After “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey beat her last opponent in the co-main event of UFC 168, who is next to fight this undefeated arm bar specialist?

 

In UFC 168, Cat Zingano was suppose to have a shot at the woman’s bantamweight title but was in no condition to fight. Zingano injured her knee so the fight was given to Miesha Tate. Until Zingano is in any condition to fight then who is left to challenge the undefeated champion?

Here comes Sara McMann: an undefeated women’s mixed martial artist and former Olympian. She took silver in the 2004 summer Olympic games in Athens, Greece and has an extensive background in wrestling. McMann started her mixed martial arts career in 2010 but due to many issues with fights eventually made her professional fight debut in 2011. Fast forward to 2014, McMann has a record of 7 wins and no losses. Of those 7 wins, 3 were by submission, 1 by knockout, and 3 by decision. Aside from her MMA record, she has trained in wrestling since she was 14 and has been part of many prominent wrestling and submission grappling tournaments.

“Rowdy” Ronda Rousey has become one of the biggest stars in the UFC today,

whether you hate her or love her, she has earned her place amongst the biggest UFC stars in history. With Anderson Silva’s loss and leg injury against Chris Weidman and Georges St. Pierre’s indefinite leave, Rousey may have become the current Queen of the UFC.

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Rousey has gone undefeated in her MMA career as well as in the UFC and she has finished every fight so far with an arm bar. One thing that is slowly changing is the time it takes for Rousey to bring in the win. In UFC 168, the fight against Tate had gone into the third round which is unusual because up until this point fights ended in the first round. Rousey explained after the fight this was a learning that she could allow fights to go on longer than the first round. She needed this experience first hand in order to truly adapt to MMA fighting and its interesting to note that in Judo, Rousey would only have 5 minutes to win against an opponent which is where her huge rush to win in the first round came from.

The willingness as well as patience to go into the later rounds with a game plan will serve Rousey well going in to her next fight against McMann. McMann will be a much more difficult opponent than those she has previously faced. Rousey will not be able to dominate or easily utilize her Judo as we saw with her fight against Tate. The two Olympians will need to come up with game plans that can handle each other’s world class skill. Just as Rousey won’t be able to use her Judo throws easily, McMann won’t be able to swoop in for easy wrestling takedowns. Many could argue that this will be Rousey’s toughest title defense in her UFC career yet.

Just the thought that two Olympians are going to face each other in a UFC main event shows how far the sport has come along and not necessarily just for the women’s side of it. While it is definitely a big deal for women everywhere in mixed martial arts, its a huge deal for mixed martial arts and the UFC in general. The standard for fighters is steadily rising and as older stars start to fade, new ones will shine bright and show us spectacular fights.

For women’s mixed martial arts, Rousey has always mentioned that she is out there to prove a point and to make the sport more popular for women everywhere. UFC 170 Rousey Vs. McMann is the main event, this is another women’s fight that is a main event in the UFC. A women’s fight being a UFC main event is something that you would not have seen a couple years ago but now its gaining a huge amount of popularity and just last year in 2013 there were a few women’s fights as main events. Not many people agree with how Rousey conducts herself, especially against Tate, but by playing the villain Rousey brings attention to women in MMA.

We will see how Rousey will be able to handle fellow Olympian, McMann in the main event of UFC 170.

Whether you enjoy watching Rousey or maybe want to see McMann come out as the victor then this will be one of the top fights to begin the 2014 year. How will she be able to handle McMann’s phenomenal wrestling skills in the octagon to come out with another win? This will be a battle of the Olympians, Olympic level Judo vs. Olympic level Wrestling. There is so much that could happen in those 5 minute rounds that could go one way or another and we will see what these Olympians will bring to the fight on February 22 in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.