Ronda Rousey Tries To Sell Fans On Gina Carano Fight, Does Horrible Job

COMMENTARY | Ronda Rousey plans for her next fight to be against Gina Carano, according to a recent report from WebProNews, but she’s being a little obvious in her attempt to promote it as something worthy of a pay-per-view buy.

Indirectly countering criticism that the fight would be a joke because Carano’s last fight was a devastating knockout loss five years ago, Rousey had this to say:

The feeling of distance and timing and feeling and all that, that stuff doesn’t go away if you take time off. Those things are always with you. That’s your bicycle.

And I’m sure Gina is 100 percent serious about it. She is not going to start training once the fight is announced. She’s already been training for months and months and months. I think she’s already started quite a while ago, and she only has me in mind, and so I expect that she’s going to be extremely prepared and a very dangerous opponent despite what other people would like to speculate.”

Um, no.

There have been countless examples in boxing and MMA of a fighter with too much time off getting their rear end handed to them upon return.

Just as a quick example, look at current UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez. It may be hard to believe now because he’s plowed through nearly the entire division, handing out dominant losses to Junior dos Santos and Brock Lesnar, to name two, but after taking 13 months to come back from an injury, a supposedly “100 percent Velasquez” fought dos Santos upon his return and was decimated via first round knockout.

http://youtu.be/wnY64rJ0buM

Meanwhile, Ronda Rousey gives Christiane Justino Santos (aka Cris Cyborg) no respect whatsoever, and Santos was the person who KO’d Carano at the height of her Strikeforce run, effectively retiring her, until now.

That’s what makes Rousey’s recent comments seem like a shamelessly obvious sales job to drum up interest in the fight. The truth of the matter is, you take five years off, you have ring rust. Doesn’t matter how great of shape you’re in. It’s unavoidable.

Meanwhile, the rest of the division hasn’t come close to Ronda. Pitting her against Gina Carano is a blatant mismatch designed to capitalize on the two fighters’ names for the sake of PPV buys, and deflect attention from the fight that everyone wants to see but Rousey and Dana White refuse to book: Ronda Rousey vs. Cris Cyborg.

And if the comments above weren’t enough to send your eyes rolling into the back of your head, Rousey tried even harder to put Gina over:

Gina is the worst style matchup for me possible,” Rousey said. “She’s the only girl that I feel like has the best feeling and the best sense of distance.”

She continued,”There are very few women that have had one-punch knockout power. There are other girls that they overwhelm the other person. They get TKOs and stuff like that. But Gina has one-punch knockout power, and that’s the kind of person that I have to be the most cautious of. That’s the style that’s the worst for me, and ever since the beginning, I’ve been positive that Gina is the worst style matchup for me.”

Okay, that’s it. We’re done. What do you think, readers? Does a Gina Carano and Ronda Rousey fight have any appeal whatsoever? Share your thoughts in our comments section.