Issue 101

May 2013

I’m not exactly sure that gauging my mother’s interest in a fight card can be considered an accurate evaluation of the relative success of an MMA event, but I can tell you this: after 20 years of hearing me talk about and professionally cover the sport, it took Ronda Rousey to get my mom to buy a pay-per-view event. 

I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised, at least not after what I saw for most of fight week. After all, UFC open workout sessions aren’t generally a big draw for soccer moms and adoring daughters, but hundreds crowded around an Octagon for several hours in hopes of catching a glimpse of Ronda at work. So crowded was the session with autograph seekers and picture requests that ‘Rowdy’ admitted she felt guilty that there simply wasn’t enough time to please them all. 

“I just feel bad that I can’t get to everybody,” Rousey told Fighters Only after her pre-fight workout. “A lot of people go through a lot of trouble to come to these events and to just meet for a few seconds. I just don’t have a few seconds for everyone, so to everyone I missed, I’m sorry. I appreciate you taking the time.” 

That energy certainly carried over into fight night in Anaheim. I’ve twice seen the UFC heavyweight title contested at the Honda Center, host site of UFC 157: Rousey vs Carmouche. I’ve been in the same building to witness the legendary Fedor Emelianenko destroy former UFC champions Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia. Despite those incredible memories, I can tell you that none of those moments matched the energy in that arena when Ronda made her walk to the cage. 

At that moment, all the pre-fight discussion over whether or not she and Liz Carmouche ‘deserved’ to be in the headlining bout of UFC 157 seemed downright silly. Of course, she had earned the right to be a UFC headliner, even if she was fighting for just the seventh time as a professional. After all, fight sports always have been and always will be about putting together contests fans want to see, and Rousey – whether through her fighting skills, her ample trash talk, or simply raw sex appeal – had established herself as a must-see commodity. 

And if we’re being honest, can we all comfortably admit that another 10 minutes of Lyoto Machida vs Dan Henderson really didn’t sound all that appealing anyway? 

The fight, of course, didn’t make it out of the first round. But in less than five minutes of action, Rousey both survived the impressive attack of underdog Carmouche and battled back to lock in her signature technique: the armbar. 

The Honda Center crowd went nuts at the close, and women’s MMA wound up making a stellar UFC debut. 

“You’re always going to have idiots on the internet who say stupid s**t,” UFC president Dana White said afterwards. “This thing sold out. The gate was bigger than the Cain Velasquez-Junior Dos Santos fight. It’s the most successful women’s pay-per-view fight of all time.” 

As a privately held company, UFC officials aren’t required to release pay-per-view numbers. However, multiple sources close to the event have indicated the event likely scored nearly 500,000 buys, which means both Rousey and Carmouche probably received life-changing paydays – and rightfully so. This was a moment in history, and both women proved that they belong inside the Octagon. 

Women’s MMA isn’t totally in the clear just yet. After all, the sport is still a fairly niche hobby, and even fewer people are comfortable watching women get punched in the face. New UK-based UFC director Garry Cook recently scratched a women’s co-feature for the promotion’s return to Sweden because he felt Europe wasn’t quite ready for such a bout. But Rousey vs Carmouche was a fine start for bringing attention to a group of athletes that has gone unjustly unrecognized in recent years. 

It will take some time to build the division. Just as fans are still learning about the UFC’s flyweights – not to mention the featherweights and bantamweights that are still taking hold – it will take a while for the world to know names other than Ronda Rousey. But the division is off to a quick start, and White believes Ronda’s success will inspire others to follow suit. 

“All these talented women that are out there that are in judo and all these other things, believe me, they’re going to start training,” White said. “This 135lb division is going to become pretty nasty pretty quick.” 

Count my mom in as a fan. Anderson Silva, Georges St Pierre, Jon Jones and José Aldo are all doing a fantastic job. But sometimes you need a new star to make new fans. Ronda proved she is such a commodity. 

“Listen, Ronda’s a star,” White added. “Whether people want to admit it or not, the girl is a star. People love her, and people want to see her. She’s fun to watch fight.”