December 23, 2016
By Ryan Porzl
On Friday December 30, 2016, the UFC will host their UFC 207 event. The event will be headlined by a UFC Women's Bantamweight Championship fight between champion Amanda Nunes and former champion Ronda Rousey. The fight will mark Rousey's first fight since losing the title to Holly Holm 13 months ago. The fact Rousey is getting a shot has split the MMA community with some justifying it while other feel she doesn't deserve it. As you can read from the title, I'm one of those who does not think Rousey deserves it and this article will explain why I feel Rousey is not deserving of a title shot.
Rousey has done nothing to deserve one. Other than the "she dominated the division for so many years", what has Rousey done to justify a title shot? Rousey hasn't had a bounce back fight that she won and showed improvements to prove she's not the same fighter she was all the while learning from past mistakes. On top of that, she hasn't fought at all since the loss. When she returns, she will not have fought for 13 months which is big for a combat sports fighter. Rousey has basically taken a 13 month vacation and will waltz back into a title shot. It also likely made many women unhappy and who can blame them? They're working hard and fighting for an opportunity only to get snubbed in favor of someone not only coming off a destructive loss but a year long lay off. While Rousey did have a medical suspension, it wasn't a 13 month one. If she was out with a bad injury then that would be one thing but she wasn't. The only reason Rousey has is because she took the loss badly and disappeared to lick her wounds. If she really felt the need for the time off then that's fine but the UFC should've moved on. When Jose Aldo turned down an immediate rematch against Conor McGregor because he felt he wasn't ready, the UFC rightfully moved on. When Chris Weidman was forced to pull out of his immediate rematch against Luke Rockhold, the UFC rightfully moved on. When Cain Velasquez pulled out of his fight with Fabricio Werdum, the UFC rightfully moved on. All three had to take interim title fights or start all over before being granted another opportunity though Weidman lost his fight with Yoel Romero. The UFC didn't wait for them and other than because Rousey is a "star", there's no reason to wait for her. Rousey has been gone so long that the title has changed hands two times in her absence as Miesha Tate won it from Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes won it from Tate. In the end, the only way to justify this title shot is because of Rousey's previous dominance but that shouldn't be a good reason and I'll get to that in a bit.
The fight with Holm wasn't close. Normally, i'm against immediate rematches as I feel a fighter should have to have at least win one fight before getting a title shot. The only time immediate rematches should happen is in the event of controversy whether it be an early stoppage, a draw, a no contest, a split decision, the winner failing a drug test or judges making bad calls. However, none of those scenarios happened. There was no controversy of any kind as Holm completely destroyed Rousey for a round and a half before put an exclamation mark on her performance with a highlight reel knock out. At no point was Rousey winning or on the verge of putting Holm away only to get caught. At no point was there a bad referee call that cost Rousey the fight or turned the tide for Holm. The fight didn't go the distance so there was no controversial judge's decisions. Holm did not fail a drug test after the fight or was stripped of the title. Rousey wasn't even poked in the eye. Rousey was outclassed the entire fight and the holes in her game were completely exposed. There was not a single silver lining to the fight. This wasn't Fedor Emelianenko recklessly jumping into Fabricio Werdum's guard and getting overzealous in trying to finish to the point where he got caught in a triangle choke. This wasn't Anderson Silva clowning around and getting caught with a punch from Chris Weidman. This wasn't Jose Aldo foolishly charging and winging at Conor McGregor which left him open to getting knocked out in 13 seconds. Rousey was outclassed, dominated, and knocked out as a cherry on top.
