Performance or Marketing? The Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey Debate
“Complete with 100% more unintentional rhyming titles!”
Women’s MMA is a funny place right now. You could argue that it hasn’t had this kind of momentum since Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos, and Gina Carano had their very publicised fight back in August 2009. A couple of months back, there was a real interesting scenario going on in Strikeforce and their beaming female division. Missed it? Allow me to fill in the blanks for you.
Back in July of 2011, Miesha Tate submitted Marloes Coenen to become the new Strikeforce Bantamweight Champion, at the Fedor vs Henderson event. Yay! (I’m a big Miesha fan, sue me!) After her big win, may were calling for her to fight Sarah Kaufman in a rematch, as many were saying that Kaufman was the “Rightful” #1 contender, after she defeated Liz Carmouche via Unanimous Decision at Strikeforce Challengers the week before.
Move up 10 pounds, and you have the Featherweight Division. Dominant Champion Cyborg Santos was still inactive…(We now know why), while Ronda Rousey was going on a tear, and most recently, submitting her 4th straight opponent via Armbar, Julia Budd, in just 39 seconds. Shortly after her win, with the momentum behind her, she announced that she was going to drop down to 135 pounds, and was wanting a title shot immediately against Miesha Tate.
The battle lines well and truly set. Miesha was arguing that Ronda should be getting a title shot so soon, while Ronda had another debate for her wanting a shot, instead of Sarah Kaufman…Let’s split the argument here, dissect it, and debate either side.
The Tate Argument: Performance and Achievement
Miesha’s argument for Ronda NOT getting the title shot, was a fair one in essence. She didn’t want Ronda Rousey to be #1 Contender as she had done very little in HER weight class in order to have the right to face her. And as I said, it’s a fair point.
Rousey’s plan is to come down from 145 pounds at Featherweight, to fight at Bantamweight. Yes, she was indeed 4-0 at that weight, but it’s not like she fought and beat anyone at the weight class she wanted to aim for, at 135? Like a Sarah Kaufman or a Alexis Davis for instance, so she can fairly establish herself and got an idea if she was indeed “Worthy” of a title shot?
See, this is the thing. MMA as something competitive, like the UFC for instance, has been around for less than 20 years, with the UFC/Zuffa banner headlining the “Art”, right now. Miesha retaining that emphasis of MMA being a sport first, is a noble and honorable one, similar to the Olympics for instance. I have said in the past when fight bookings come across as a tad one-sided, or made more as an exhibition, that if MMA has to grow, it has to have something like a ranking system, rather than just promoting fights “for the sake of it”.
Look at Sarah Kaufman, who’ll have to wait even longer for the title opportunity she was promised, and have to risk her position on the division by having a rematch with Alexis Davis, on the March 3rd Strikeforce card.
For instance, look at Boxing, which, similarly to the UFC and in MMA in general, doesn’t have a unified governing body, so promoters can book whoever they want to fight each other, so you have to ask, if sport’s defined as a “Competitive Competition”, how competitive is it when promoters can abuse their fight bookings at any time?
So as I said, Miesha definitely has a claim, and I agree with her, that booking logical fights would definitely help legitimize MMA as a “Sport”. But how about the other side of the coin, with Rousey?
The Rousey Argument: Market Yourself
Ronda Rousey would probably be the first person to admit that she hasn’t paid her dues in Miesha’s weight class, or has the resume to be a legitimate challenger just yet. But her approach is different. Ronda right now, may be the hottest (Looks wise, and popularity wise), thing in Women’s MMA right now. After exploding into MMA from her Judo past in the Olympics, she’s quickly made a name for herself not just in the cage, but out of it, being interviewed, videoed and modelled a lot in interviews, photoshoots and media in general.
She has a character, a confidence, and not being afraid to say what she means, and comes across extremely genuine. And the way she gets coverage, has used that as an argument to get a title shot at 135 pounds. And it worked, because she WILL get that shot, come March 3rd.
The thing is, is that MMA is a business first, before anything else. These companies, from the UFC’s to the M-1 Global’s of the world, know that at the bottom line, they need to make money in order to survive. With Rousey having the ability to talk a good game, they can use her marketing and drawing power to sell this fight and increase viewership for the event. Which is obviously great for the promoters pockets.
Example? Brock Lesnar. Never the best fighter in the world, but because of people’s curiosity and excitement for his past in the WWE, and him trying to make it in the NFL, bought Pay-Per-Views in the million’s to see him get fast tracked to the UFC Heavyweight Championship. It didn’t last long, but the point was, he made the company a HELL of a lot of money, which is good for everyone, except maybe Frank Mir’s hamburger patty of a face after UFC 100, but that’s another story…
Another man who’s made a name for himself due to his marketing and character would be Chael Sonnen, who in the past has made jokes and entertaining interviews bashing Brazilian fighters, and in particular, Anderson Silva, before, and after his Championship fight with him after UFC 117 in August 2010.
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To me, the funny thing is…They’re both right. MMA isn’t a sport, it’s a business, and they need to put fights like this on sometimes to draw people in, especially with Strikeforce leading the way in terms of Women’s MMA right now. What do you think readers? Should this fight have been booked? Would you have rather seen Kaufman get the shot? Or don’t you really care about the politics and can’t wait for two lovely and talented women to beat the bejesus out of each other? Let me know below!
I’ve been Andre Harrison, thanks for reading, and Sayonara!
18 Jan 2012, 1:00 pm
Awesome breakdown Andre.
My two cents are that Rousey deserves the shot as Kaufman has sat back and as we have seen with the likes of Nick Diaz, who called out GSP after defeating BJ Penn at UFC 137, leapfrogged Carlos Condit to number one contender status.
Unique fight between wrestler and judo. Grapplers delight. Can’t wait! (For the weigh in
)
18 Jan 2012, 1:11 pm
If it’s anything like Felice Herrig weigh-in’s, we’re in for a treat!
What’s odd is that Miesha and Ronda come across really friendly outside the cage, yet still trash talk to sell the fight…Not really how it works ladies!
To me, I love the matchup, and I’m a big Miesha fan, so I’m set regardless!