Can Ronda Rousey alone continue to grow women's MMA?

 

Fifty-four seconds. That's how long it took Strikeforce 135-pound champ Ronda Rousey to submit Sarah Kaufman with the one move that Kaufman had to know was coming, the same one she had months to prepare for but still couldn't stop.

Fifty-four seconds. You can't microwave a Hot Pocket in that time. If you only took 54 seconds to brush your teeth, your mother would tell you to get back in there and do it again.

The fact that Rousey so easily dispatched a fighter who not so long ago stood atop the division reminds us that what's really amazing is not just how she keeps catching opponents in the same submission, but how easy she makes it look. Maybe even too easy.

From Rousey's perspective, the second round must seem like little more than a myth. She fights like she's robbing a bank and somebody just hit the alarm. If not for introductions and post-fight interviews, she could get all her work done during the commercial breaks of a soap opera and she'd hardly ever miss a plot point.

STRIKEFORCE CEO:  Women's MMA 'is here to stay'

But since there's almost no way to talk about female MMA without talking what is and isn't "good" for the division as a whole, we might as well ask it: Is Rousey the messiah women's MMA has been waiting for? Will the charisma and obvious talent of one fighter make the entire division more appealing to fans and maybe even the UFC? Or does her easy stroll through the biggest challenges her weight class has to offer just prove that, as UFC President Dana White has said, there's a lack of depth among female fighters?

It's a complicated question. On one hand, her fame alone has to help. The more people who see her on talk shows or on the cover of magazines, the more people who are likely to want to tune in on fight night and see what she's all about. And the more people who see her fight, the greater the chance that some teenage girls out there might take up martial arts instead of other sports. Fellow Olympians in judo or wrestling or even boxing might see Rousey's path to fame and fortune and decide to follow her into MMA once their amateur careers are over. A few years of that, and we're bound to have more female fighters, which means better competition all around.

Then again, it's hard to build a sport on the back of one athlete. It wasn't so long ago that Gina Carano was the face of women's MMA. After taking a beating from Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos, she discovered there were easier paychecks to be found in Hollywood, where the blood is fake. Now we only hear from her when she has a movie to promote. It makes you wonder whether Carano ever did as much for women's MMA as it did for her.

But Rousey is different. Not only is she a far more dominant fighter than Carano, who was accused of benefitting from some generous matchmaking at times, Rousey also seems less capable and/or interested in doing anything else for a living. From video game cameos to American Gladiators reboots, Carano demonstrated an eager willingness to monetize her fight fame in any way possible. Rousey still seems, shall we say, a little less polished. While Carano was the type who might only talk about fighting someone in the parking lot if she read it in a script first, when Rousey mentions the possibility of some extracurricular fisticuffs you get the sense that she's done this before.

That all adds up to one very marketable fighter, and you can understand why White is so impressed with her. Then again, if the only female fighter who could conceivably fight in the UFC is Rousey (and even then, only in a purely hypothetical future, according to White) that's not exactly encouraging for anyone who doesn't happen to be her opponent in that bout. At that point, you're not promoting female MMA -- you're promoting one female MMA fighter. Pretending otherwise would be like saying that just because Bob Dylan still plays to packed crowds, folk music is as popular as ever.

There are still fights out there for Rousey. There's Santos, assuming she and Rousey can agree on a weight. There's the still-unbeaten Sara McMann, who has an Olympic medal of her own to match against Rousey's. If either of them fights Rousey, it's headline news. If they fight absolutely anyone else, it's not.

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker says we should stop worrying about the future of women's MMA, because clearly it's here to stay. I wonder how much comfort that is to the female fighters who still struggle to find enough fights, let alone hefty enough paychecks, to allow them to devote themselves to this full-time. Women's MMA might be here to stay in the sense that it won't completely disappear any time soon, but surviving isn't the same as thriving.

Rousey's success could change that. She's become an almost instant superstar, even if the speed with which she's risen through the ranks makes some people wonder about the quality of those ranks to begin with. As of now, we still don't know how good she is. She's like a sports car with no straightaways to stretch out on. You know it's fast, but you have no way of finding out how fast.

