Try this on for a little perspective: We’re three years and change into the UFC’s experiment with women’s MMA, and on the biggest fight weekend of the year, it’s the women who end up headlining back-to-back fight cards – all without Ronda Rousey, the one who got us here.
Strange, right? Or is it a sign that women’s MMA has worked out as well as it possibly could have for the UFC, which started a one-woman show and ended up with a kick-ass traveling band?
Joanna Jedrezejczyk
Start with Friday night’s TUF 23 Finale. In the main event, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, the charismatic UFC women’s strawweight champion, battled her way to a third consecutive successful title defense after probably the toughest test of her career in a rematch with Claudia Gadelha.
This capped off yet another season of “TUF,” one which depended on the rivalry between Jedrzejczyk (12-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) and Gadelha (13-2 MMA, 2-2 UFC) to drive ratings after 23 domestic seasons of the same old thing. That clash of personalities made for good hype, and the clash of styles made for a thrilling fight in which momentum swung back and forth between challenger and champion for five bruising rounds.
In the end, there was Jedrzejczyk. Still champion. Still stubbornly likable, even after a season’s worth of reality TV bullying of her most hated rival. Still one of the UFC’s most quietly dependable champions, representing its newest and most hastily created division, and doing so with flair and style.
Just imagine going back to 2011 and telling UFC President Dana White, the same man who answered “never” when asked when women would fight in the UFC, that soon he’d be this grateful for a 115-pound Polish woman whose name he couldn’t spell, much less pronounce. Imagine it just to picture the look on his face.
Then there’s tonight’s UFC 200 main event, the one pitting women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate (18-5 MMA, 5-2 UFC) against challenger Amanda Nunes (12-4 MMA, 5-1 UFC). This is the division Rousey (12-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) built, the one the UFC adopted and then populated with supporting cast all so Rousey could be the star.
And, for two-and-a-half years, she was the star. She didn’t just prove that people would tolerate women’s fighting if a pretty blonde was doing it. She proved that the right female fighter could eclipse a roster full of men, and bring in fans who never thought they’d be paying 60 bucks to see a night of professional cage fighting.
She also reached beyond the MMA bubble with her own career, crossing over into mainstream films and becoming a genuine star even when she wasn’t wearing four-ounce gloves, which is a big part of how we got here, to a fight card headlined by two women who aren’t her.
Holly Holm and Ronda Rousey
The other part, of course, is the headkicking southpaw terror Holly Holm (10-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC), who broke Rousey’s face and then got subsequently choked to sleep by Tate, thus throwing the division into a sort of refreshing chaos.
But see, here’s where you almost can’t help but return to the questions we asked when the UFC first embraced women’s MMA, which is to say when it embraced Rousey and reluctantly acknowledged that, well, she had to fight someone.
Back then we wondered, what happens if Rousey disappears? If she loses, or just loses interest, or makes so much money in movies that she doesn’t need to bleed for a living anymore, what then?
Now that’s come to pass, at least temporarily. And look around. The women’s divisions in the UFC haven’t cratered. In a lot of ways, they’ve flourished.
There might be no other single female fighter who can pull Rousey numbers all on her own, the same way no other featherweight can pull Conor McGregor-sized audiences, but the two women’s divisions are still going strong. They’d better be, if the UFC is relying on them in the top spot two nights in a row.
Although a Rousey return still seems likely, her eventual full-time departure is inevitable. We knew that when this whole thing started. That’s what worried those of us who wanted to see women’s MMA as a fixture rather than a fad in the UFC. No fighter does this forever, and no one does it alone. Eventually, the landscape has to fill up around them.
And, in the UFC’s women’s divisions, it has. It’s a hell of a landscape, too, one filled with excellent fighters and interesting personalities and compelling conflicts, just like the best men’s divisions.
It kind of makes you wonder how it could have realistically worked out any better. Even if there were a time when UFC executives might have told you that a Rousey-less women’s main event was a scenario that couldn’t be any worse.
For more on UFC 200, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
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