Former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar has heaped praise on Ronda Rousey for her dominance of the women's bantamweight division, but he has urged her opponents to up their game.
Lesnar, who captured the UFC's blue riband title in only his fourth fight in the sport, was speaking on ESPN on Tuesday (h/t Damon Martin of Fox Sports) and was effusive in his praise for the UFC bantamweight champion, but not for the other competitors in her weight class.
"I think she's a super athlete in a weak division. I really do," said Lesnar. "She is a man among women in the women's division. I take my hat off to her."
Lesnar went on to explain how tough it must be for Rousey having to juggle this newfound fame with what will surely be a meticulous training regime, per Martin:
She's doing an excellent job at what she's doing. I don't know how she's juggling everything — movies and this, that and the other thing, going to Brazil and kicking butt over there and doing all the stuff she's doing. My hat's off to you, Ronda. ...
... I'm not taking any talent away from her at all. But I think she's a super beast — a super freak in the women's division.
Lesnar is not the first person to call for others in the bantamweight field to step up and give Rousey a run for her money.
Miesha Tate, who has lost to Rousey twice, told Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times that "it's getting to a point where the [UFC] girls need to step up and prove it's not a one-woman division." She also suggested that MMA fans will quickly start to lose interest if the American sensation's dominance continues.
However, Chamatkar Sandhu of MMA Junkie thinks that given the recent improvements made by Rousey, she'll have to explore other avenues:
Rousey legitimately gets better everytime we see her. Miesha Tate & every other bantamweight doesn't stand a chance. Make the Cyborg fight.
— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) August 2, 2015
As aforementioned, a potential showdown with Cris "Cyborg" Justino has been discussed in the wake of Ronda's 34-second dismantling of Bethe Correia earlier this month.
There has been some speculation about a catchweight bout—Cyborg typically fights at featherweight, which is 10 pounds more than Rousey's usual 135-pound limit—but the American's camp has insisted that if a fight happens, it must be at bantamweight, per David St. Martin of MMAFighting.com.
But as noted by Lesnar and MMA journalist Mike Chiappetta here, at this stage in her career, Rousey has a plethora of options to explore:
Speaking of RR, Cyborg needs to stop talking & do something to make the fight happen. Rousey is moving away from her. She doesn't need her.
— Mike Chiappetta MMA (@MikeChiappetta) August 5, 2015
It'll be intriguing to see what route Ronda takes next after cleaning out the bantamweight division; a bout with Cyborg would be a tantalising one, bringing the two finest female exponents of MMA in the sport's history together inside the Octagon.
To maintain sharpness going forward, Rousey will have to remain on her toes and, with so many other commitments to fulfil, ensure that complacency doesn't creep in. If that does prove to be the case and the rest of the division heeds Lesnar's scathing words, Ronda will know as well as anyone that she could easily get caught out in a discipline as unforgiving as MMA.