There's an undeniable appeal there, and that appeal may help the sport in general as more people tune in to see how high Rousey's speedometer will go. Maybe her success will convince other women to take up MMA, and maybe one of them will even prove to be better at it than she is. Maybe, with a little better scheduling on the part of Strikeforce and Showtime, fans will start tuning in to see Rousey fight and accidentally catch other great female bouts, such as the thrilling battle between Miesha Tate and Julie Kedzie that was somehow relegated to Saturday night's prelims. Maybe, in this way, the rising tide will lift all ships this time, rather than propelling one all the way out of the harbor, never to be seen again.

What women's MMA has right now is one phenomenal talent. What it needs is a division. Rousey, as dominant and exciting as she is, can't do it all on her own. She also can't do it forever. Let's hope that by the time her career in the cage gives way to whatever's next, she'll have left the sport in better condition than she found it. In other words, let's hope she can do the exact opposite for women's MMA as what she has done for the arms and elbow joints of her opponents. Let's also hope she takes her time for a change.

Ronda Rousey Moving to UFC, Strikeforce to Fold After January Show

 

When Strikeforce was forced to cancel their second consecutive event earlier this year, everyone assumed the end of the organization was near, even though the company announced plans for a return in January.

Thursday morning, a trio of title fights and Daniel Cormier’s long-awaited Heavyweight Grand Prix follow-up fight were announced, and the sheer volume of awesomeness scheduled for their January 12th card in Oklahoma City made it clear that Strikeforce was loading up for one final show. Thursday night, that news was confirmed, and it came with an additional note — Ronda Rousey is officially moving to the UFC.

The news was first reported by TMZ, and subsequently confirmed by Ariel Helwani at MMAFighting.com. Obviously, the news of the UFC opening their formerly “No Girls Allowed” doors to the Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion is an historic moment, but this shouldn’t be surprising to anyone.

UFC President Dana White has been enamored with Rousey for some time. As soon as the Olympic bronze medalist turned Miesha Tate’s arm inside out to become champion, she became a bankable star, and talk of bringing Rousey over to the UFC – even if only for a one-off showdown with Cris Cyborg – began to swirl. Late last month, White said that women fighting in the UFC was “absolutely going to happen,” and there was no question that Rousey would be the centerpiece.

The 25-year-old California native has become a superstar in the 18 months since she made her Strikeforce debut. Though she has just six professional bouts under her belt, Rousey has won all six contests by first round submission, drawing a tap from each of her opponents with her signature armbar. She was featured on the cover of ESPN the Magazine’s Body Issue, and has quickly become one of the most recognizable fighters in the entire sport.

There have been no announcements made as to when Rousey will debut or who will share the cage with her in the first female contest to take place in the Octagon. While Cybord seems to be the popular choice, the Brazilian star is currently serving the final few months of a one-year suspension, and has balked at the idea of moving down in weight to fight Rousey. A rematch with Tate is a possibility, as is a pairing with fellow Olympian Sara McMaan. A silver medalist in freestyle wrestling, McMann also boasts a 6-0 record and holds victories over veterans Shayna Baszler and Hitomi Akano.

While Rousey’s impending arrival in the UFC has garnered the lion’s share of the attention stemming from this story, the announcement that Strikeforce will shutter their doors entirely following the January 12 event stands to have a great overall impact on the UFC.

The confirmation that this event will be Strikeforce’s last clears the way for a litany of intriguing talents to be transferred to the UFC roster early next year. Here’s a quick division-by-division list of fighters you can expect to see making their way into the Octagon in 2013 (C denotes divisional champions):

Light Heavyweight: Gegard Mousasi, Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante, Ovince St. Preux, Gian Villante

Middleweight: Luke Rockhold (C), Lorenz Larkin, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, Tim Kennedy, Adlan Amagov, Robbie Lawler, Derek Brunson, Roger Gracie

Welterweight: Nate Marquardt (C), Tyron Woodley, Jordan Mein, Tarec Saffiedine

Lightweight: Gilbert Melendez (C), Josh Thomson, K.J. Noons, Jorge Masvidal, Ryan Couture, Caros Fodor

There will be some interesting calls that need to be made in each division as well. Will former UFC competitors like Keith Jardine and Jorge Santiago get another opportunity to compete in the UFC? Will unproven younger talent like Nah-shon Burrell, Chris Spang, and Guto Inocente be retained? With the UFC already having tremendous depth at welterweight and lightweight, will they keep the number of transfers to a minimum, and cut loose everyone else, producing a sudden and unexpected glut of free agents?

