By Micah Hinchliffe:
It’s clear from her record of lethal armbars that Strikeforce champ Ronda Rousey is both a competitive and intelligent female fighter. Following her dominating victory over Miesha Tate at Strikeforce: Tate vs Rousey on March 3rd “Rowdy” Ronda seemed to show little remorse for the apparent breaking of her opponents arm- hardly the ‘kiss and make up’ scenario most fans envisioned would happen. In a recent interview with Jonathan Snowden at BleacherReport.com Rousey gives an account of how she saw the Miesha Tate fight play out in her mind and the advantages of her olympic judo background:

“I’m used to that situation, because I’ve seen it so many times. In judo a lot of people will turtle like that and hope the referee comes in to save them. It didn’t happen by accident. I kind of led her to turtling up.

She ended up in the turtle position because first I threw her, then I jumped across her body so I could get my knee on her belly, which led to the mount, and she turned out of it. I forced her onto her stomach and from there, the only way she could get out was to turtle up.

It’s not quite chess, where I know where she’s going to be in five moves. But I know with every move what her options are and the answers to every one of them. So it’s kind of like being a step and a half ahead.”

Many fight speculators imagined the 5 round title bout between Tate and Rousey would have lasted longer then any of the other quick submission wins under Rousey’s belt, yet despite criticism of her stand up game and the threat of Tate’s takedown, Rousey pulled off the impossible by securing a beautiful armbar transition win. Having already damaged Tate with blows, Rousey refused to go for the bog standard TKO win and went for the glory, her legacy, the armbar submission.

Indeed, if Rousey is correct in her description of how she implements her ground game, future contenders such as Sarah Kaufman have a lot to fear when going on to the ground with the strong Judo player. One thing is for certain in the future of Women’s MMA, “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey is a force to be reckoned with.

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