By Manny Masongsong
If there is one fighter in all of combat sports that I wouldn’t want to step into the ring with it has to be Ronda Rousey of the UFC. This woman is down right scary, she is strong and vicious, she reminds me of a wild animal who hasn’t eaten in days the way she attacks her opponent.
Any man close to her size with no mixed martial arts experience would get destroyed by her. I don’t care what others say, this female fighter is no joke. Of course she won’t beat guys who are much bigger than her but say a boxer who is similar to her size tries to fight her in the UFC octagon they will get submitted unless they are able to knock her out.
I know its wrong to have a woman fight a man, but there have been plenty of male versus female grappling matches in Brazilian jiu jitsu and Judo. I actually believe Ronda Rousey vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. would be a easy fight for Ronda if they fought in MMA rules.
Floyd’s very fast, he can move around the ring and would have the advantage in boxing, but Ronda is very explosive and once she grabs a hold of someone she throws them and goes for a submission or ground and pound. I see the fight going somewhat similar to James Toney vs. Randy Couture, with Floyd either getting taken down at some point and choked or arm barred. This is not a diss to Floyd, but believe me if you ever tried to fight a grappler and you have no experience with grappling you are easy prey.
I have a whole new found respect for MMA because I recently trained at a jiu jitsu place, and when I was in a choke, and I couldn’t get out I was put out cold before I even had a chance to tap. I blacked out and later was told my body was stiffened up, it was scary but I had no clue, it was over that quick. I felt like a fish out of water.
As boxing fans we tend to push aside the skill and difficulty of MMA, we like to hold onto the notion that the baddest men in the world are boxers. The honest truth is, a person who is well versed in all aspects of martial arts is more likely going to have an advantage over somebody who has boxing but no knowledge of the ground game or submissions. This is why the notion of a female UFC fighter like Ronda Rousey beating a top level boxer like Floyd Mayweather in MMA is not far fetched.
