The queen is dead. Long live the queen! Over the weekend, Holly Holm took down the seemingly invincible Ronda Rousey with a picture-perfect kick to the neck. Now a division that seemed locked in a Rousey stranglehold has been blown wide open. What’s next for the two women and the 135-pound division? Here are some of the possibilities.
An Immediate Rematch: This is the most likely scenario; UFC president Dana White has already said, “The rematch makes a lot of sense. The rematch is what people would want to see,” and Holly Holm has agreed. But immediacy in this case doesn’t mean next month. The fight will probably go down at UFC 200 on July 2 in Las Vegas.
That may seem like a long time away to keep Rousey and Holm on the shelf, but the UFC is famously adverse to risking its big fight opportunities just to keep fighters busy. Their new UFC heavyweight champ Fabricio Werdum has been sitting on the sidelines since July 2015 and won’t fight again until March 2016 in order to preserve an immediate rematch against former champ Cain Velasquez as well. The UFC is nothing if not patient when it comes to guaranteed big-money fights.
A Quick Rousey Turnaround: That being said, if Ronda Rousey demands an early non-title fight to get back to her winning ways and erase the memory of her lying unconscious and bloodied on the canvas, the UFC probably wouldn’t refuse her. Beating the brakes off Miesha Tate again sounds like something everyone could agree to. Ronda gets a game opponent with a history and Miesha gets the Ronda fight that was yanked out from underneath her.
But the UFC likes to keep a challenger or two in the wings, and Tate is the obvious go-to woman in the event Ronda Rousey loses again to Holly Holm. Other potential (fodder) opponents for Ronda from the women’s bantamweight division: Amanda Nunes, Julianna Pena, Jessica Eye, and Germaine de Randamie. And as a dark-horse candidate, Gina Carano. The UFC was in negotiations with the original face of women’s MMA to fight Rousey in the summer of 2014, but Carano ended up landing a role in the upcoming Deadpool movie instead. With Ronda no longer seeming as invincible as she once did, a fight with Carano might appeal to Gina and the fans more than it did before.
Why Not Cyborg vs. Rousey? No one seems particularly enthused about that fight except for Cris Cyborg and the fans. Officially, it’s all about weight — Cris still hasn’t made 135 pounds yet and Ronda refuses to fight her until she does. On the UFC’s side, this fight is the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao of women’s MMA, and they want all the pieces in perfect position before doing it. That means Ronda with the belt and her aura of destruction re-established. They may also have an ulterior reason to stall: Ronda has mentioned Cyborg as her final MMA opponent, and you know they want to squeeze as many fights out of Rousey before she leaves for Hollywood.
So What About Holly Holm? With Holm winning, the division has been blown wide open. Where the rankings were formerly a conveyor belt moving toward the destructive inferno that was Ronda Rousey, now you’re going to see a lot of fighters clamoring to get a piece of the new champ. Holm’s performances leading up to her shot against Ronda Rousey weren’t all that impressive (two decisions, one of them a split), so there’s a lot of hope from the women’s bantamweights that Holm has Rousey’s number. A different style of fighting could certainly unseat the new champ.
But don’t expect the UFC to throw Holm in against anyone before UFC 200. They’re going to wrap her in bubblewrap and pack her away until next July for the big money rematch. A fight with No. 1 contender Miesha Tate earlier doesn’t make sense because the UFC isn’t hot on Miesha right now (she complained too much about getting screwed out of her last title shot, apparently), and there’s no one else whose resume calls out for a title shot. There’s no doubt in my mind that Holm will sit out until July. If for some reason the Ronda rematch disappears (a knee injury on Ronda’s part, a longer sojourn to Hollywood, etc.), then a Cat Zingano win could put her next in line for a shot at the belt.