Regardless of how those questions are answered, the eventual arrival of fighters like Rockhold and Melendez to the biggest stage in the sport is exciting. Both have dominated their respective divisions over the last year (two years in Melendez’s case) and had run out of viable challengers on the Strikeforce roster. Once their fights in January are complete, we’ll finally get the chance to find out once and for all how each man stacks up in comparison to their UFC counterparts.

This news also shakes up the title situations in the UFC heading into 2013. Provided Rockhold and Melendez make the move to the UFC as champions, will either (or both) receive an immediate title shot? Automatic entry into a title eliminator bout? What does that mean for the UFC holdovers who have put in their time and earned their way into contention with wins inside the Octagon?

One things for certain — as exciting as 2013 already looked, things just got even more awesome, and I cannot wait to see how all this unfolds next year.

Diaz Bros. rubbing off on Rousey; says GSP “not the kind of fighter I like watching”

 

As most of you know, current UFC Bantamweight women’s champ Ronda Rousey has been getting down and dirty with the Diaz brothers at Cesar Gracie’s camp in Cali. And while I’m sure she’s learning dirty boxing and slick BJJ sweeps, she’s also picking up some other more unsavory parts of the game (e.g. trash talk). In a recent interview with the Las Vegas Review Journal, Rousey went off on the current UFC Welterweight Champ and not surprisingly, her BFF’s next opponent.

“I respect Georges St. Pierre as a businessman and an athlete,” Rousey says. “I don’t have anything against him personally. But he’s not the kind of fighter I like watching.”
“He fights to win matches. He doesn’t fight to defeat his opponents.”
“I’m like, ‘Dude, if GSP was butt ugly, you wouldn’t want to know who he is so much.’
“I think he lucked out a lot that he’s Canadian. I love Canadians. They are the coolest, nicest, most patriotic people, and they will support their countrymen no matter what, and I think that’s commendable.
“But if GSP wasn’t really good-looking, and really Canadian, he would be really unknown.”
“I like fighters that go into it to finish it. They’re not afraid to take risks,” by saying, “I’m going to try to do something crazy, and if I end up in a bad position, I know I can handle it.”
“That confidence gets me excited.”

Geez, talk about calling the kettle black eh? Rousey calling out somebody for getting extra attention for being good looking is like Nick Diaz calling out Joe Rogan for smoking weed. You dig? That said, she makes some valid points. In a country that doesn’t have 4 major sports to compete with like here in the States, an athlete from Canada has a bigger opportunity to get more exposure than his/hers southern counterparts. But who can blame the guy? And as for GSP playing it safe…that’s old news. “It is what it is” as the office idiot says. Besides, he can’t take all the blame for that (see: UFC selecting GSP vs. Diaz over GSP vs. Hendricks). Styles make fights and the UFC let’s GSP get down with his style…just sayin’.

Rousey Photos 2013

Rousey Photos 2013

Rousey Photos 2013

Rousey Photos 2013

Rousey Photos 2013

Ronda Rousey slams Phelps for snobby behaviour at Beijing Olympics

New York, July 23 : Female MMA champion Ronda Rousey has blasted swimming superstar Michael Phelps for his snobby behaviour at the 2008 Beijing Olympics where she competed for the United States in judo.

Phelps was "kept separate" from his fellow Olympians at social functions while basketball stars like Kobe Bryant mixed and mingled like everyone else, Rousey said in a video on EsNewsReporting. com.

Rousey said when all the U. S. Olympians went on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," Phelps, who won eight golds and more medals than anyone else at those Games, was isolated from the group by his handlers.

"Michael Phelps had to be kept separate in the backstage area so he wouldn''t be harassed by the other Olympians," the New York Post quoted Rousey as saying.

"I don't like being somebody's teammate and being treated like their groupie. I didn't even want to go out of my way and go say hi to that guy. Just get over yourself. All you do is swim. If someone slapped you every time you jump in the pool, I would have a little more respect. But I was a swimmer before I did this [expletive], so you can''t even tell me swimming is this, `Oh my God,' because I've done it before," she stated.

Rousey said Phelps' behaviour in Beijing "annoyed" her.

When all the U. S. Olympians went out to a club, Phelps was again kept in a private section. Bryant, on the other hand, was "cool," she said.

