Maybe because if you work harder, train longer, and dedicate your life to becoming one of the best in the world in an area of expertise (hand to hand combat), then you're not a bully, you're just better prepared and being suitably rewarded for your effort and dedication.
If I go to school, stick it out through high school and earn a PHD but you don't bother learning to read until you're in your 20s, am I a bully if I write a better book than you?
If I start learning to play the guitar at the age of 12 and you pick up a guitar at the age of 20 and I get a record deal and you don't, am I being a bully?
People respect hard work, dedication and success. No matter how you cut it Rousey has put in tens of thousands of hours over a decade of a half of her life to succeed in Judo and MMA. They also respect human beings who are passionate about pursuing their dreams.
Is it Rousey's fault that others didn't train as hard or as long? Or that others in her sport (Judo) or other combat sports weren't willing to take the risk to take a leap of faith into a sport that didn't exist at the highest professional level and was essentially paid minimum wage when she could have returned to school, trained for another Olympics, or sought another job?
People who focus exclusively on the skill/athleticism gap between men's and women's MMA are entirely missing the point.
Women's MMA is younger than men's MMA, so obviously the talent pool isn't going to be as deep. The skill levels aren't nearly going to be as well established. That's what being a younger sport means.
It would be like criticizing the skill levels of male MMA fighters because Boxers fight at a higher average level of technical proficiency as a whole and have a deeper pool of talent to draw on.
People forget that when Rousey, Tate, Zingano and McMann entered the sport it was hard for them to even find a gym that would let them in the doors let alone coach them. Rousey's coach Edmond wouldn't even give her the time of day for MONTHS. Think about that, an Olympic medalist Judoka couldn't get someone to train her.
Could you even imagine what it would be like to be an Olympic medal MAN and be told that they weren't interested in training you? Put yourself in her shoes, or the shoes of these other women.
We men don't think about the difficulties that these early generations of WMMA pioneers have had to endure just to get access to training, access to mat time, access to coaching... hell, to even GET a fight.
And considering that it is MEN that have provided the greatest obstacles to women attaining the skills that YOU are complaining about them not having, it's the worst sort of victim blaming.
Yes, the same Men who snicker and glare when a woman walks into a gym looking for someone to work pads, spend mat time, or sit in on a class. The same Men who snicker that women aren't built to fight even though martial arts has a LONG history of female involvement. The same Men who look at a woman who is interested in Athletics and make rude remarks that they look masculine or unattractive because they want to maximize their physical potential.
No, Rousey is not the GOAT in terms of skills or talent. However, she is possibly the most important athlete that WMMA has ever seen. And she may be the most important athlete that MMA has seen this generation.
For decades MMA has been marginalized, treated as bloodsport, viewed as the haven of psychopaths, brutes and meat heads. And now comes along a woman who is changing public perception.
MMA is now being held up as an example of meritocracy, where regardless of gender, regardless of upbringing a person can ascend to the peak of the sport. They can become the most famous, the most highly paid and the highest draw. Rousey is being lauded in many quarters not because she's a woman, but because she is being embraced and respected in the sport IN SPITE of being a woman.
And because of that MMA is getting more exposure, more acceptance, and more attention than it ever has. It has the opportunity to win over the mainstream public and with it the benefits that come along with being a mainstream sport in terms of corporate sponsorship, full media coverage and public discussion.
If you LOVE MMA, I mean truly love MMA as a sport then you should be embracing Rousey and what she's doing for the sport. What does it matter if most of the fans are casual fans? EVERY sport has casual fans.
Go to a super bowl party... how many people have no idea who half the players are, what their regular season records are, or what the rest of the teams did in a particular year? Casual fans doesn't kill the sport, it STRENGTHENS a sport because it means that there's more opportunities to create Hardcore fans.
Did the NBA suffer because people wanted to see the freak that was Wilt Chamberlain? Or to find out what all the fuss over Dr. J. was about? No, all it did was grow the sport and increase participation.
Should WMMA survive into the future, 50 years from now Rousey will be remembered as an icon of MMA with the same loving reference as Babe Ruth. There will undoubtedly be better athletes to come along just as Babe Ruth couldn't compete in modern baseball. However, it doesn't matter.
Babe Ruth put Baseball on the map in a way that few had done before him. And that he was decades ahead of his time in skill and athletic talent was irrelevant. People tuned in because relative to his peers he was the Greatest.
And as much as you may not like it, what we're seeing now is History in the making. WMMA history. MMA history. Sports history.
Just appreciate it for what it is. You have a front seat to combat sports history in a way that few do. The only difference is that when people talk about whether the modern fighter of the day is being compared to the greats like GSP, Fedor, Anderson and Rousey, you'll actually be able to say with some confidence whether they actually could live up to the legends of the sport.
Damn good post.
