The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is no longer ‘The Ronda Rousey Show’. The UFC has a new pay-per-view (PPV) kingpin in Conor McGregor and a plethora of up-and-comers in Cody Garbrandt, Valentina Shevchenko and many others.
Nevertheless, Rousey is still one of the biggest names in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and regardless of whom she fights, every ‘Rowdy’ fight is a guaranteed box-office and PPV success.
That said, the hitch in the UFC’s promotion of its former Bantamweight queen is their inability to ease Rousey back into competition, instead of simply throwing her to the wolves (or Lions, in Nunes’ case) after suffering a high-profile KO loss.
Rousey suffered her 1st MMA loss by KO at the hands of Holly Holm in 2015 and in her very next fight, fought the brick-fisted Brazilian UFC Women’s Bantamweight champion, Amanda Nunes in December of 2016. Bad idea!
The UFC’s hasty matchmaking has served to not only derail Rousey’s career but to also diminish her star-power. That said, all is not lost, and in case Rousey feels like lacing up the gloves once again, the UFC should build her up step-by-step.
A select few stylistic matchups favour the American judoka and have made our list, in ascending order of difficulty. Let’s take a look:
#5 Jessica Eye
Jessica ‘Evil’ Eye (11-6-1) has an MMA base of boxing and wrestling. She holds notable victories over mid-tier fighters such as Angela Magana, Carina Damm and Leslie Smith.
Eye is a striker, so to speak. However, she wins most of her fights by outworking her opponents with a wrestle-box approach rather than a pure striking-based approach. Secondly, Eye doesn’t carry much power in her strikes, with most of her strikes being punches, with her rarely throwing any kicks, knees or elbows.
Eye is a decent grappler but got handily out-grappled and even out-struck in her decision losses to Alexis Davis, Miesha Tate, Juliana Pena, Sara McMann and...Wait for it...Bethe Correia! Eye is on a 4-fight losing streak and struggling with her confidence and rhythm inside the Octagon.
Also read: UFC News: Amanda Nunes explains why she watches the Ronda Rousey fight replay everyday
As far as Rousey matching up with her is concerned, Eye’s mediocre grappling plays right into Rousey’s wheelhouse as does her tendency to throw naked combinations at close-range. Eye is tailor-made for Rousey, who can walk through her strikes and execute the clinch-toss-tap routine that she’s so famous for.
Yet another essential point is that Eye is a bit undersized for the 135-pound division, which further aids Rousey’s grappling-centric game.
Rousey vs Eye is Rousey’s easiest tune-up fight in the UFC’s top-15.
#4 Marion Reneau
Marion ‘The Belizean Bruiser’ Reneau (7-3) is an American-Belizean MMA fighter with a base of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) and rudimentary striking. She holds notable wins over Jessica Andrade and Milana Dudieva.
Reneau is an out-and-out grappler and one of the older fighters in the UFC’s Women’s Bantamweight (BW/135 pound) division, at 39 years of age.
Out of her 7 wins, 4 have come by way of KO/TKO, but here’s the catch – those wins are against unheralded opposition in smaller MMA organisations, with the exception of her ground-and-pound TKO win over Dudieva. Secondly, she has 2 wins by submission, but it’s nothing that Rousey can’t deal with.
Reneau has terrible striking and barely survived against Rousey conqueror Holly Holm, by repeatedly pulling guard on Holm and hanging on for dear life.
She matches up perfectly with Rousey, especially considering the fact that most of Reneau’s fights involve her initiating the grappling. It goes without saying that Reneau’s submission-based game-plan works right into Rousey’s judo wizardry. And we know what Rousey does to grapplers with mediocre striking- Grab-Tap or Snap.
Reneau’s age and lack of striking make her a favourable matchup for Rousey.
#3 Liz Carmouche
Liz ‘Girl-Rilla’ Carmouche (11-5) is a former United States Marine and one-half of the 1st pair of women to compete inside the Octagon alongside Ronda Rousey.
Carmouche has an MMA base of BJJ, Kenpo and boxing. Her notable wins include Jessica Andrade, Kaitlyn Young as well as a victory over Valentina Shevchenko, early in Shevchenko’s MMA career.
Carmouche has decent standup fundamentals, however, much like Jessica Eye, she lacks power in her strikes. Carmouche is an undersized but strong Bantamweight, who relies on the utilisation of a grinding wrestle-box strategy in every fight.
