Exploring the math behind the Rousey Mania.
I’ve seen with my own eyes the pasty white flesh of red headed Irishmen in a Las Vegas pool giving exactly not one pook in the world about the sun and it’s harmful effects it has on really white people, that saved up money and maxed out credit cards to fly across the pond and watch Conor McGregor fight. I’ve seen the proud, tall and ridiculously good looking Swedish people turn out in massive numbers to support Gustafsson. I’ve seen people drive across the country to watch GSP, Couture, Henderson, Rua, Jones… earlier in his career and even the new to the UFC Dariush.
I get it when it comes to national pride and heroes. I understand that completely. You see someone who looks like you, who talks like you and from a place similar to yours that in some ways acts like you and people are drawn to that. They can identify with that and love that person. With Conor it makes sense that the Irish support him so much, outside of Conor there are about five athletes from that country, so, I mean. Take your pick. But I’m always a little dumb founded when I hear that Ronda Rousey is the biggest draw. I get Brock Lesnar, he brought a whole bunch of adult male soap opera fans with him. Yet I still don’t understood Ronda Rousey. And that isn’t to say she’s not good. She is, I think she could beat men in the same weight class and potentially up one, outside of the champions. She simply is, the best female fighter on planet earth. But, I have yet to meet someone who absolutely loves her that won’t shut up when talking about her. Someone that will fly across the world to see her or that pays $59.95 to see her. I’ve never heard anyone get excited to see her. And yet, she is the highest paid, largest draw and most famous of all UFC fighters.
This is like Justin Beiber. I don’t know his music but I do know who he is even if I couldn’t pick him out of a line up of three other similar people, if I heard two songs of his and you said name that tune I’d just stare at you and blink and ask you to play something else. But that guys sells millions of albums, but who the hell is buying them? Do you know anyone with his music? Same as, who the hell is paying for these Rousey fights and these Rousey shirts and going out to watch these Rousey movies and where are all these fans that make her the most famous, largest drawing athlete not only in combat sports but in all sports.
Even if we said, okay, well, there are more females on earth then let’s say, Mexicans. And that is true, because there are. Lots more. But let’s break that number to 1% of all females on Earth are actually into fighting and I don’t mean, willing to get dressed up and go sit in a free seat and drink $14 plastic cups of wine, I mean, they watch it on their own and check news and visit website everyday like the rest of us. So of that 1%, let’s say 75% hate Rousey just because she is pretty and is another female. So, 25% of them actually like her. Let’s just go with the assumption there are 3 billion females on Earth. That’s 7,500,000. Which honestly, is me being super generous in terms of Women on earth who love MMA. Because there is some girl right now in Budapest who has no idea what I’d be talking about.
Now, let’s go back to Mexico. We will all just agree that every single Mexican on Earth even the drug cartel guys love either the UFC, fat guys wearing mask and wrestling or boxing or Soccer (Football). All of them, every single one of them and it’s probably all the sports I just named. That’s 122 million. Total (smaller number than I thought). But Cain Velasquez and whoever else… Canelo don’t have numbers like Rousey. So who and where are all of these fans? And why are they her fans? Again, she’s the toughest of tough cookies I agree. But are people watching to see her lose (Floyd Mayweather/Conor/Diaz’s) are people watching to see something incredible (Fedor, Silva) because we sure are not seeing competitive fights. And we won’t. Cyborg will NEVER. AGAIN. NEVER make that weight. And if she does, she’ll lose. No one is going to get as good as her and at best she will not train for a fight and someone will ruffle her feathers a little before they lose. That’s the best case scenario.
The difference between Rousey and every guy fighter is this. A guy gets a chip on his shoulder and the desire to be champion and he drives himself insane getting there. Once he does once he has fame and money, once he is having girls ask him to bang them in the bathroom while he microwaves his burrito in a gas station, mission accomplished. Career over. Guy’s don’t know how to deal with that fame or attention. We just don’t. So we train less or wrong or get distracted or your girlfriend wants a gosh darn puppy or whatever, it happens. Girls don’t do that. Rousey has an angry chip on her shoulder and girls don’t lose those. She’s use to people trying to bang her everyday everywhere she goes since she was 17, that’s nothing new, she’s use to training and multitasking.
The best thing Rousey can do, long term, is call it a career right now so we can at least see some competitive fights and we don’t see her injure herself stubbing her toe on the way to the octagon. Will she have a great acting career? Meh. She’s pretty as a fighter. But when she stops having to cut weight and goes up about 15 to 20 pounds and is standing next to a pretty actor, then all a sudden she isn’t all so pretty that coupled with the fact that she’s probably not the best actor in the world, meh. They only shoot so many action movies a year, she can’t be in all of them. Probably will, but it’ll get old.
She’s trained her whole life. She’s 28. Which means she’s had 20 years of wear and tear. I’d say go out on top with your two trillion fans and two billion (not true) dollars and just enjoy life GSP style. In the meantime, I need to know how she is the largest draw, because I’ve never actually been to her fights and have never really met one of her die hard fans. Are you one? You reading this? Am I wrong? Write in the comments if I’m wrong. Because I have yet to meet real fans.
