UFC Champion Ronda Rousey Honored By Being First MMA Fighter To Grace The Cover Of ‘Ring Magazine’
In a little more than two weeks, Holly Holm – the seventh-ranked MMA fighter in the UFC women’s bantamweight division – will have the biggest fight of her career when she takes on the undefeated UFC women’s bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey. Prior to her MMA career, “The Preacher’s Daughter” was creating a legacy in the world of boxing. Sporting a 33-2-3 record, Holm has fought the best in the sport and held numerous boxing championships including the WBF Female, IBA Female, and WBAN Welterweight titles.
Pertaining to being a feature, Holly Holm has consecutively won “female fighter of the year” twice in Ring Magazine in 2005 and 2006. However, her opponent Ronda Rousey now has a first with the popular boxing magazine for she is the first MMA fighter to grace its cover. Not only that, Rousey is the second female to grace the cover too.
The announcement for Ronda Rousey landing the cover for Ring Magazine was first announced on Monday, October 26, 2015, in which she will be featured for the January 2016 issue. According to Fox Sports, Rousey becomes the first mixed martial artist to ever be on the magazine’s cover.
Ronda Rousey being the first MMA fighter to grace Ring Magazine is just one of the prestigious honors she received for the January 2016 issue. Throughout the magazine’s history, there has only been one other female to grace its cover and that was Cathy “Cat” Davis almost four decades ago back in 1978.
In all fairness, the cover’s subtitle insinuating that Ronda Rousey might conquer boxing next highly unlikely to happen. It was probably made to instigate people outside of the magazine’s reader base to take a gander at it when it hits shelves. Besides that, the fact Rousey did land the cover of one of the most well-known boxing magazines in the United States says a lot.
Not everyone is happy with Ronda Rousey gracing the cover of Ring Magazine though. According to Bleacher Report, MMA and boxing (which is often called the “sweet science”) are combat sports, but have major differences. With this fact in mind, hardcore boxing fans and hardcore MMA fans are at times as different as day and night. Therefore, many of the former have expressed their disdain for “Rowdy” being on the cover of Ring Magazine when other prominent female boxers could have been offered the honor. They even go as far as to say the upcoming issue “might have missed the mark with Ring‘s target audience.”
Needless to say but hardcore MMA fans have retaliated back at the hardcore boxing fans. This is especially true with MMA Roasted who actually takes a jab at boxing fans with their dig on the argument.
Ronda Rousey is on the cover of “The Ring” Magazine. This has really upset America’s Boxing fan.
— MMA Roasted (@MMARoasted) October 27, 2015
The fact boxing fans are upset an MMA fighter was featured on Ring Magazine is surprising because MMA fighters do utilize boxing as one of the disciplines when taking on opponents in the cage. Featuring Ronda Rousey, however, was probably a call on her cross-over appeal and popularity more so than her abilities in boxing. If Ring Magazine really wanted to feature an MMA fighter for their boxing abilities, they would have reached out to Holly Holm, not Rousey.
Holly Holm might make history by possibly being the first MMA fighter to defeat Ronda Rousey. Holm has that chance at UFC 193: Rousey vs. Holm, which takes place on Saturday, November 19, 2015 at the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia.
[Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images]
