WMMA without Rousey

[Gorbag]

What a nice world a post Ronda world will be

What true fight fan wants a "nice world" anyway?

 

[BigMuffler]

Division's a bit younger, though, isn't it? And Kowalkiewicz, Andrade, Waterson, Moroz and VanZant all had to move into the top 10 by bumping the TUF alum out.

Or each other in the case of Waterson.

But okay BW is more stable due to being a more established division, not really a bad thing. I like some stability anyway, makes the top fighters actually seem 'top'.

 

[chardog]

They said this same exact thing when Cyborg smashed Carano into Hollywood. WMMA can and will draw without Rousey. Surely not as well but combat sports have always gone through cycles of star driven booms and busts.

well if you think about, only Gina and Rousey have been interesting..... and borg was on the roids, shame for Gina, she was a good champ. I still enjoy WMMA for cheap thrills, but the fights dont really excite me the same way as a Rousey fight does.

 

[knock_you_out]

You are right, 100%. She and Cyborg are the only female fighters who have won dominantly. People like to watch that. Without Ronda, I doubt that Cyborg and the rest of the female fighters can carry WMMA much further, except into the grave.

 

[The guest]

Yup... That about covers it.

 

[saltyNaCl__salt]

WMMA is fine without Rousey. It'll continue to develop talent and there is enough interest in it to keep it going from super star to super star. Women centered sports have a feel good audience to it that keep it limping along for the human interest stories and the PR backlash of putting the women back in the corner would not be favorable to the new brass. Besides, they need more diversity and champions to fill cards and make their investment back. Also women are cheap.

 

[leto1776]

Now, to address the original post:

I think Rousey winning would actually hurt the women's bantamweight division as a whole; with Rousey on top, the UFC will drop everything to feed her as many opponents as they can and try to keep her on top as long as possible because she was the company's second biggest draw and they amount of interest they owe right now is massive; unfortunately, doing so will cannibalize the entire division, as they'll feed her prospects before they're actually ready for a title fight, hurting their development in the process. Meanwhile, if Rousey loses and then goes away, the WBW division has a better chance of being able to develop organically without the UFC having any single fighter to push to the detriment of others.

As a whole, however, I think women's MMA has already transcended Rousey and will survive without her; this is due to the talent of the 115-pound division, which is a lot deeper than the 135 pound division, and has many more dynamic fighters who are coming up the ranks, while 135 feels like it's stagnating a bit, although the addition of a women's featherweight division will probably help 135 a little bit, though I think the addition of a women's 125 or 115 division would have been better for the sport as a whole.

I disagree about 135 stagnating without her, but I agree that the women have moved on without her. I've felt that way Since Rousey lost. As soon as she lost, it opened that division up wide. More new signing since she lost than they had in a year or so, also. When Rousey was champ, it was just the Ronda Rousey show. They gave fighters just enough fights to feed Ronda someone on a winning streak, and sat a lot of others on the sidelines.

I disagree. If they don't want to watch MMA without McGregor or WMMA without Rousey, then they're clearly not here for the MMA, and wouldn't have stayed anyways once those two left. I mean, Rousey and McGregor both debuted in the UFC in 2013, and if they haven't found other fighters to get behind in three years, then they're not going to at all.

Well said.

Women's mma won't die when Ronda retires but it's going to be basically all of those women will take a de facto pay cut. The interest simply won't be there immediately

Eventually there will be a new star who will get it going again. The UFC hopes that star is Kayla Harrison

Doubt there will be a drop in pay.

She might be the biggest star in WMMA but Joanna is a draw, Cyborg is a draw and there are a lot of very marketable female fighters that could become big stars if they ever become the champ. So no, WMMA will be just fine without Rousey.

No real evidence for that yet. She headlined one FS1 event, but real drawing power is established via PPV, which she has yet to headline.

 

[HaikenEdge]

I disagree about 135 stagnating without her, but I agree that the women have moved on without her. I've felt that way Since Rousey lost. As soon as she lost, it opened that division up wide. More new signing since she lost than they had in a year or so, also. When Rousey was champ, it was just the Ronda Rousey show. They gave fighters just enough fights to feed Ronda someone on a winning streak, and sat a lot of others on the sidelines.

The 135 pound division became less stagnant after she left, but overall, I feel like the division is more stagnant overall; I think this feeling might have to do with the fact, more recently, there've been more fights at 115 than 135, so it feels like people in 125 are moving around in the rankings.

 

[leto1776]

The 135 pound division became less stagnant after she left, but overall, I feel like the division is more stagnant overall; I think this feeling might have to do with the fact, more recently, there've been more fights at 115 than 135, so it feels like people in 125 are moving around in the rankings.

Your feeling aren't grounded in reality. If you look at the top five of each division, six, if you go Champ through number five, 115 has only two new additions since this time last year. 135 has at least four.

 

[HaikenEdge]

Your feeling aren't grounded in reality. If you look at the top five of each division, six, if you go Champ through number five, 115 has only two new additions since this time last year. 135 has at least four.

Never said it was reality, just a feeling. It'll probably change with time; I think I've watched fewer 135 fights outside of title bouts as well, because the division has been less interesting to me.

 

[Askafan]

Ufc on Fox 20 headlined by Holm Shevchenko
Ufc on Fox 22 headlined by Waterson Vanzant
Ufc on Fox 23 headlined by Shevchenko Pena

Seems like the media guys are on to something.

 

[DaGenius]

Ufc on Fox 20 headlined by Holm Shevchenko
Ufc on Fox 22 headlined by Waterson Vanzant
Ufc on Fox 23 headlined by Shevchenko Pena

Seems like the media guys are on to something.

Good on them but Let me know when a female PPV main event does near rousey numbers. That will say something.

Eventually they will get there don't get me wrong. But there isn't a woman currently on the roster that can take them back to those numbers. Cyborg is a possibility but they still have some building of her to do