The mismanagement of Ronda Rousey
Since her UFC 207 TKO loss to Amanda Nunes, there’s been a lot of talk of Ronda Rousey needing new…
Since her UFC 207 TKO loss to Amanda Nunes, there’s been a lot of talk of Ronda Rousey needing new coaching and teammates. She does.
There hasn’t been enough discussion of how Rousey also needs much better career management and promotion, however. Her promoter, the UFC, has shown bad judgment in rushing Rousey and matching her poorly since her 2015 KO loss to Holly Holm, and everyone involved in helping Rousey manage her career has also failed her in going along with those plans.
Let’s rewind back to the weeks immediately following Rousey’s UFC 193 loss to Holm. She was out-classed and then badly knocked out in the fight, but UFC president Dana White spoke out of turn to the world and announced that he knew for a fact Rousey was doing well and was eager to return to competition.
Rousey herself told a much different story – detailing how she was still having trouble chewing food and didn’t know when she would be healthy enough to fight again. Once Rousey did return the UFC shoved her right into another title fight.
Former two-time world champ Miesha Tate said that she believed Rousey was essentially doing the UFC a favor by fighting Nunes at UFC 207. She could very well have been right.
There certainly was no great reason for Rousey to fight Amanda Nunes in her first fight back, other than a short-term big payday. Everyone who knew anything about fighting recognized that Rousey would be in a lot of trouble against Nunes if she couldn’t get the takedown early and often.
Most knowledgeable observers could have also guessed that Rousey wouldn’t be much improved or changed since her first loss by working with her same coach and team as she was. Amanda Nunes was a nightmare match up for Rousey, plain and simple.
Beyond that, the UFC seemed to be poised to be looking past that match up and towards a Holm vs. Rousey rematch at 145lbs. Holm, of course, is on a two-fight losing streak yet is laughably set to fight for a piece of tin the UFC is calling a championship at featherweight, against Germaine De Randamie next month.
Assuming Rousey would beat Nunes was folly, if the UFC did. Assuming Holm will beat Germaine would be a bit arrogant, and thinking that Rousey would have something for Holly if they were to fight after all that, given how badly she was beaten by The Preacher’s Daughter was outright ignorant hubris, if that was their plan.
In any case, we know for certain that the UFC – now owned by Rousey’s talent agency WME-IMG in an unconscionable conflict of interest – has a vested interest in Ronda doing well and still somehow thought it was a good idea to throw her right into another title fight just months after she was knocked out and considering suicide.
With her popularity and fame Rousey could have come back against any woman, warmed-up a bit, and still sold scores of pay-per-views and made everyone buckets of money while having a better chance at getting back on the winning track. Matching Rousey with Nunes was bad promoting and worse career management for Ronda.
Now, she’s shot – at least physically for the foreseeable future, and perhaps mentally as well. The UFC and Ronda Rousey’s management played a short game that disregarded her health, overall interests and long-term earning potential.
I don’t know where Ronda Rousey goes from here, but the all-time great should start by reevaluating the people who have their hands in her pockets and the control they have over her career.
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About the author:
Elias Cepeda has served as a writer and editor covering mixed martial arts and combat sports, as well as public and cultural affairs, since 2005. He began as a staff writer for InsideFighting, and not long thereafter became publisher and editor of the page. Cepeda then went to write for Yahoo! Sports’ boxing and MMA pages, and edited their Cagewriter blog. He was hired away by FOX Sports, but after several years departed over philosophical differences with the executive leadership around important issues of journalism ethics. A student of and sometime competitor in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA since 1999, Elias brings a unique and vibrant presence to reporting, and enjoys trying to highlight shared humanity and connect common experiences from seemingly different worlds.
We are honored to announce that Elias will be writing a weekly column for The UnderGround.