"All these NBA players are a bigger deal than [Phelps] and they're all hanging out with the rest of us. I was like, `Hello, we're your teammates.' We're not a bunch of groupies. Come hang out with us. Who the hell are you?" she added. (ANI)

Strikeforce: Ronda Rousey Making a Fatal Mistake by Overlooking Sarah Kaufman?

Ronda Rousey was featured in ESPN The Magazine's "Body Issue" in 2012.

Strikeforce's Rousey vs. Kaufman event on Aug. 18 will mark yet another monumental moment in women's mixed martial arts as the top two 135-pound women headline a major Zuffa card on Showtime.

Not only is the card pretty stacked for a Strikeforce event, but the main event between Ronda Rousey and Sarah Kaufman will be historic as it is the first title defense of Rousey's reign as the women's bantamweight champion.

After weeks of trash talk and speculation on whether she even deserved the title shot in the first place, Rousey won the belt back in March when she defeated then-champion Miesha Tate late in the first round of their contest.

Since then, Rousey has seen her popularity skyrocket to levels that not even she could have imagined.

As the new "face" of women's MMA, Rousey has been getting lots of attention from reporters, Zuffa executives including Dana White and sponsors—she even found herself on the cover of ESPN The Magazine's "Body Issue" wearing nothing but her birthday suit.

From the hunter to the hunted, Rousey now finds herself looking down at a long list of challengers, the first of which she will meet on Saturday night as she battles Sarah Kaufman.

One would assume that after achieving her goal of being the champion, Rousey would be focused on retaining her title. Yet in recent days, we've seen her become increasingly interested in another potential challenger—the currently suspended Strikeforce women's featherweight champion Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos.

Cris Cyborg stands up in the crowd during the Rousey vs. Kaufman weigh-ins. (Photo: Tracy Lee of Combatlifestyle.com)

After Cyborg called Rousey out at a weight higher than 135 pounds, Rousey responded on TSN Radio's The MMA Report with John Pollack.

"She’s never had a fair fight in her life and I see how the prospect of that would scare the hell out of her and why she would insist at fighting heavier," Rousey said, referring to Santos' suspension due to a positive steroid test. "She's completely defamed, and anything she’s ever done is nothing because she is a big old cheater and she's been doping her whole life."

Then during Friday's weigh-ins, things got even more awkward when Cyborg opted to attend, stand up during the Rousey vs. Kaufman photos and wave at her foe.

To her credit, Rousey didn't seen intimidated by the featherweight champion, but based on her comments, there's no doubt that she's already looking past Sarah Kaufman and toward Cyborg.

While Rousey may very well be the best 135-pound female fighter in the world today, her challenger is no slouch.

Kaufman's 15-1 record includes victories over the likes of Shayna Baszler, Liz Carmouche, Alexis Davis (twice) and even Miesha Tate. Needless to say, the former bantamweight champion is looking to get the title back that she believes is rightfully hers.

Rousey looking past Kaufman could prove to be her downfall on Saturday night. We all know that the former Olympic judo medalist is capable of submitting anyone at any time, but Sarah Kaufman boasts an 86 percent takedown defense in her past seven fights (according to FightMetric).

She has also consistently battered her opponents on the feet. If Rousey can't bring the fight to the ground, she could be in for very long night.

The odds are still in favor of Rousey to walk out of San Diego with the bantamweight title still around her waist, but if she truly is more worried about Cyborg than the challenger in front of her, Rousey's reign will be short-lived.

 

Strikeforce bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey Over the past month, no MMA fighter has seen their star skyrocket as much as “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey. The 25-year-old Californian wowed with her curves in ESPN The Magazine’s “The Body Issue,” candidly bantered with Conan O’Brien on his late night show, and has been the subject of an All-Access series on Showtime leading up to Saturday night’s clash with Sarah Kaufman (10 p.m. ET/PT on Showtime). The reigning Strikeforce Bantamweight champ and 2008 Olympic bronze medalist (judo) sat down with me recently to talk about her fascinating one-meal-a-day diet, coffee addiction, and how mixed martial arts helped heal past insecurities about her body.

Staples of the Rowdy One’s diet …

Rousey: It’s kind of a combination of The Paleo and The Warrior diet. I pretty much eat one meal a day – which takes place at night. I usually eat between 4 and 10 (p.m.). As far as supplements go, I don’t take anything that is made in a lab. If it was on earth 10,000 years ago then I will eat it.