Now it’s essential to note that she almost caught Rousey in a rear-naked choke in their 1st fight at UFC 157 in 2013, however, she was eventually reversed and fell victim to the judoka’s trademark armbar.
Fast-forward 4 years and both fighters are still relatively similar, with mediocre striking and Rousey having a huge advantage in the grappling aspect. On the feet, neither does Carmouche cut angles like Holm nor does she hit as hard as Nunes.
Liz Carmouche is a ranked opponent and a winnable rematch for Rousey.
#2 Alexis Davis
Alexis ‘Ally-Gator’ Davis (17-7) is a Canadian MMA fighter with a base of BJJ and Japanese Jiu-Jitsu and mediocre striking. She holds notable wins over Liz Carmouche, Jessica Eye, Sarah Kaufmann as well as a TKO victory over Rousey’s most recent opponent, Amanda Nunes.
Now it’s essential to note that the aforementioned TKO over Nunes occurred largely on the mat during the phase in Nunes’ career when she struggled badly with her cardio and endurance issues.
Davis challenged Rousey for the BW strap at UFC 175 in 2014, falling to Rousey by TKO in just 16 seconds. Rousey clipped Davis with an overhand right and proceeded to toss her dazed opponent on the mat, following up with a few ground-and-pound strikes.
Now although Rousey may not be as confident as she used to be, she still possesses excellent grappling abilities, developed after years-and-years of elite judo drills.
With both fighters being rudimentary strikers, it would be extremely difficult for Davis to keep Rousey at bay with her strikes, resulting in both fighters ending up in the clinch or in a ground scramble.
Needless to say, this benefits ‘Rowdy’ since grappling with the world-class judoka usually ends with your elbow getting snapped out of its socket, by a lightning-fast armbar.
Alexis Davis is a decent challenge but also stylistically favourable for Rousey.
#1 Raquel Pennington
Raquel ‘Rocky’ Pennington (9-5) is an American MMA fighter with a base of boxing. She holds notable wins over Miesha Tate and Jessica Andrade, only being finished once, early in her career, against Cat Zingano.
Pennington fought Holly Holm, in Holm’s UFC debut, dropping a closely contested split-decision to the former multiple-time boxing world champion.
Pennington seems to be next-in-line for a title shot at 135 pounds after Amanda Nunes faces Valentina Shevchenko. At this stage in their respective careers, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if Pennington opens as a favourite against Rousey in a proposed matchup.
She possesses crisp boxing and good grappling, going toe-to-toe on the feet against strikers like Holm and Zingano, whilst holding her own in the grappling department against submission specialists like Tate and Andrade.
Out of the 5 proposed matchups in this list, ‘Rocky’ is the toughest fight, at least on paper, for the ‘Rowdy’ one. She completely out-classed Miesha Tate in Cupcake’s retirement fight and isn’t afraid to stand-and-bang.
At 28 years of age, she seems to have entered her prime. Rousey’s best bet to beat Pennington would be catching her by initiating the clinch on the counter. With the exception of the Tate fight, Pennington tends to plant her feet and throw combinations without setting them up from the outside.
This is where Rousey can implement her submission-based strategy and catch ‘Rocky’.
With killers like Holm (also fights at 145 pounds), Shevchenko, Nunes and Zingano in the top 5; Pennington seems to be the only winnable fight for Rousey among the division’s elite.
Raquel Pennington is a top-5 contender who’ll provide a stiff test for Rousey.
Most of you Rousey fans (or haters) out there, must have noticed the absence of two other favourable stylistic matchups, namely Julianna Pena and Bethe Correia.
Both the aforementioned fighters are downright terrible strikers, with Correia also being mediocre in the grappling aspect. Pena is a good grappler but mainly relies on a lay-and-pray, stalling strategy.
This exclusion has to do mainly with Rousey’s confidence in the build-up to her future fights (if any). Pena and Correia have repeatedly targeted Rousey in the past, going out of their way to launch scathing personal attacks at Rousey and her family.
The UFC’s main aim should be re-building ‘Rowdy’ from the ground-up- rebuilding her physically as well as mentally.
The fighters mentioned in our list represent the best prospective bouts for Rousey’s Octagon return, providing a good test to see where she’s at physically and mentally. Keeping up with our combat tradition, I’d like you, the reader, to chime in with your proposed matchups for our fallen Queen’s UFC comeback.
Till then, eat clean, train hard and never give up!
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