UFC Women’s Bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is the fastest growing star in the world’s fastest growing sport. In a little over two years in the UFC, she has compiled a 5-0 record, with four first-round finishes.
She has helped sell a combined 2.9 million pay-per-view buys, headlined a sold-out Staples Center with a 14-second win over Cat Zingano and starred in three movies as well as covering Sports Illustrated and ESPN Magazine to boot.
As UFC president Dana White has said, “Ronda Rousey is a rockstar”.
I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of Rousey’s success and the impact she’s had on not only the UFC but also pop culture in a term I’ve coined as ‘The Rousey Effect’. The fact is that Ronda Rousey is a massive draw to people on multiple different levels and has impacted the lives of many in and outside of the UFC and MMA.
Firstly, as an athlete Rousey is tremendously accomplished as not only an Olympic Bronze medalist in judo but also as a terrifyingly good mixed martial artist who has compiled an undefeated record of 11-0 with 10 first-round stoppages with nine wins coming by way of armbar. She has been labelled as the ‘Mike Tyson of the MMA world’.
While Ronda’s boxing and knockout rate are a far cry from that of Iron Mike’s, like Mike, she has developed a penchant for stopping opponents inside the first round. Ronda has demonstrated unparalleled Judo skills, a vicious ability to initiate and secure armbars and an ever improving boxing game.
Gender, attractiveness, acting, modelling and everything else aside, at the core Ronda Rousey is a must watch fighter who has made a habit of finishing other women inside five minutes. Rousey may be a lot of things but at her very core she is one of the most lethal finishers in all of MMA.
Secondly, Rousey is one of the most marketable fighters and athletes in professional sports. Rousey is ranked #34 by sportspromedia.com in their top 50 most marketable athletes as her wealth of external opportunities and exposure make her a beacon for advertising and promotion alike.
Earlier this month Rousey released her first book “My Fight/Your Fight”, will feature in the upcoming Entourage movie which comes out next week, her third credited appearance and appeared at Wrestlemania and on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and that’s all just in the first half of this year.
Her external marketability has helped the UFC immensely in terms of selling tickets and attracting viewers, but it has also helped open the door up to a previously untapped female demographic which has seen significant increases in participation since Rousey’s rise to prominence, at least according to one famous BJJ instructor.
Similarly to David Beckham’s impact on the MLS, Rousey is having a similar level of influence on women’s MMA and jiu-jitsu, albeit on a smaller level. Founder of 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu and jiu-jitsu black belt Eddie Bravo recently said on the Joe Rogan podcast that every time Rousey wins 10 to 15 girls show up the following Monday to sign up to jiu-jitsu classes.
There has been next to no formal research on Rousey’s effect on female participation rates in MMA, but Bravo seems as good as any to comment on the state of jiu-jitsu and if he claims that more girls are coming along to jiu-jitsu because of Rousey, I’m inclined to believe him.
Although I don’t quite agree with all that Rousey says, in particular facing Jon Jones or the possibility of beating Cain Velasquez, there is no denying the impact she’s had on female teenagers around the world and on women in sport in general, from both a performance and self-marketing perspective.
Rousey will defend her Bantamweight title against Bethe Correia at UFC 190 in August, as the 28-year-old looks to extend her undefeated streak to 12-0 inside the octagon and tie with Demetrious Johnson for the fifth most consecutive title defences in UFC history. Rousey has been installed as the 1/12 favourite for the fight and should comfortably take care of Correia in the main event before (hopefully) shifting her attention towards Cris ‘Cyborg’ Santos.
Cyborg would prove Rousey’s biggest challenge of her professional mixed martial arts career and a genuine threat to Rousey’s Bantamweight crown, but if Cyborg was able to put an end to Rousey’s ridiculous run at the top of women’s MMA the job has already been done. While her antics are sometimes questionable and her behaviour can often be erratic, her impact and influence on MMA, women’s sport and pop culture in general is unquestioned.
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