Ah, let the fire burn!
Before you think I'm just making stuff up (or if you accuse me of properly dressing the above images to make sure the gloves matched thus implying that these are just ready to throw hands....ahem), let me make it clear. I don't for one second think that Ronda Rousey likes Floyd Mayweather, and it's clear that Ronda Rousey isn't even worth Floyd's time, at least according to the way he replies about her.
In his mind, anyone who wants to be recognized by him has to at least have something going for them - and while Rousey has an impressive 12-0 MMA record as of this writing, she amassed that record in a division sorely underserved by UFC in the first place. To Floyd, this is probably akin to someone like Vasyl Lomachenko calling him out - Lomachenko is an exciting, dangerous fighter whose only loss thus far was against a dirty Salido with a crooked ref, but he's only had 3-4 fights as a professional. Nowhere near the 48-0 of a Floyd "Money" Mayweather. That's just Floyd being Floyd. He's quite confident and quite mentally blockaded. There are a number of reasons for this and the bulk are family related. We won't get into that.
Recently, the UFC (and Ronda, to be fair) have had Floyd's name tossed about, because they are both undefeated and currently unmatched in their respective crafts. This sounds silly: a female shoot fighter and a male boxer going at it. Thing is, society would never allow such a fight because of the stigma that males should never fight females. Floyd's problems with women he's dated simply make this the butt of plenty of jokes online, but the real joke is the notion that a female should not fight a male.
Women fought to be treated as equals. Or rather, they fought for the same rights men have. Unfortunately, some women (feminists) have spewed this out as "treated the same as a man" when they really don't mean that. Surely, no woman wants or expects to test colons for a living? (Don't answer that.)
Anyway, Ronda. I say that she envies Floyd because while her words speak of a dislike of the man, her actions speak directly to envy and possibly respect of Floyd Mayweather the businessman, and it is here that I will share the proof of that envy. Set aside for a moment Ronda's frequent jabs at Floyd's past. If you can. Turn off your emotions, in other words. Logic must dominate here.
Ronda Rousey has sparred - yes, boxing - with Vic Darchinyan.
If you don't know who Vic Darchinyan is that's fine. What's important to know is that Vic has had 47 professional fights (Floyd only hit 48 this year, defeating Manny Pacquiao), and both fighters had a dominant early professional career with more knockouts than not (Darchinyan continues to be a powerful fighter, where Floyd has transitioned away from knockouts due to hand injury). Rousey fights (MMA) at 130lbs, Darchinyan has fought at featherweight which is just below that, Floyd has fought at super featherweight which is at 130 lbs.
You've got to ask yourself. Why bother sparring boxing? If the intent is to practice striking, MMA training seems to be a better suit for that, especially if CM Punk is to be believed about the progress of his training. Is it possible Ronda's trying to convince herself that she can be a boxer should she run the course in MMA? Why boxing? Can't be inspired by women's boxing since the networks refuse to televise it, and while Ronda's waxed positive about Manny Pacquiao, he hasn't had the greatest streak. Maybe inspired by a certain undefeated boxer who netted $300 million in a 34-minute fight solely by being undefeated for so long?
Ronda Rousey has become buddies with Mike Tyson.
No, that's not a typo and I know what you're thinking. That's exactly my point.
Were I to ask someone random on the street what they remember most about Mike Tyson, I'll get one of three answers.
- Him getting knocked out - "sparked" as it were - by James "Buster" Douglas.
- Him biting Evander Holyfield's ear off during a PPV (notable mention: Mills Lane.)
- The infamous interview with Barbara Walters where Robin Givens exposes him as an abuser, violent and unpredictable.
It's possible I might get a few who recall his "The Hangover" rendition of Phil Collins, or his guest role in Wayne Brady's dream about Bobby Brown's "Every Little Step" video, or the Mike Tyson's Punch-Out video game from decades ago, or him getting put on his rear end by Kevin McBride, a journeyman. But by and large, the three above are what he's most known for, unfortunately. It's the third that likely caught your attention. Don't lie.
I find it rather funny and ironic that Ronda's jabs are against Floyd because of allegations that he beat his ex-girfriend, yet she's perfectly fine giving Mike Tyson a pass for doing the same thing. Actually, Mike did worse: Mike was accused of raping another woman and went to jail for that, though he denies to this day that it was rape and claims it was consensual. We may never know, but that's a two-fer that Rousey apparently gave a free pass to, yet Floyd doesn't get the same.
Ronda Rousey has her own acronym she's parroting.
Have you heard her in interviews telling women not to be a "Do-Nothing Bitch"? Never mind for a moment the fact that she's using the word bitch to describe women, but she then went on to pitch "DNB" as her new thing, even going so far as to print shirts with this on it.
Sound familiar? It should - Floyd Mayweather has been running #TBE (The Best Ever) and #TMT (The Money Team) merch since he beat Oscar De La Hoya and started marketing this as a brand on various merchandise years ago (MoneyTeam.com). Floyd created a brand out of nothing more than confidence and cash; Ronda's doing the same exact thing. No hate on it, but let's call a spade a spade.
Ronda Rousey has aligned with the WWE - at least in spirit.
