Who’s next for Ronda Rousey? With an impressive victory over Jessica Eye in her last bout, as well as being on a four fight win streak, it’s looking like Miesha Tate will get her third chance to fight Ronda Rousey for the UFC women’s bantamweight championship.
Can Miesha Win?
But, the question I have regarding this topic is whether or not the third time will be the charm for Miesha Tate. Since her last fight against Rousey, her ground game has improved dramatically because that has been her weak spot in her fights versus Rousey. As it will be for all of Ronda’s opponents. The years of work she has on the rest of the fighters is too much to make up while trying to train other disciplines at the same time.
Her last four fights have gone the distance and most of the time those fights were spent either grappling or on the ground. Tate knows that having an effective ground game is a way to compete with Rousey, but now the question is whether or not she is going to be able to handle Rousey’s striking since Rousey’s punching has improved, since she was able to knock out Correia in just 34 seconds.
In their last fight Ronda landed 134 total strikes to Miesha’s 28 and Tate was getting out struck by Eye early in their fight. Tate changed the tide with some new-found power and that could be her only hope for a win against Ronda.
Personally though, I don’t see anybody stopping Ronda Rousey anytime soon. She has dominated every opponent that she has faced and has done it in fashion as well. Whether it be grappling, striking, ju-jitsu, or wrestling, Rousey has shown that she is a well-balanced fighter that can take on anybody in the bantamweight division.
Anybody Else?
It just so happens to be that Tate is the only competition right now since she is beating everyone below her in the rankings, and she also has taken Rousey the farthest in all of her fights and has the most experience against her.
The only other competitor I see that is making her way up in the rankings and could get a title shot soon would be Holly Holm. She was a professional boxer with a 33-2-3 record as well as an amateur kickboxer. She is currently 9-0 in MMA and if she wins another fight against a top contender in the bantamweight division, then I expect her to be next in line after Tate. Other than that, Rousey has completely ran through the division and her goal of retiring undefeated seems more realistic by the day.
