Ronda Rousey is the face right now of women’s MMA as the current Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Champion. The World and Olympic judo medalist has gone from fighting on Strikeforce’s Challenger series to winning the belt and is now on the cover of ESPN’s Body Issue and making numerous television appearances. You can tune in to Conan tonight on TBS to see her.
Tonight is also the first of two “All Access: Ronda Rousey” episodes on Showtime. Don’t think that all this time in front of the cameras has taken away from her focus on fighting. As she said during the conference call held earlier today, “I don’t go after my goals casually. I sprint after them with an axe.”
Rousey is currently 5-0 as a professional MMA fighter. All of her fights both professional and amateur have ended in the first round by arm bar with only the last fight versus Miesha Tate taking her longer than a minute to finish.
The last fight with Miesha Tate was built on much trash talking between the two fighters. This time though there has been none and Rousey said it was because she has no problem with Sarah Kaufman and likes her as a person.
While people wonder about Rousey and her striking skills since they have not had a chance to be put on display when in 5 fights she has only been in the cage for less than 7 minutes, she feels it is to her advantage to keep her opponents guessing about her skill sets.
Sarah clearly feels that she has the edge in striking since she has been a striker for much longer, just like Rousey has the edge in judo since she has been working that aspect since she was 11.
Kaufman is 15-1 in her pro career and is a former Strikeforce champion herself. She won the Bantamweight champion in 2010 and defended it once before she dropped the belt to Marloes Connen by submitting to an arm bar.
Kaufman has since then won her last three fights, two by decision and one by TKO to get the chance to get her championship back.
While she knows about Rousey and her arm bar streak, she is working on being comfortable defending it but it is not her only focus for this fight. Kaufman said on being the underdog by 6-1 odds, “Hopefully my friends can win a lot of money when I win the title.”
Tune in August 18th on Showtime at 10pm Et/Pt for Strikeforce: Rousey vs Kaufman, or if you happen to be in the San Diego, California, area, tickets are still available for this event that is taking place at Valley View Casino Center.