From brief mentions on Twitter to an outright appearance at WrestleMania 31 alongside The Rock, to a later deleted tweet wanting to piss Dana White off by going to WWE, to an interview where she all but guaranteed she would go to WWE after leaving MMA for good, it's clear that Rousey has the eye on the prize. Here's the thing though: It's ironic that this was the choice given that Floyd Mayweather has already done it, and did it in spectacular fashion, first on network TV, then at WrestleMania 24 against the Big Show, then later as a guest host for RAW. Mind you, while many criticized Floyd's match with Show, it was exciting for a great build up (a legit break of the nose and escape sequence) and a series of promos between the two; it felt "real" mostly because Floyd played a perfect heel. At this point, Floyd was guaranteed money, and if WWE were to bring him back, he could close millions again.
Not to be undone by Mr. Mayweather, Ronda had her own moment at WrestleMania 31 (though not in a match), and has hinted it was a sign of things to come in the future. Is it possible Ronda is a bit jealous of Floyd's spectacle and wanted to try and surpass what Floyd did?
Ronda Rousey is effectively ducking Cris Cyborg.
Now, this one is subjective since there's a weight issue at play, but by and large the community feels that Rousey should fight the one person left who might actually beat her easily, which is Cris Cyborg. If you haven't heard of Cyborg that's because she's not contracted to UFC, and she fights in a totally different weight class. This weight difference has been attributed to steroids, and for this reason Rousey refuses to fight her. This of course just caused Cyborg to tweet an amazing response using Rousey's own catchphrase.
It reminds me of long ago when Floyd was in a similar position with Manny Pacquiao just before the "Sugar" Shane Mosley fight: "If you're clean, take the test." He refused to fight Pacquiao without random blood and urine testing, and went on numerous rants about Pacquiao being able to knock down fighters like Mosley, where Cotto (one of the strongest fighters between 140 - 160lbs, according to almost everyone who's fought him) could not.
After this, Floyd would fight Shane Mosley, win quite easily, and at the end, pose with Mosley saying, "if you're clean, take the test." with Mosley shrugging his agreement with the statement (an irony, since Mosley and his son have both been busted for positive tests).
Moral of the story: Mayweather fought a once-user of PEDs who went clean, and even offered to fight Manny should he accept to take tests (Manny declined because it would be "too close" to the fight and he was "afraid of needles" because they made him "weak". The fight wouldn't happen for another 5 years, when Manny finally accepted the testing conditions). Now that Rousey has nowhere else to go but Miesha Tate, is it possible she accepts Cyborg's challenge to prove she really is the best?
Ronda Rousey has been getting criticized for her wins lately.
Rousey's fights, with the exception of McCann and Tate, have been annoyingly short, despite her fights being the main event with often boring undercards. Some people are starting to get upset with paying nearly $60-70 for a PPV only to have the star attraction last under a minute because her competition isn't on her level.
But others have noticed troubling patterns with Rousey's fights, and it's always the same. Rousey lacks in two areas: striking and striking defense. She's wide open for a good striker (McCann nailed her way too many times), yet isn't fast or strong enough to strike back in response. Thus, an opponent that can maintain distance and strike effectively keeps Rousey's offense (ground) at bay. When Rousey starts getting constrained in this manner, she resorts to judo, which is her absolute strong point, but as seen with Miesha Tate, if her opponent is good at defending against submission holds, they can last at least long enough to change strategy to last the distance. Tate eventually got caught both times, but she lasted longer than any other due to this weakness.
As a result, people are criticizing Rousey's constant ground-based offense when really, it's all she has for now.
Compare this to Floyd, where his criticisms lie in the fact that he has mastered how to be a "point fighter" - that is, he does enough to win rounds and impress judges, but doesn't go for broke because he doesn't need to. He doesn't care about knockout wins, only wins, and with the exception of Victor Ortiz, hasn't done a lot to even knock opponents down.
Mayweather/Pacquiao was the highest grossing fight but drew the most ire, with people sorely upset at paying over $100 for a PPV that was essentially 12 rounds of Manny Pacquiao lost and confused against a smarter fighter who was exerting very little energy yet still managed to come out superior.
The other criticism with Floyd is his use of the clinch, which while it's a fraction of fighters like Ali, Leonard,Klitchko and Tyson, is abnormally high in the welterweight and super welterweight divisions where action is often fast and furious due to the lower weight.
Lastly, as with Rousey and Cyborg, it took time and irritation to get Manny to accept Floyd's terms to a fight that Floyd himself predicted would be criticized years ago - and he was spot on. This isn't because of anything except his knowledge of how he would beat Manny and his own fight strategy, which he knew others would find "boring". Rousey will eventually face Cyborg if she has no other options beyond Tate, but it'd be a reluctant acceptance rather than her wanting to be "the best". Same as Floyd.
So what are we left with?
Floyd has stated he plans to retire soon so he can go on to do other things and build his brand. Rousey has hinted at a possible retirement so she can go on to do other things and build her brand. Both want to go out undefeated and both want to go out as symbols of their respective sports. No, I don't buy for a moment that Rousey is anything but envious of Floyd "Money" Mayweather, and I don't begrudge her that, because no matter what you think of Floyd the man, he understands promotion and marketing even better than Don King ever did. Rousey should look to emulate that for women, because if she can stay the path she'll one day pull $300 million for one fight.
Then we'd get to see if Floyd would take that fight like he said (he wouldn't).
