UFC 157 is in the books, as Anaheim hosted the event last night, and despite a lot of hype for the historic nature of the event, Liz Carmouche and Ronda Rousey delivered with a fantastic fight that was wall to wall action for the four-plus minutes it lasted. Both women deserve a lot of credit for their professional conduct leading up to the event, and both deserve a lot of credit for withstanding what must have been a lot of pressure from the attention and publicity. There have been a lot of women’s MMA matches throughout the United States since April of 2002, when a promotion out of Indiana called HOOKnSHOOT did the first ever all-women’s MMA card in the USA. Most of the promoters who have tried hosting ladies MMA will tell you the women always put on a show and bring the house down. And it is because the more serious women’s MMA fighters are interested in putting on great fights. As we saw last night at UFC 157, Carmouche escaped a headlock and side control early by taking Rousey’s back, and early on Carmouche would threaten with a face crank and a rear naked choke. If the fight had ended here, it would have been an amazing upset, but it wasn’t a great fight yet. Rousey survived, and she came up all aces the rest of the fight as she had overcome adversity for the first time in her MMA career. She focused in on Carmouche, and once again had it on the ground quickly, getting another headlock and side control. She worked for her now famous armbar, but Carmouche resisted valiantly. A slight adjustment allowed her to bar the other arm, and it was over, in the first round, by arm bar. She delivered on the hype! Ronda Rousey kept the UFC women’s bantamweight championship and probably singlehandedly saved the future of women’s MMA in the UFC, and the UFC got a great fight and a new star. What is next for Rousey is unclear, though we probably won’t see her again until the end of the year. This gives the UFC time to bring in some talent and work up an opponent. The Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Santos fight is unlikely to happen as the Brazilian has declared that she cannot make the weight, so the UFC has to start the women’s divisions and get the girls fighting! Without Santos, there are a few athletes that you could put in with Rousey, but Meisha Tate is a rematch (Tate is the only other person to extend Rousey beyond the opening minute) as is Sarah Kaufman, and it is more likely the UFC will have them fight others to build to a Rousey rematch. Dutch veteran Marloes Coenen may deserve a shot based on her lifetime body of work in MMA. She has a solid 21-5 record, she is a former STRIKEFORCE champion who owns a win over Carmouche, and she has been fighting professionally for more than 12 years. But Rousey is probably already going to get the championship treatment, which is two PPV appearances a year, so the UFC should have an opponent ready. See ya in October, Ronda! The next threshold for the UFC and Rousey to cross is getting the preliminary PPV numbers that will be out soon, and they are important. It will be interesting to see just how much of a draw Rousey is. One thing is for sure, if you paid for the event, you got your money’s worth. Thank you, ladies.
