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Could UFC champion Ronda Rousey be competitive against male fighters?

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Jado

Banned
To answer the question posed by the thread title: NO.

All the comparison here to other sports doesn't work honestly.

Fighting is a lot different and you can't really compare the two. For instance you can take a 120 lb women and if she applies an arm bar or a kimora correctly to you, you're arm is fucked. Its not really a physical thing its technique.

BJJ was invented for the sole purpose of allowing a smaller man to defeat a larger one.

A larger, faster, stronger, more technically gifted opponent will drastically reduce the chances of that submission ever happening. Ronda fights relatively weak, small and inexperienced fighters compared to the caliber of men throughout all the men's weight divisions. Ronda has muscled her share of submissions. Assuming she got into a position to work an armbar, her stronger and more agile male opponent would just out muscle her or work his way out of it.
 

Panzon

Member
Lol at people who think she can beat men. She's currently my favorite athlete to wqtch at the moment but c'mon... At this level she's not beating no top 40, let alone top 20

I believe she can take Mayweather down and submit him pretty quickly though
 

Lazyslob

Banned
Mr. and Ms. Olympia winners in the same year

778faba3e3dc8c6c6db24b403da494ae_XL.jpg


Holy Bananas please stop embarrassing yourself, it's not even close.


both are juiced to the gills
 
Floyd is actually great in the clinch, much better at closing or preventing closing the the distance on him that Ronda, who only can take people down from the clinch.

http://fightland.vice.com/blog/wrestling-practice-with-james-toney-and-floyd-mayweather

Comparing clinch work or boxing "wrestling" to MMA is rediculous.

You realize every single top MMA fighter wrestles for hours upon hours a week, and are all coached by D1 wrestlers? Floyd has probably never grappled with a D1 wrestler ever, MMA fighters do it daily

I mean anyone here thinking Floyd wouldn't get taken down by an MMA fighter are kidding themselves.
 

Dr.Acula

Banned
I don't think Rousey would be competitive in the MMA. She got a bronze in Judo at the Olympics, but I have to wonder if she'd be competitive against men in the Olympics? Remove the structure of Judo and put her in the octagon with men and it gets harder for her.

Mayweather? She would clown him. She's world-class Judo with top-flight MMA training. She'd dive at his feet and it would be over so fast.
 

SmokeMaxX

Member
To answer the question posed by the thread title: NO.

A larger, faster, stronger, more technically gifted opponent will drastically reduce the chances of that submission ever happening. Ronda fights relatively weak, small and inexperienced fighters compared to the caliber of men throughout all the men's weight divisions. Ronda has muscled her share of submissions. Assuming she got into a position to work an armbar, her stronger and more agile male opponent would just out muscle her or work his way out of it.
Lol. Women judo champions train with strong men too who are trained how to get out of armbars. And guess what? She can armbar them.

Armbars are pretty hard to muscle your way out of. If done correctly almost impossible unless the strength differential is enormous.
 
Comparing clinch work or boxing "wrestling" to MMA is rediculous.

You realize every single top MMA fighter wrestles for hours upon hours a week, and are all coached by D1 wrestlers? Floyd has probably never grappled with a D1 wrestler ever, MMA fighters do it daily

I mean anyone here thinking Floyd wouldn't get taken down by an MMA fighter are kidding themselves.

If we are talking about the top men then I agree, but you are talking about Ronda.
 
A

A More Normal Bird

Unconfirmed Member
Ok, thanks for the clarification.

My initial argument was that if she wanted to fight, and someone wanted to fight her back, i didn't see why they wouldn't let her (despite the potential disparity).

And that's what i still don't have very clear.
Is it just health concern, or there's other reasons? Beyond the likelihood of her winning the match, i mean.
The athletic commissions have a duty of care and can disallow bouts based on weight, drug test results or perceived lack of competitiveness (obviously the specific rules vary from place to place).

Even if you ignore the regulator's concern for her safety, the UFC themselves would
likely
never promote such a bout; they have enough of an image problem as is and the most likely outcome would tarnish/de-legitimise one of their biggest stars and entire divisions.
 

Dr.Acula

Banned
Lol. Women judo champions train with strong men too who are trained how to get out of armbars. And guess what? She can armbar them.

Armbars are pretty hard to muscle your way out of. If done correctly almost impossible unless the strength differential is enormous.

