We live in an age where Floyd Mayweather and Michael Jordan have warped sports fans’ psyche.
Competitive sports are set up for one loser and one winner, rarely does a team or athlete go through their entire career/season without tasting defeat. In fact, some of the best to ever compete in sports, especially combat sports, suffered losses in their careers. Ali lost several times but his comebacks are as much of his legacy than his dominant wins. Tom Brady’s undefeated Patriots team lost to the New York Giants; that didn’t stop him from moving forward and winning more championships. The point being, sports are made for athletes to fail in the largest moments and prove that they are great enough to recover.
Only today do we shame athletes for not being perfect. LeBron and Kobe can never be Jordan because they’ve lost in the Finals. Boxers are still chasing the ghost of Floyd Mayweather and his undefeated record. We must realize that dominant athlete such as those two are anomalies and in the world of combat sports Rocky said it best, “It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!”
Ronda Rousey suffered her first defeat in the world of MMA but it isn’t her first defeat in life. Before she was “Ronda Rousey the superstar” she was a bronze medal winning Judoka. Even in a sport she’s trained in for her entire life, she lost. She rebounded from that, refocused, and became the fighter you see today.
Like most athletes, she came up short on a particular day. It doesn’t mean that she’s suddenly inept, it just means that she has to train harder to avenge a loss. Now she must learn how to fight someone with just as much experience and skill as her. If successful, Ronda can set herself up for a 2nd act that is far greater than her first.
The UFC knows that as well as anyone. They’ve seen their champions lose unexpectedly and they’ve seen how great a rematch can be for the sport. GSP lost to Matt Serra, in what is considered to be the biggest upset in UFC history. He was knocked out in the 1st round of that fight and if Twitter was prominent he would’ve fallen victim to the same barrage of memes as Rousey. He decided that being a champion meant something to him and his return is what people remember. He ended his career on a 12 fight winning streak and is considered one of the greatest fighters of all time.
Those saying the UFC can no longer market Rousey because of a loss are short sided. This loss may actually keep Ronda in the UFC longer because it gives her a renewed hunger. No longer is she dreaming about becoming a WWE or boxing champion, she’s a MMA fighter and she now has something to prove.
If the UFC holds off the rematch until UFC 200 in July it’ll headline what will surely be the largest card in UFC history. Ronda could’ve fought Tate or a dehydrated Cyborg that night and drew a great deal of interest but now as the underdog the fight becomes 3x as intriguing. That head kick visual will be used in every promo campaign shown next summer and Ronda will have to sit and soak it in. Fans will wonder if Ronda is back better than ever or if Holm is truly her kryptonite. The hype alone will drive the PPV above the 1.5 million mark.
Sure, if Ronda loses a rematch she likely retires. At that point history has been made and similar to Lesnar’s loss, the UFC will move forward. Will it take another 100 UFC PPVs to build up a mega-star? Possibly.
But the UFC and Dana White would’ve turned a division that they thought would never exist into the highest grossing fight in UFC history.
I say that’s a win for them.
