Bringing Out The Beast: Ranking Ronda Rousey’s Five Best Feuds

ronda rousey ufc 190
Getty Image

As the undefeated and sole UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion, “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey is someone people probably shouldn’t mess with. However, in practice, she’s had more than her fair share of beef, usually with opponents, but occasionally with those who’ve never even stepped into the octagon with her.

Ahead of her title defense at UFC 190 on Saturday night, here are our top five favorite Rousey feuds:

5. Charmaine Tweet

One of Ronda’s least known about feuds came early in her career against Charmaine “Not So Sweet” Tweet. They were scheduled to fight, when, according to Rousey, she was offered a chance to take a huge step up, both in competition and profile, and face Gina “Conviction” Carano. As Rousey tells it, Tweet threatened to sue her for breach of contract if she took the fight, leaving Rousey to face Charmaine.

Outcome: Rousey wins by first-round arm destruction.

4. Floyd Mayweather

This is Rousey’s most one-sided feud, in more ways than one. Obviously, they will never face each other in any type of legitimate combat sports. Additionally, it seems that Rousey is the only person involved aware that there’s a feud going on in the first place. Mayweather has said he doesn’t know who Rousey is, while she has taken numerous verbal shots at the undefeated boxer.

Outcome: Rousey wins by verbal TKO, Mayweather refused to engage. Mayweather wins by having a castle made out of money.

3. Miesha Tate

The least necessary feud of all-time. There has been bad blood between these two since before their first fight in Strikeforce. Tate felt that Rousey was being pushed up the rankings too quickly, and that got under Rousey’s skin. At the weigh-ins, there was some forehead-on-forehead pushing, and Tate felt that Rousey should have been fined. During their first bout, Rousey destroyed Tate, bending her arm like a pipe cleaner.

These two crossed paths again during the filming of The Ultimate Fighter, when Tate replaced an injured Cat Zingano. Tate and her boyfriend, Bryan Caraway, led the charge in pranking Rousey and her head coach, Edmond Tarverdyan. Rousey responded with middle fingers nonstop, even during a rock climbing challenge that she not only won, but did so while going on a crash weight cut to motivate her team. During the second fight, Tate did the unthinkable and lasted beyond the first round. In fact, she made it all the way into the third round before Rousey sunk an armbar, though it was far less gruesome than the first one.

Now that Tate defeated Jessica Eye at UFC on Fox 16, she has once again become bantamweight title challenger. Should Rousey defeat Bethe Correia at UFC 190 (spoiler alert: she totally will), Rousey and Tate will meet for a completely unnecessary third time. Will Tate last beyond the third round? Will Rousey finally literally remove Tate’s arm? One of those outcomes is far more likely than the other one!

Outcome: Rousey by arm annihilation.

2. Cris “Cyborg” Justino

The second feud that’s least-likely to end in an actual fight, behind that Mayweather business. Cyborg and Rousey have been exchanging words for years, and it seems unlikely that it will ever stop. Cyborg has accused Rousey of being scared to fight, and that Rousey is ducking her because Rousey made her MMA debut at 145 pounds, but now fights at 135 and refuses to move up in weight. To that end, bantamweight has a much deeper roster of talent than women’s featherweight, as evidenced by some of the women Cyborg has beaten up in her Invicta bouts. Rousey has responded that Cyborg is a steroid-fueled cheater, and if she would stop juicing, she could get a little leaner and make a real attempt at dropping to 135 pounds, which is the biggest women’s division UFC has. It’s gotten to the point that even Rousey’s mom, AnnMaria De Mars, has taken potshots at Cyborg.

Outcome: Rousey wins by MOMALITY.

1. Bethe Correia

This war of words has quickly surpassed any other beef Rousey has had with another person. Correia started off mildly enough, by defeating Rousey’s friends and mocking their Four Horsewomen hand gesture. Nothing too crazy, right? Once the fight was announced, Correia kept things interesting by saying she would punch the “wart” off Rousey’s face (Rousey contends it’s a beauty mark, like Cindy Crawford has). If the war of words had stayed at that level, their upcoming fight at UFC 190 would have a little more interest to it.

However, Correia turned things way up, first by saying that Rousey is a fake crybaby who turns to drugs when she loses, and Correia hopes Rousey won’t return to drugs after losing. That’s close to being below the belt, but Rousey did admit to developing a marijuana and Vicodin habit after ending her Olympic judo career.

Then, Correia cranked the intensity up by at least 9 million notches when she said she hopes Rousey doesn’t kill herself after being defeated in Rio. While that’s a terrible thing to say to anyone, it’s extremely insensitive to Rousey because her father committed suicide after a sledding accident left him paralyzed and in rapidly deteriorating health. Correia apologized for the remarks, saying she wasn’t aware of the situation, but it rang a little hollow.

Outcome: Correia verbally DQ’d. Physical outcome: WATCH UFC 190 ON SATURDAY!

getty_rousey-correia-467063180
Getty Image

×