I think it's more experience. Royce Gracie has the record for consecutive submission wins with 11. That doesn't happen anymore because the sport has evolved and people have better skills. Look at that last fight. Cat was undefeated but looked like an amateur. She gave up her arm. How often do arm bars happen with the mens nowadays? Rousey is a known arm-bar specialist who consistently gets the arm bar during the first round of every match. A decent opponent should be able to defend themselves against that. She's facing the first gen of women fighters and she's a 2nd gen fighter and Olympian. She's Royce Gracie 2.0. Great fighter, no one to fight.
 
I think it's more experience. Royce Gracie has the record for consecutive submission wins with 11. That doesn't happen anymore because the sport has evolved and people have better skills. Look at that last fight. Cat was undefeated but looked like an amateur. She gave up her arm. How often do arm bars happen with the mens nowadays? Rousey is a known arm-bar specialist who consistently gets the arm bar during the first round of every match. A decent opponent should be able to defend themselves against that. She's facing the first gen of women fighters and she's a 2nd gen fighter and Olympian. She's Royce Gracie 2.0. Great fighter, no one to fight.

This isn't as good of an excuse as you'd think though. When Gracie was dominating, there was noone around to give an answer. People legitimately had no idea what to do. These women MMA fighters today can't hide behind that, because it's a different situation. All they have to do is to look across to the men's game for the answers. Plenty of women MMA fighters train with male MMA fighters. Hell, a lot of women MMA fighters have boyfriends who are MMA fighters. So it's not like they can't find out options, tactics, etc.

They're surrounded by knowledge and defensive tricks, and they're still getting dominated by Ronda.
 

Sean

Banned
Ok, thanks for the clarification.

My initial argument was that if she wanted to fight, and someone wanted to fight her back, i didn't see why they wouldn't let her (despite the potential disparity).

And that's what i still don't have very clear.
Is it just health concern, or there's other reasons? Beyond the likelihood of her winning the match, i mean.

If a female (especially one as well known as Ronda) were to get KO'd by a dude, it would literally kill the entire sport of MMA.

John McCain was almost successful in banning UFC in all 50 states back in 1996. It took a long time and many rules/regulations for it to be viewed as a legitimate sport. A male vs female freak show fight like this going awry would erase all that. It'd be a total political shit storm.
 

mr2xxx

Banned
The athletic commissions have a duty of care and can disallow bouts based on weight, drug test results or perceived lack of competitiveness (obviously the specific rules vary from place to place).

Even if you ignore the regulator's concern for her safety, the UFC themselves would
likely
never promote such a bout; they have enough of an image problem as is and the most likely outcome would tarnish/de-legitimise one of their biggest stars and entire divisions.

It would tarnish Floyd more than anything.
 

smurfx

get some go again
lol Floyd would counterpunch and drop Ronda like a sack of potatos the minute she went in for her first strike or grapple.
he'd also easily take her down with a body shot. top boxers are infinitely ahead of mma fighters in striking. nobody she has ever faced will ever come close to having floyds technique. he's also the worst kind of fighter she could fight because he would stay outside taking potshots at her and never give her a chance to trip him up and go for a hold. her best bet would be to fight some boxer who would rush her down and leave himself open to be thrown.
 

AxelFoley

Member
Cant believe how delusional people have become. So because Ronda can beat a woman quickly now she can handle a man? OOOOOOOOkay And of course people are going to say she can beat Merryweather. People hate the man and will take any cheap shots. He would brutalize her.


Thank you. That's all there is to this. Lots of people hate Floyd so much they fantasize about him getting beat by anyone. And I like Ronda, but Floyd would fuck her shit up.
 
Since fighters are already segregated into weight classes, I've always wondered if there were some divisions that could overlap pretty fairly.

Like for instance men's featherweight vs. women's heavy weight.

I don't think men vs women in mma will ever really be a thing though. No one wants to watch a man beat up a woman.
 
This isn't as good of an excuse as you'd think though. When Gracie was dominating, there was noone around to give an answer. People legitimately had no idea what to do. These women MMA fighters today can't hide behind that, because it's a different situation. All they have to do is to look across to the men's game for the answers. Plenty of women MMA fighters train with male MMA fighters. Hell, a lot of women MMA fighters have boyfriends who are MMA fighters. So it's not like they can't find out options, tactics, etc.

