velasquez. Jon Jones' may have a background in wrestling, but he is mainly winning fights because of striking - he has far more knock outs than submissions.

And also throughout the history of MMA they have been many successful fighters with rudimentary grappling. Mark Hunt for example is a very good HW fighter with low level grappling ability. And there were guys like Melvin Manoef, Mirko CroCop, Gary Goodridge and Igor Vovchanchyn who at their peaks were winning fights against top level competition with very basic grappling ability.


2. Slowest? Probably. Worst boxer? Absolutely. Technical ability? Absolutely not. Floyd has trained to fight boxers. Punching is one (important) aspect of fighting but it doesn't paint the whole picture. Being a good boxer doesn't make you a complete fighter.
Floyd is quick. He is also a lot stronger than Ronda. If the worst comes to the worst he can use brute force to make up for any lack of technique. And IMHO he only needs 3-6 months working on the basics; things like take down defence and escapes to learn enough to beat Ronda.

Guys like Cung Le and Bas Rutten made successful transitions to MMA. So I don't see why you think a male striker with the right training and coaching could fail to make quick work of Ronda?

3. Good footwork is not goodfootwork across the board. I've already made this point. Judo footwork is based on the idea of setting yourself up at specific angles to where you can get your hips underneath your opponent. The methods in which judokas do this are vastly different from boxers. What is good footwork in judo doesn't necessarily translate to good footwork in boxing - and vice versa. What constitutes good footwork and positioning are determined by the rulesets of their respective sports. To illustrate this, I'm going to use two striking arts.

Judo footwork will get you knocked out in MMA. Ronda has never fought anyone stronger than her or anyone with knock out power. None of the girls in MMA has instant knockout power, that's why Ronda doesn't mind taking shots going for the clinch. But you wouldn't be able to do that fighting against a stronger male.


4. Ronda doesn't require a clinch to take someone down. Judo up until 2012 had singles, doubles, ankle picks as a part of their curriculum. Those things are also important in MMA as well. There isn't a single UFC fighter that does not know how to do a single or double leg takedown. Ronda doesn't show it off in fights because she's much better at the clinch and that's where her opponents are the weakest.

Actually singles and double legs were taken out of top level Judo competition much earlier than that. Some Judo clubs still teach them for self defence but not for competition.

So the point of this is to illustrate something. The Muay Thai guy had just enough training in regular kickboxing to recognize the openings whereas the American guy had no prior experience in dealing with lower body kicks to shore up his defenses. This is my point with Ronda Rousey vs Floyd Mayweather. All you the people here who are making claims about how Floyd is going to defend Ronda's attacks don't realize he understand that if never trained vs anyone who actually grapples in his life, you can't just pick it up in the middle of a fight. Ronda has trained enough boxing to recognize that she is going to be outboxed and will switch to a different tactic.

If Floyd fought Ronda in the UFC it wouldn't be under short notice. Floyd has enough money to bring in the very best wrestling, jits and striking coaches to get him ready for the fight. There is absolutely no possibility of Ronda ever winning.
 

scabro

Member
Look at the .gif carefully. Couture is not just barrelling into Toney there. He shoots in for a low single and switches to an ankle pick midway.

I knew there would be a lot of skeptics to my post but it comes with the territory. People who don't train wrestling have no clue what's going on most of the time.
couture went straight for ankle pick iirc

i cant find the gif but they had angle from the side and couture looked goofy as fuck. he almost stumbled into it, which is why it reminded me of it
 

Doikor

Member
And professional MMA fighters trail against professional boxers. If they where good enough to be professional boxers, they would be.

Or maybe just maybe some of them like doing MMA? At least that seems to be the genral opinion when talking to any of the MMA guys at my gym. And some of them probably would do a lot better in kickboxing competitions then MMA due to their rather poor ground game but still chose to do MMA.

Also the skill sets needed for boxing and MMA are actually very different as has been pointed out. In general wrestlers seem to do way better in MMA then boxers.
 
That's not true at all. If we look at modern day MMA - the fights are heavily biased towards stand up and striking. Most top ranked fighters are winning fights mainly because of their striking ability; guys like Anderson Silva, Jon Jones and Cain Velasquez. Jon Jones' may have a background in wrestling.

Guys like Cung Le and Bas Rutten made successful transitions to MMA. So I don't see why you think a male striker with the right training and coaching could fail to make quick work of Ronda.

All the guys you mentioned have backgrounds in grappling. Bas learned as his career progressed and became a good grappler, Cung Le wrestled in college. Cro-cop is a much better grappler than people realize - He just prefers to kick people in the head. You don't learn how to sprawl on Coleman and Randleman without learning how to wrestle. MMA is a sport where specialists are exposed very quickly, a guy who can defend against a shot can dictate where the fight is fought. Cain Velasquez is the best wrestler in his division, that doesn't mean he uses it explicitly in all his fights. It means he can take you down if you're beating him standing but it also gives him the confidence to stand and bang if he thinks your jiu-jitsu dangerous enough to avoid.

Nobody here is saying Floyd couldn't be a great MMA fighter if he wanted to be. People are actually being way more ridiculous - they are saying based on boxing and athleticism alone, he can make up for his strategic and tactical deficiencies in an MMA fight.
 

