UFC 200, here we come.
UFC had made it official that Holly Holmes’s next fight will be against Ronda Rousey. The rematch is set to take place at UFC 200 aimed for July 9th in Las Vegas. Dana White reported to the LA Times that “Ronda’s next” for the women’s bantamweight champion despite protest from her manager Lenny Fresquez. Fresquez expressed that Holly’s not used to sitting on the shelf that long and wouldn’t mind taking a fight against No.1 contender Meisha Tate in the meantime. “Holly’s used to staying active,” Fresquez said. “We’re from the old school and we believe the No. 1 contender is there for a reason. … [Tate] deserves a shot, but it’s not for me to decide.” Dana obviously took the request with serious consideration when he responded with a sarcastic “We’re real concerned with his opinion,”- referring to Fresquez. However, an opinion he should be concerned with is that of a one Ronda Rousey who in a recent Espn interview expressed that she would need sometime to recover physically and mentally from the mauling that took place at UFC 193 in November.
“It might be three to six months before I can eat an apple, let alone take an impact.”
Three to six months? Isn’t that pretty much exactly when she’s meant to take the rematch against the woman who broke her face in stunning fashion? This fight doesn’t make sense to us or the rest of the world, but apparently Dana White knows something we don’t – he claims he’s been in contact with Rousey several times a day since her loss.
“I’ve made no secret about it. She’s one of my very close friends,” White said. “Ronda is the fiercest competitor I have ever met in my life and she’s also very proud,” White said. “What made the world love Ronda is that Ronda absolutely 100% knew she was not going to lose. … People rallied around this powerful female figure.
I think that recent comment explains it all. The fact that Dana White is “close friends” with Ronda has skewed his decisions and made him bias towards certain fighters, Ronda in particular. But is this fight good for Ronda? I don’t know. Maybe she’s claiming to be more hurt than she really is as a strategy to get Holmes to put her guard down. In the same interview, ESPN reporter Ramona Shelburne claimed that other than some slight “puffiness” around her mouth Ronda looked physically fine. I haven’t seen the medical records, so I digress. I do know however that Dana gives zero F-@cks about the current champion Holly Holm in this situation and that her fight team should take this as a sign of disrespect. The fact that he could disregard their voices so easily and is in constant with her competitor on an intimate basis doesn’t bode well for the kickboxing phenom. There are other theories too. Maybe it’s less about either competitor and all about the dollar bills. With the fight so far out the UFC can build Holly Holm up in a media storm the same way they did for Ronda Rousey. This way when they dance in July the whole world will know and be emotionally invested in both fighters leading to huge ticket/pay per view sales, maybe the biggest of all time. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to get the latest and greatest in MMA news.