There is one exception to all of this each day: I get to have coffee every morning. That’s the only thing I really fudge on. A lot of athletes try to put a bunch of chemicals in their bodies, as much as they can get away with. I try to make everything as clean as possible, you know I even use a water alkanalizing machine and I try to only drink out of glass bottles when I can (to avoid petrochemicals). I try to only drink high quality water as well.

One Meal A Day? This is Crazy!

I thought it was crazy at first. Especially since breakfast was, and still is, my favorite meal. I like having a big breakfast, a medium (sized) lunch, a tiny dinner and I would usually go to bed hungry. It took a while to get used to but I don’t really get hungry during the day anymore. I sleep a lot better than I used to and I have a lot more time because I’m not planning meals all day long.

Hunger pains?

There weren’t really hunger pains when I switched to the diet. You’re just used to eating, you’re sitting around and you’re bored … sometimes you just want to eat to keep yourself occupied. But as long as I’m busy – and I’m busy a lot these days so I’m run ragged all day long – I just pretty much need coffee and I’m cool.

He (her nutritionist) wanted to take coffee out of my diet at first; we had to have a little bit of a discussion. I was like, ‘I don’t care what I have to do, but I NEED COFFEE! So that’s why we grind up a bunch of wheatgrass, parsley, cilantro and sprouts every morning – a green shot – and I take that every morning to try and combat my addiction to coffee.

Philosophy underlying her diet:

A guy named Chad Waterbury handles my nutrition. I got it all from him. The philosophy is, when you’re digesting food then your body wants to rest. If you’re hungry then your body wants to go and get food. So you have more energy when you’re not digesting food. So I can get more out of training on an empty stomach than I would on a full stomach.

On Insecurities About Her Body:

I had terrible issues with my body when I was younger because I always had to make a certain weight on deadline all the time. So people were constantly asking me how much I weighed and criticizing what I ate – so I felt if I wasn’t exactly on weight then I was ugly. People were like, ‘Oh, you’re heavy, you’re fat, you need to lose weight.’ I would get yelled at for being heavy so I equated the number on the scale with how I felt about myself. It was a hard thing to deal with if you’re a 15- or 16-year-old girl. I had a big problem with that for many years -- I didn’t like how I looked or how much I weighed.

But once I started doing MMA and got away from that old coaching, starting to do more of it on my own, I started having a healthier self-image. Being in the ESPN “The Body Issue” is something tangible that I can hold in my hands and be like, ‘OK, I’ve overcome this and I have nothing to be ashamed of because the body that I have now is being celebrated.’

Carbohydrate sources:

I usually eat carbs on alternating days. So it will usually be rice or potatoes or something like that.

Calories per day:

Pretty much I just eat until I’m full. Since I don’t eat all day my stomach has shrunk so I get full fast. So I don’t count calories at all.

On Red Meat and Chicken:

If I have red meat it must be ‘Grass-Finished beef’ not ‘Grass Fed.’ Grass Fed could be that they fed the cow grass ONE DAY and then fed it corn for the rest of its life – and that qualifies it to be ‘Grass Fed’. Grass-Finished means it has to eat grass for at least 80 percent of its lifetime … so it has to be very high quality. I also try to eat everything organic, even when I eat dairy.

Competed in Olympics (154-pound category). Fought MMA at 145 and now 135 pounds.

When I did judo I was tiny for the division. When I started MMA I walked around at 145 pounds so I fought there but I thought I could capitalize more fighting at 135 pounds and get more attention because it’s a deeper division. But I hadn’t been that light since I was like 15 years old so I went and got help for that. It’s been one of the easiest weight cuts I’ve ever done.

On being punched in her ‘MoneyMaker’:

I have a deviated septum, I have cauliflower ears, and my toes are all broken to hell. That’s just the way I look and I’m happy with how I look. So if people think an extra scar on my face would make me not movie-worthy … so I would just be a director or something like that. I can’t walk into a fight thinking, ‘Oh I need to save my moneymaker.’ I don’t care if I cut my face all to hell; I’m in there to win. You can’t walk in there scared of what might happen to you. I walk in there focused on what I have to do. If I wind up with a cut on my face, so what, whatever.

Ronda Rousey Body Issue: Publicity is Positive Sign For Future of Women's MMA

It’s a popular sentiment I’ve heard over the years, but it appears as if the landscape is beginning to shift.

Women’s MMA has been steadily increasing among the general population over the years, and it appears as if it has its first truly marketable star who is committed to the sport.