Immediate title shots are also ridiculous since many past dominate UFC champions did not receive immediate title shots. In fact, immediate title shots weren't common until BJ Penn and Frankie Edgar were granted them in 2010 and 2012, respectively. Prior to them and even afterwards, many champions didn't get immediate rematches regardless of domination or even enjoying big success. When Tito Ortiz lost the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship to Randy Couture at UFC 44 on September 26, 2003, he held many records as he held the record for longest title reign at over three years, had the most successful title defenses in Light Heavyweight history with five, and was the first fighter to make five successful title defenses. Ortiz was one of the most successful champions in history but that meant nothing as he was granted no immediate rematch as he fought Chuck Liddell. Overall, it took three years, six fights, and a five fight win streak before Ortiz finally got another title shot when he took on Chuck Liddell at UFC 66 on December 30, 2006. Sure, you could bring up Ortiz's contract disputes but he still had to claw his way to another shot. Speaking of Chuck Liddell, when he lost the title to Quinton "Rampage" Jackson at UFC 71, he held the Light Heavyweight Title for nearly two years and made four successful title defenses which at the time tied with Frank Shamrock for second most successful title defenses. Liddell was also arguably the biggest star the UFC had, coming off headlining UFC 66 which was the first to draw 1 million PPV buys and made $500,000 a fight along with bonuses. Yet, Liddell was not granted an immediate rematch as his next fight was a fight against Keith Jardine. After losing that fight, Liddell had to get past Wanderlei Silva before he was even put in a title eliminator against Rashad Evans. Ultimately, Liddell never challenged for it again. Matt Hughes was once MMA's most successful Welterweight as he won the UFC Welterweight Championship two times and made a combined seven successful title defenses with his first seeing five success defenses. However, Hughes didn't get an immediate rematch in either situation. After first losing the title to BJ Penn at UFC 46, Hughes had to face Renato Verissimo at UFC 48 before he faced Georges St-Pierre for the vacant title at UFC 50. When he lost the title to GSP at UFC 65, Hughes fought Chris Lytle at UFC 68 before he was named number one contender for Matt Serra but never challenged for the title when Serra went down with an injury and he lost an Interim Title fight against St-Pierre. Outside of that Interim Title Shot, Hughes never challenged for the title again. Speaking of Penn, he wasn't granted an immediate title shot at the Welterweight Title when he returned to the UFC in 2006 despite being stripped of the title. Instead, he had to face Georges St-Pierre in a title eliminator at UFC 59 which he lost and while he did get a title shot at UFC 63, it was as a replacement to St-Pierre who was injured. Jens Pulver was the first ever UFC Lightweight Champion, made two successful title defenses, and never lost the title as he was stripped of it when he left. When he returned in 2006, not only was he not part of the fight to crown the new Lightweight Champion after the belt was shelved following his departure in 2002 but he never got an opportunity to fight for it. Brock Lesnar held the UFC Heavyweight Championship for nearly two years and made two title defenses while being the biggest draw in the company. Yet, even he didn't get an immediate title shot as he was set to face Junior Dos Santos in his next fight and when he pulled out due to illness, he later fought Alistair Overeem. TJ Dillashaw had one of the best performances in UFC history when he upset Renan Barao for the UFC Bantamweight Championship, made two successful title defenses, held the title a year and a half, and lost it in a close split decision but he didn't get an immediate rematch even though he lost the title on a split decision.
There's also more deserving contenders as well. One is Juliana Pena who is a former Ultimate Fighter winner with an unblemished 4-0 record in the UFC and is coming off a win over former title challenger Cat Zingano. Another is Valentina Shevchenko who is 2-1 in the UFC with her one loss being to the champ Amanda Nunes but she has scored good wins as she defeated Sarah Kaufman in her debut while bouncing back from the Nunes loss in her recent fight against Holly Holm by unanimous decision. Best of all, both women last fought in July so they would be ready for December 30th. They are also facing each other in the main event of the next FOX special on January 28th in what will likely be a title eliminator fight. If there put in that position, I see no reason why they couldn't have a title shot now. Both have also been busy since Rousey's hiatus with Pena having fought this past July while Shevchenko fought twice this year back in March and then in July. Other than the fact they don't have the star power of Rousey and not having dominated the division for so long, there's no reason for them to get snubbed despite being active and winning fights while Rousey has been MIA for more than a year.
I'm not saying Ronda Rousey can never get another title shot again as I'm saying she doesn't deserve an immediate one. She may have been dominant once upon a time and may do so again but she's not at this time. Given how she was dominated, that she was knocked out, the lay off, and how badly she handled the loss, it's not asking much for her to take another fight and then get a title shot if she wins. Maybe it would've been great for her.
No comments:
Post a Comment