Ronda “Rowdy” Rousey’s trash talk coupled with 4 win streaks that ended via armbar in under a minute landed her a fight for the Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Championship. Her opponent, Miesha “Takedown” Tate, aims to teach this rookie a lesson and expose that Ronda’s talk is cheap. Don’t miss out on what will probably be the biggest women’s MMA event of the year taking place Saturday, March 3rd. Tune in 10pm ET on Showtime to catch all the action.
The rookie Ronda Rousey has zipped to the top of the women’s MMA spotlight in just 4 pro fights. She agreed to cut 10 pounds to fight for the Bantamweight Title and it will be the first time she has fought in that weight class in a pro fight. Even with the weight cut she will be coming in as the stronger of the two. Ronda is a 4th dan Black Belt in Judo and has taken 6 Olympic medals home in Judo. So far Ronda has been able to very quickly and almost effortlessly, takedown opponents using mostly Judo. She knows how to quickly transition to an armbar after getting the takedown.
That is Ronda’s pedigree: takedown opponents and get an armbar. She uses ground and pound sometimes to create openings for the armbar and mixes up her takedowns but her go to techniques are no secret. Although we haven’t seen Ronda pull guard for the armbar, she has successfully tapped an opponent from the bottom guard position.
Miesha Tate is an all around fighter with a strong submission grappling and amateur wrestling background. She is on a 6 win streak and will be defending the Strikeforce title for the first time. In her last fight she was able to submit Marloes Coenen, who was the better striker. Tate, like her nickname implies, uses takedowns to score points and keep the fight on the floor.
Here are the Strikeforce betting odds on this match over at the BetDSI Sportsbook:
MIESHA TATE +225
RONDA ROUSEY -285
Interestingly enough, Miesha Tate the current champ, comes in as the underdog. Although Tate has also finished 4 fights in the first round, she hasn’t done them all consecutively or finished the fights as quickly as Ronda Rousey has.
There are a lot of questions up in the air about this fight such as: Who has the striking and submission advantage? Both fighters, especially Ronda, have used striking mostly to close the distance to grapple for a takedown. Tate has mediocre stand up and showed in her last fight that it can use a lot of improvement. Rousey on the other hand, has hardly exhibited any stand up at all in any of her fights as she closes the gap quickly to takedown and submit opponents.
Ronda is undefeated while Tate has never been submitted but KO’d once. All the hype surrounding this event is justified as the results will give us much needed insight into what these two fighters are truly capable off. Not to mention the winner will most likely have to defend the belt against only once defeated Sarah Kaufman, the fighter who handed Tate her last loss.