Ronda Rousey, the current Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Champion, has posed nude in ESPN: The Magazine’s Body Issue set to be released on July 13. She is putting herself and her sport on full display for the rest of the world to see.

She has an unblemished Strikeforce record and a bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics as the first American to ever win a medal in women’s judo since it became an Olympic sport in 1992.

Unlike Gina Carano, she seems to only be focused on her MMA career. A future in modeling or acting is not on the front of her mind, which is exactly what the sport needs.

Having Rousey display her toned muscles and incredibly tight physique proves to the American public that these girls are indeed a force to be reckoned with—makeup need not apply.

Other female MMA stars such as Carano and Cristiane Santos have appeared in the issue in the past, but Carano seems to be more concerned with her modeling career than MMA, and “Cyborg” is currently marred in an ugly suspension for steroids.

There needs to be a new face of women’s MMA.

Rousey cares about her sport. I’m not here to tell her she shouldn’t use this publicity to launch another aspect of her career, but there is no question she is representing all female fighters very well.

American culture isn’t used to seeing females fight, but the sentiment is slowly beginning to change. If the only way to draw more attention to the sport is to have one of its stars pose nude…so be it.

Women’s MMA is on the rise, and right now Rousey is the poster girl for the movement. The Body Issue solidifies her status.

Total Sports Babes: Strikeforce Women’s MMA Bantamweight Champion, “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey

 

If you don’t know who Ronda Rousey is, you’re probably not a fan of MMA.  If you’re a fan of MMA and you still don’t know who Ronda Rousey is, you need to head over to YouTube and watch some Ronda Rousey highlights.  Like, now.  Here, I’ll even save you the trouble

Every weekend I’ll usually tell you a little bit about the athlete or sports fan, talk about how hot she is and then post a bunch of pictures (don’t worry, they’re coming), but just pointing out her stunning good looks wouldn’t do Ronda Rousey justice.  The Strikeforce Bantamweight Champion has an undefeated professional record of 6-0 and an amateur record of 3-0 for a combined 9 wins, all by submission, all by armbar. 8 of her wins took less than 1 minute.  Her longest fight was when she took the Bantamweight title from Miesha Tate back in March, which lasted 4:27.  Rowdy Ronda Rousey hasn’t even seen the 2nd round in a professional fight.

Rousey landed a title fight after only 4 professional fights, much to the ire of Women’s MMA fighters and coaches who have been in the sport for years.  Some say her good looks and charisma played a part in getting a shot at the title so quickly, but no one can deny her world-class fighting ability.  Rousey won an Olympic Bronze Medal in Judo at the Summer Games in Beijing back in 2008.  Her first 4 fights lasted a combined 2 minutes and 18 seconds.  She’s a decent striker, and her ground game is the best in the world.  After her successful title defense against Sarah Kaufman on August 18, 2012, she’s clearly the woman to beat.

“But Hook, what about Cyborg Santos?  Isn’t she the best female fighter in the world?” Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos is currently serving a suspension for doping (gee, nobody saw that coming) which is up in December 2012.  Rousey has called Cyborg out on several occasions, most recently after her title defense against Kaufman telling Cyborg to lay off the juice and come down to 135lbs for “the first fair fight in her career” (Santos is the current Featherweight Champion at 145lbs).  While we may never see it, a Santos/Rousey fight would be the biggest women’s MMA match of all-time.

I have no shame in saying Ronda Rousey is absolutely my biggest Total Sports Babe crush right now (please, don’t tell Alex Morgan I said that).  Stunning looks, great personality, and a champion, Rousey is the total package.  If you didn’t just scroll down to the pictures in the first place, sorry for the wait.  Here’s some pics of this week’s Total Sports Babe, Ronda Rousey:

Strikeforce Women’s MMA Bantamweight Champion, “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey

Strikeforce Women’s MMA Bantamweight Champion, “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey

Strikeforce Women’s MMA Bantamweight Champion, “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey

Strikeforce Women’s MMA Bantamweight Champion, “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey

Strikeforce Women’s MMA Bantamweight Champion, “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey

Thank you ESPN The Body Issue for 3 of the pics in this gallery.  If hearts were arms, Ronda Rousey could put mine in an armbar and I’d never tap out.

That’s all we have for this week’s edition of Total Sports Babes.  Be sure to check back every weekend for more.