They're surrounded by knowledge and defensive tricks, and they're still getting dominated by Ronda.

Ronda is a better athlete than the women in the division shes fighting in and the women's bantamweight division is lacking in both talent and athleticism. The Women's strawweight division is a much deeper division with better and more talented fighters. Ronda's dominating a weak division with no up and coming fighters on the horizon in her weight class who have a chance to beat her.
 
he'd also easily take her down with a body shot. top boxers are infinitely ahead of mma fighters in striking. nobody she has ever faced will ever come close to having floyds technique. he's also the worst kind of fighter she could fight because he would stay outside taking potshots at her and never give her a chance to trip him up and go for a hold. her best bet would be to fight some boxer who would rush her down and leave himself open to be thrown.

In the early days of mma, it was common for fighters to specialize in one style of fighting with a very basic understanding of other styles.

Fighters like mayweather who strength lied in striking were always helpless vs wrestlers, and often created very boring match ups.

Obviously if he can keep the fight standing up, she'd have no chance of winning. But most of his power would be neutralized if knocked off his feet, and boxers don't know how to defend themselves properly against take downs.

Royce Gracie won the first UFC beating men who were literally twice his size.
 

Phlebas

Banned
he'd also easily take her down with a body shot. top boxers are infinitely ahead of mma fighters in striking. nobody she has ever faced will ever come close to having floyds technique. he's also the worst kind of fighter she could fight because he would stay outside taking potshots at her and never give her a chance to trip him up and go for a hold. her best bet would be to fight some boxer who would rush her down and leave himself open to be thrown.

There we go.

People assuming he won't be able to protect himself, he'd finish her in a round.
 
They should setup a match with a guy. Record it just like a live event. And if she holds her own, then promote it and release it. If not, bury it and no one ever knows. I would love to see it play out especially if she won. There would be so many tears and excuses on GAF. :D
 
They should setup a match with a guy. Record it just like a live event. And if she holds her own, then promote it and release it. If not, bury it and no one ever knows. I would love to see it play out especially if she won. There would be so many tears and excuses on GAF. :D

This is a great idea until it leaks that Dana White secretly had Ronda Rousey beat up by a man.
 
They should setup a match with a guy. Record it just like a live event. And if she holds her own, then promote it and release it. If not, bury it and no one ever knows. I would love to see it play out especially if she won. There would be so many tears and excuses on GAF. :D

Her winning against a top guy even in the weight below is not happening, zero chance and nobody would pay for a previously recorded match, besides i'm sure it's illegal.
 
The answer to the thread title is a resounding NO.

The answer to could she beat Floyd is a resounding YES.

So here's my experience: I'm a BJJ brown belt, judo blue belt and have four years of wrestling experience. Not a very accomplished striker - just a year of boxing and a year of Muay Thai. Not trying to argue from authority or anything but just trying to illustrate that I'm not some fat dude who watches MMA and pretends to know techniques.

The stances that boxers and Muay Thai fighters consider to be positionally and fundamentally sound are HIGHLY susceptible to takedowns. The reason why a lot of boxing fans criticize MMA striking and footwork is because MMA fighters MUST take into account the threat of a takedown and leg kicks at all times. Muay Thai fighters come out standing upright which opens them up to takedowns as well. Throw a jab off an orthodox stance in boxing or Muay Thai and the minute a wrestler or judoka ducks under it, you're doomed. There is no escaping it. The boxing stance is in no way conducive to defending a takedown.

Counters:

B..but athleticsm! - People who say this have no clue how effective grappling can be at negating athleticism. Effective grappling is about isolating on part of the human body and attacking it with multiple parts of your body. A basic single leg for instance isolates the leg of the opponent and has you attaching two arms and your chest to the leg and has you use your entire upper body against half of the other fighter's hips to take him down. That is something that you simply cannot power out of - you need to know how to sprawl or reverse. Takedown setups cannot simply be avoided or defended with pure athleticism. Athleticism does not make up for inferior positioning and tactics. Floyd likes to come out in the Philly Shell. This leaves his lead leg wide open for leg kicks, low singles, single legs, ankle picks, scissor takedowns - all of which Ronda knows how to do based on her judo and MMA experience (except for maybe scissor takedowns).