Azih

Member
Floyd would have the best puncher's chance in the world against Ronda. Would probably also dance away from her to try to tire her out and watch for the one opening he needs.
 

Takuan

Member
Won't know unless we see it, and we won't see it because I don't believe the commissions would sanction it. It truly is all talk.

Personally, while I think she has a chance, it's not as high as 50%. Men in her weight class are far more explosive and cover distance in a way that no female fighter is capable of replicating. She could and probably would beat Floyd if she managed to get ahold of him - but that's a big if, because she IS going to get bopped coming in.

She'd have far more success in a grappling match, though.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
I was wondering if people think that Ronda rousey could beat the top male male fighter in her weight division if the differences in musculature were taken out? From what I have seen her technique is pretty impressive - does it match or exceed the male fighters, or does it look so good because the opponents are of lower ability?
 

NervousXtian

Thought Emoji Movie was good. Take that as you will.
I'm a pretty big Mayweather fan.. but he get's destroyed against Rousey and any top MMA guy.

Boxers with no MMA skill do very poorly in MMA... same with the other way around.. if you were use boxing rules it's a destruction the other way.

Floyd has no takedown defense, no submission defense... he'd be looking to land a punch.. which if that's all someone needs to plan again... well it's not gonna happen.

Besides, when it comes to guys with 1 punch KO power.. Floyd isn't on that list.
 

Takuan

Member
I was wondering if people think that Ronda rousey could beat the top male male fighter in her weight division if the differences in musculature were taken out? From what I have seen her technique is pretty impressive - does it match or exceed the male fighters, or does it look so good because the opponents are of lower ability?

Why even consider an imaginary scenario where women and men didn't have different musculatures?

Re: your second question, it looks that much better because she's fighting women, absolutely.

NervousXtian said:
Besides, when it comes to guys with 1 punch KO power.. Floyd isn't on that list.
He's not punching women in the ring.
 

SmokeMaxX

Member
I was wondering if people think that Ronda rousey could beat the top male male fighter in her weight division if the differences in musculature were taken out? From what I have seen her technique is pretty impressive - does it match or exceed the male fighters, or does it look so good because the opponents are of lower ability?
I think you're asking whether Ronda could beat the top males in her division if she were a male herself. Not sure- her fighting talent hasn't really been tested like it has the top males in the male division. That being said, it's not hyperbole to say that she's a world class judoka and that means she's world class at takedowns, submissions, and ground game. She has the skills to be a real threat.
 

scabro

Member
well lets just go by the math and the numbers.

I mean, you know, some people like to believe all humans are created equal, but you look at Ronda and you look at Floyd, and you can see that statement is not true. See, normally if you go one-on-one with another fighter in the UFC, you got a 50-50 chance of winning. But Ronda Rousey has shown to be a genetic freak, and shes not normal, so you got a 25% at best at beating her. And then you add Floyd's grappling inexperience to the mix? His chances of winning drastic go down.

See in an mma fight, in the UFC, Floyd has got a 33 1/3 chance of winning. But Ronda, she got a 66 2/3 chance of winning, cause Floyd KNOWS he can’t grapple her, and he’s not even gonna try. So take Floyd's 33 1/3 chance, minus his disadvantage of knees and kicks and he's got an 8 1/3 chance of winning in the UFC. But then you take Ronda's 75 perchance chance at winning if it was 1 on 1 with a normal fighter, and add 66 2/3 percents, She's got a 141 2/3 chance of winning in a UFC fight.

See, the numbers don't lie, and they spell disaster for Floyd.
 

number47

Member
well lets just go by the math and the numbers.

I mean, you know, some people like to believe all humans are created equal, but you look at Ronda and you look at Floyd, and you can see that statement is not true. See, normally if you go one-on-one with another fighter in the UFC, you got a 50-50 chance of winning. But Ronda Rousey has shown to be a genetic freak, and shes not normal, so you got a 25% at best at beating her. And then you add Floyd's grappling inexperience to the mix? His chances of winning drastic go down.

See in an mma fight, in the UFC, Floyd has got a 33 1/3 chance of winning. But Ronda, she got a 66 2/3 chance of winning, cause Floyd KNOWS he can’t grapple her, and he’s not even gonna try. So take Floyd's 33 1/3 chance, minus his disadvantage of knees and kicks and he's got an 8 1/3 chance of winning in the UFC. But then you take Ronda's 75 perchance chance at winning if it was 1 on 1 with a normal fighter, and add 66 2/3 percents, She's got a 141 2/3 chance of winning in a UFC fight.

See, the numbers don't lie, and they spell disaster for Floyd.
/dead
 

bengraven

Member
A lot of smaller boxers and MMA fighters have proven that a lighter, faster person can kick the shit out of a bigger one.

So I don't see why not.
 
I think she could hold her own for a few rounds against a fellow MMA male fighter in the same weight class. Could she win though? I'm not sure...

The Floyd comparison is just silly though. Might as well have asked who would win an MMA fight between Rousey and Usain Bolt.
If she can get a takedown she wins IMO against almost all bantamweight bros. She would probably be a bloody mess if she has to stand up with any of them.
 
so again, Ronda takes down Mayweather and through the magic of grappling Floyd Mayweather forgets how to punch and doesn't just wail on Ronda's ribs, backs, stomach, legs, or face and she automatically wins right?
 
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