It’s the best time of the year, Fight Week! UFC 184 is coming up on Saturday, with a main event of undefeated “Alpha” Cat Zingano challenging equally undefeated UFC women’s bantamweight champion “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey. To get everyone hyped up for the fights, UFC has released some pretty great fights for free on YouTube, so in case you didn’t catch them the first time around, here are some of Ronda Rousey’s greatest UFC hits.
Versus Liz “Girl-Rilla” Carmouche, UFC 157
This was a momentous occasion. After Dana White had previously said that women would never fight in the UFC, Ronda Rousey emerged onto the WMMA scene, tearing arms off in Strikeforce, usually in under one minute. The UFC women’s bantamweight division was created, Ronda Rousey was given the title, and not only her first defense, but the first ever women’s bout was scheduled as the main event of UFC 157.
Carmouche is a decent wrestle-grappler with solid ground and pound, but surprisingly, she nearly catches Rousey in a rear naked choke/face crank in the first minute of the fight. It was basically the most vulnerable Ronda had looked inside the cage to that point, but she escaped the submission, got into side control and landed punches. Rousey moved into mount, grabbed an arm, and though Liz put up a good fight, Ronda straightened it and forced the tap with 11 seconds remaining in the first round.
Versus Miesha “Cupcake” Tate, UFC 168
The rematch! Ronda and Miesha had previously met in Strikeforce, where Ronda did terrible things to Miesha’s arm. Now, after a coaching stint on The Ultimate Fighter season 18, both women would meet again, this time in the world famous Octagon. Both women deeply hate each other, Miesha, because her arm was mangled by Ronda, and for Rousey, she didn’t care for the pranks Tate pulled during TUF, but I also think it’s an issue that Ronda just doesn’t like seeing the arms she has rightfully claimed out walking around again. It should be noted that this fight and the spot on TUF were supposed to go to Cat Zingano, who defeated Tate, but sadly blew out her knee, shelving her for over a year.
Tate is a good wrestler, with decent submissions, but there wasn’t a lot of expectation that she’d come out on top. She did well in the first round though, if only because her arms were still functioning normally at the bell. Rousey dominated in the second round, scoring take downs and fishing for submissions, but to Tate’s credit, her defense was solid and she survived another five minutes. In the third round, though, Ronda lands another judo throw, rolls Tate over, grabs an arm and extends it, getting the submission 58 seconds into the round. It was Rousey’s longest fight, but it ended the same way all the others had before, armbar victory.
Versus Alexis “Ally-Gator” Davis, UFC 175
Davis was a new threat to Rousey. She is the first Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Rousey had faced in the UFC (Having submitted Ediane Gomes, a BJJ black belt in her first fight in 25 seconds). Rousey had previously dispatched Olympic wrestling silver medalist Sara McMann in just over a minute with a vicious knee to the liver, but Davis was expected to be able to defend against Ronda’s armbar and test Rousey’s own submission defenses.
However, when the fight actually happened, Ronda landed a beautiful judo throw and unleashed a flurry of ground and pound that stopped the contest in the same time limit allowed for an Instagram video.
