A Heel is a villain character. Heels are portrayed as behaving in an immoral manner.
A Face is a hero character. Faces are portrayed as being moral or approving.
In even simpler terms, in the world of sports, athletes are often separated into good guys and bad guys.
Being the BAD GUY in sports isn’t always a bad thing no pun intended, especially in the world of fighting sports.
A lot of people don’t remember even someone like Muhammad Ali was considered a “bad guy” for many years because of how he expressed himself, his religion and political stances. Aside from that he called Joe Frazier a man who had given him money when he was broke an Uncle Tom and Monkey.
Public perception can change as time passes, see Ali for example and even now with Mike Tyson. Popularity is an interesting thing because it isn’t so much how you are perceived, but how much you get people to care about how you are perceived.
Which brings us to Ronda Rousey and Floyd Mayweather.
Even though Rousey would be the “FACE”, she started the feud by taking shots at the fact that Mayweather has hit women before and she would like him to try it with her.
Mayweather who normally will ignore these type of things, preferring to handle slights behind the scenes, made this infamous comment when asked about Rousey.
“Who is he?”
Mayweather apologized, but it was too late by then, Rousey has continually poked at him since that time. Rousey admits that part of this is PR and it is smart PR because no one is a hotter face than Rousey now.
She is Stone Cold Steve Austin during the Attitude Era and Goldberg at the peak of his WCW run all rolled into one. She is universally loved by everyone, media, fans and other athletes across all sports. That is almost impossible to do in 2015 where embrace the debate still rules the day.
People are comparing her to a Young Mike Tyson, she was named the most dominant athlete in the world. A lot of this is hyperbole, but her record and the way she thoroughly dispatches her opponents so viciously and quickly lives up to the Tyson Hype.
No one will admit that she and Mayweather have things in common, but they actually do.
Let me explain.
When people talk about dominant athletes, Rousey name is mentioned along with the likes of Serena Williams, LeBron James and others.
You rarely hear Floyd Mayweather in that discussion, but you should, especially when you consider this stat, which I think is one of the most amazing stats in sports history.
Mayweather has fought 48 times, 375 rounds and 144 scorecards have been turned in over his 19-year-career.
In those 19 years and 144 scorecards only ONE TIME has a scorecard has been turned in where a judge scored Mayweather losing a fight and it was a bad scorecard at that (115-113 scorecard in favor of Oscar De La Hoya).
That is total domination for almost two decades, that is unheard.
When I started watching Rousey, my first assessment was that her competition just wasn’t that good, but the more I watched, I realized that the competition was fine, Rousey just made them look really really bad.
This is something else she has in common with Mayweather. Rousey gets praised for the way she runs through her opponent because she does it in an exciting and brutal way. Mayweather gets downgraded for it because he does it in a more methodical and technical way. Both brilliant, both deadly, just two different styles.
People always think a boxer might beat Mayweather then Mayweather makes him look so totally powerless against him people end up thinking the boxer is a bum. Many boxers fight Mayweather and are never the same again or they go back to looking great, when they aren’t fighting someone as skilled as Mayweather.
Mayweather is so good that just someone looking decent against him is considered a win. Take Miguel Cotto and Marcos Maidana for example, both made Mayweather uncomfortable, but neither was close to winning, but they get credit for giving him a tough fight. Mayweather made Canelo look like an amateur and when we finally got Mayweather-Pacquiao, what happened?
Mayweather made Pacquiao look so bad, that he had to essentially hype up an old injury to save face. So, is Mayweather knocking people out like Rousey, no, but is he as dominant as Rousey absolutely. Rousey’s opponents look helpless against her, like a woman beating on a child. They are good fighters, but when they are in octagon with her, they look like they don’t even belong in the sport. Great fighters and athletes always have the ability to make their competition look much worse than they really are.
The other thing they have in common is they are both acutely aware, that what you do inside the ring or octagon can only get you so far. You need to have a persona, you have to make yourself bigger than your sport so you can crossover into the mainstream.
Rousey was built for mainstream. A badass woman, with a beautiful smile, sexy body and a good speaker. Essentially she is a mutated Gina Carano. Everything has fell into place for her, she is playing her cards beautifully and unless she just starts losing the world is hers for the taken. She can become the UFC’s version of The Rock, where she uses this to springboard herself to movies, TV and whatever else she wants to do.
Mayweather use to be “Pretty Boy” Floyd, but that wasn’t working for him, so the “Money” persona was created and made him the richest athlete in sports.
A defensive fighter who isn’t a heavyweight and doesn’t put on particularly exciting fights is the highest earning boxer of all-time. They should teach a business class on this. In 2015, the way you handle yourself off the field is as important of anything you do on it. Mayweather and his adviser Al Haymon have changed the game by essentially selling a BRAND.
So, they may hate each other now or are just using each other to expand their respective brands, but by keeping their names linked together it is helping both their personas. Mayweather and Rousey are two of the most dominant athletes in their sports for reasons that aren’t that dissimilar.
People like to talk about a fight between Rousey and Mayweather, because we talk about everything these days. Rousey would have no shot at Mayweather in a boxing ring and Mayweather would have a 50/50 shot at Rousey in the Octagon, just a matter if he could stay on his feet long enough to connect with a punch. If Rousey gets any person on the ground male or female, it is over. While them fighting in a real fight will never happen just remember this last thing.
At some point Mayweather is going to retire and Rousey is going to move on from UFC.
WRESTLEMANIA IN VEGAS!!!!
It could happen remember this post.