Floyd Mayweather has taken a pot shot at Ronda Rousey in the wake of her devastating loss to Holly Holm at UFC 193, although it came via the Instagram account of his close friend, rapper 50 Cent.
Rousey and Mayweather have been involved in a bitter war of words since 2014, triggered by the latter responding “I don’t even know who he is” when asked about the UFC star, per Liam FitzGibbon of FOX Sports. There have been various exchanges back and forth since, with plenty waiting for Mayweather’s verdict since Rousey was knocked out in Melbourne.
Mayweather’s first barb came via his rapper pal, who posted the following Rocky-inspired post on social media recently:
The post shows Rousey edited onto an image of Sylvester Stallone, playing Rocky Balboa in the film Rocky 4, who is tending to a dying Apollo Creed. As we can see here courtesy of BT Sport UFC, the former champion was on the end of some brutal shots from Holm:
"Unbelievable!" @_HOLLYHOLM drops @RondaRousey out cold to win the women's bantamweight title. #UFC193 https://t.co/MDPbMooJQJ
— BT Sport UFC (@btsportufc) November 15, 2015
Plenty have had their laughs at Rousey, thought by many to be unbeatable inside the Octagon, in the wake of one of the sport’s biggest upsets.
As reported by Martin Domin of the MailOnline, the 28-year-old spent the night in hospital after losing her UFC bantamweight championship to Holm. According to the piece, UFC president Dana White has claimed a rematch between Rousey and Holm would “make sense” further down the line, although the former champion is set to take a break from the sport.
Mayweather will most likely have his say directly in the future. The retired boxer, who was unbeaten during his 49-fight career, has previously put the boot in on rivals, most notably unashamedly mocking Manny Pacquiao with videos of his knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012, per Rappler.
There was some fanciful talk of Mayweather potentially going up against Rousey in a ruleless fight earlier in the year, per Reddit (warning: expletive language used). However, in the wake of Rousey’s loss to Holm, CSN’s Henry Wofford thinks talk of any bout should be shelved for good:
This is why people should stop entertaining the thought that Rousey can beat Floyd Mayweather. That topic is complete nonsense.
— Henry Wofford (@HenryWoffordCSN) November 15, 2015
Not that it was ever likely to happen anyway. Now all eyes will be on how Rousey responds from this loss and the new challenges she will have to face going forward. Mentally, will she be as confident heading into her next bout? Will other fighters feel as intimidated going up against her? These are now real issues after it was proven Rousey is indeed fallible.
She’ll also have to cope with the jibes that’ll come her way in the months to come, again, something the former undefeated champion will not have been used to. Even so, you suspect any words from Mayweather will be brushed off, even more so if they come via a third party on social media.
