Girl Fights

I really like it when the UFC gets things right.

The recent defeat of the dominant female bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey, is an example of this.

She was not beaten by a lucky shot, but was totally dominated for the entire 5 minutes and 59 seconds that the fight lasted. At that point, she suffered a crushing knockout.

At first, the UFC did its usual short-sighted schtick. They were all about an immediate rematch.

It turns out that Ronda received a medical suspension due to the nature of her loss, and the earliest that a do-over could occur would have been July. Then it came out that the damage to Ronda was so bad that even July would have been too soon. It took a while for the UFC to come to terms with this.

None of this even takes into account that to have a chance of winning a rematch, Ronda would have to seriously change up her game. That would take time.

So for a while it looked like the elite of the women's premier division were going to be sitting it out for maybe a year. Holly Holm, the new champion was already politely suggesting another earlier match.

I guess their gut reaction was, “why risk a huge-money fight by letting Holly put-it-on-the-line for a smaller payout?”

This makes sense, but not if you figure out the options.

Holly wanted to fight Miesha Tate; the best fighter below the Holly Holm/Ronda Rousey championship cream. It would draw a moderate amount of money for both the fighters and the UFC.

If Holly wins, it would pump up interest in the Holly/Ronda rematch even more, increasing the gate significantly. Net result; a decent payday for Miesha and Holly, and an even more humongous one for Holly and Ronda.

If Miesha wins, the compelling future fight is still Holly/Ronda. The rematch should still go ahead even if Miesha beats Holly, as that one isn't really about titles at all. It's about the best female fighter of all time trying to regain her glory. The cool thing about this option is that no matter who wins the eventual Holly/Ronda rematch, the winner of that match-up would have a huge money fight lined up to take on Miesha for the title. Net result; a decent payday for Miesha and Holly, and a huge on for Holly and Ronda, and another big one for the winner of that fight, and for Miesha.

Keep in mind that when I say that the woman will be making more money this way, it also means that the UFC will as well.