We’re still waiting for this mysterious “huge announcement” about Women’s MMA that Joe Rogan was teasing last week and the rumor mills are working at full-steam. Chances are it’s a fight for Ronda, so we’ve narrowed down the possibilities on who it might be… It’s almost certainly going to be one of the 5 following women…
- Cyborg
- Gina Carano
- Cat Zingano
- Alexis Davis
- Holly Holm
The problem is, only 2 of those 5 women are even in the UFC right now. There’s no denying that Ronda vs Cyborg would be absolutly massive. If you thought Rousey and Tate’s rivalry was as mean as it could get, you haven’t seen some of the back and forth when Cyborg gets chirpy.
A few things to consider…
- After the FN37 scrum, Dana immediately had to hop on a plane to Vegas. Maybe an important meeting? Negotiations? An announcement to make?
- Joe Rogan, in no uncertain terms, said there was a huge wMMA announcement coming this week when discussing the topic of Ronda’s next fight.
- Cyborg has been actively calling out Ronda and the UFC to give her a shot at the belt.
- Dana White says he doesn’t really know Gina Carino, hasn’t talked to her about making a return to MMA. He said she’s attractive, he likes her, wouldn’t rule it out.
Narrowing it down even further…
Alexis Davis is currently ranked #4, and didn’t look phenomenal in her last performance. She may get the shot, but it doesn’t seem as likely as some of the other possibilities. They might let Ronda and Alexis go at it while they prep a huge fight between Ronda and someone else in order to keep the champ busy, mind you Ronda has said she doesn’t want to fight again until late summer since she’s got 2 movies to work on in the meantime. Let’s assume that Ronda takes some time off, works on other things, and doesn’t get another fight in the meantime, that more than likely means the big announcement isn’t a fight with Alexis Davis. Alexis is a great athlete, but she’s not quite ready for the title shot based on her last outing.
Holly Holm would definitely put Ronda’s striking to the test since she’s an 18-time boxing champ, the problem here being that she’s not currently in the UFC and she hasn’t fought tough enough opponents to warrant a title shot before someone like Cat Zingano. Cat’s been out for quite a while with injuries and personal tragedies. She should be good to start training again anytime now, so this is a likely possibility for who Ronda will fight next. It would be a big fight, with a really interesting story behind it and everybody rooting for Cat, but it wouldn’t do as big of numbers as a Cyborg or Carano match-up would.
For the sake of argument, let’s say it’s not Davis or Holm.. and Cyborg needs to finish off her current contract and prove that she can make weight at least a couple of times, and then possibly earn her title shit in the UFC so its unlikely that would all happen before summer so let’s scratch her off too. That leaves us with Carano or Zingano. Taking into consideration that Gina hasn’t fought for ages, and has shown no indication of coming back and it’s all based on rampant speculation… And that Dana White has previously said Cat Zingao would be able to start training again right around this time, it seems pretty likely that the big woman’s MMA news is going to be a Cat Zingano vs Ronda Rousey fight late summer… The match-up we should have had all along.
Ronda vs Cyborg has the potential to be one of the biggest fights ever, mark my words, but it’s probably not the next big announcement.
What do you think…?
Update: Moments ago Cat Zingano came out and said she’s ready to fight Ronda Rousey, and that a fight against Cyborg would be fun too. Zingano vs Cyborg for the title shot? That would be fun, but Cat’s already earned her shot at the belt and Cyborg’s still a few fights away from proving she can make 135 without dying.
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