Floyd would knock her out before she could grab a leg/enter into a clinch - This is his only chance. The problem is that it's really difficult to time an uppercut or a knee against an shot and there are a multitude of ways that a good grappler can avoid a knee or punch by coming in at an angle or shooting low (low single/double). If she gets close enough to enter into a clinch, his punching power is completely negated by distance and she does things from the clinch that Floyd has literally never seen.

He could push her off of him - No. Grapplers of all backgrounds are very adept at positioning themselves in such a way that they feel like a ton of bricks on you.

Even after typing all that up, I know that there are people out there who refuse to believe me but hopefully this convinces people on the fence. As for why she can't beat an MMA fighter in the same weight class. All those things I just talked about are negated if a man has the same level of knowledge that she does in the various aspects of MMA. All things being equal, if both people have the same level of knowledge in a sport, the winner is going to be the person who's bigger, faster and stronger.
 
I think Rousey would have problems with Mayweather because he would not fight the same as he does in a boxing match. Due to his strength, speed, and reach advantages, combined with knowing how she wanted to fight, it would be near impossible for her to turn it into a grappling contest without taking hits. And that would effectively end any chance of her winning.

However, she would be able to win if she immediately hits the deck when the fight starts, crawling towards him, staying very low. He would try punching, but it would sail over her head. He would try dodging, and it would work for a while, but eventually he would tire. Slowly, inevitably she would crawl up, grab his leg, take him down.
 

BadAss2961

Member
The answer to the thread title is a resounding NO.

The answer to could she beat Floyd is a resounding YES.
Even this is pushing it way too far. Rousey is still a woman, not a grappling machine that would simply walk or dive through an onslaught of hell and take down the best and most slick boxer in the world with ease. A guy whose reflexes alone are beyond anything you could even begin to understand. On her way to get within reach of Floyd, Ronda would be the slowest shit he's ever seen in his life. Ronda would get hit multiple times before getting close enough to grab anything, and she would fold immediately. The difference in strength and speed is insurmountable.
 

striferser

Huge Nickleback Fan
She could win, depending on her opponent.
Against Floyd Mayweather, its probably going to end in an instant. Either Ronda manage to pin him to submission, or Floyd knock her with one-two punch. I don't know.
 
Even this is pushing it way too far. Rousey is still a woman, not a grappling machine that would simply walk or dive through an onslaught of hell and take down the best and most slick boxer in the world with ease. A guy whose reflexes alone are beyond anything you could even begin to understand. On her way to get within reach of Floyd, Ronda would be the slowest shit he's ever seen in his life. Ronda would get hit multiple times before getting close enough to grab anything, and she would fold immediately. The difference in strength and speed is insurmountable.

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.
 

Lazyslob

Banned
She could win, depending on her opponent.
Against Floyd Mayweather, its probably going to end in an instant. Either Ronda manage to pin him to submission, or Floyd knock her with one-two punch. I don't know.

but floyd is a defensive fighter. hes just going to go against everything he does and go for broke and try and knock her out? especially if all she does is grapple with him hes not going to know wtf is going on
 

Alienous

Member
Could male fighters be competitive against Rousey?

Some of those pummelings ... if you gave them to a woman on live television, even with the strides towards equality I can't shake the feeling that you'd be pushed into retirement.
 

Frog-fu

Banned
but floyd is a defensive fighter. hes just going to go against everything he does and go for broke and try and knock her out? especially if all she does is grapple with him hes not going to know wtf is going on

What I think the other poster was getting at is that Rousey would likely understand standup would be too risky, try to approach, go in for a low grapple and get hit with a counter for her troubles on the way down.
 

BadAss2961

Member
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
But this is exactly what Rousey would be forced to do against Floyd or any other male pro fighter, which is be as one dimensional as ever since a takedown is her only shot at achieving anything. Floyd wouldn't have to worry about anything other than her grabbing a hold of him.

If you don't think Floyd Mayweather can easily stop a woman (even as decorated as Rousey) who is smaller than himself before she can get a hold of him, you are badly mistaken.
 

Lazyslob

Banned
What I think the other poster was getting at is that Rousey would likely understand standup would be too risky, try to approach, go in for a low grapple and get hit with a counter for her troubles on the way down.

the thing is everyone one thinks its easy to knock someone out while they shoot on you. its not.

cant even think on top of my head where i have seen someone get knocked out from punches on someone trying to take someone down. a knee and it was like once. it almost never happens
 

scabro

Member
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.

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