There are a select group of women unfortunate enough to have been across the Octagon from Ronda Rousey. Miesha Tate is one, having lost to the undefeated star on two occasions, and she thinks the UFC sensation would have no problems dispatching of iconic boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Rousey and Floyd have been involved in a war of words in recent weeks, with the former claiming she would beat the boxer in a ruleless bout during a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session, per Motez Bishara of CNN.
Tate agrees with that assessment, insisting that if the two were to square off, once Money was on the ground, Rousey would go to work:
Floyd is a great, great boxer, but boxers meet in the center and agree to box. When you take that away and someone rushes in and the ref doesn't break up the clinch for you, and you don't know how to wrestle or stop a throw — I'm sorry, he's going down.
From there, she would arm bar the hell out of him.
At the moment, both Rousey and Mayweather are at the peak of their respective sports. Ronda has been in sensational recent form, ploughing through opponents with ease and via the deployment of a variety of different technical skills.
BreatheSport provides us with a visual representation of Rousey’s dominance inside the Octagon:
Ronda Rousey is the most dangerous unarmed woman in the world... pic.twitter.com/Fyu9858InR
— BreatheSport (@BreatheSport) August 5, 2015
Mayweather is also riding the crest of a wave. The man known as “Money” beat Manny Pacquiao earlier this year in the most lucrative boxing bout of all time.
Indeed, speaking with ESPN's SportsCenter (h/t Gareth Davies of the Daily Telegraph), Mayweather’s earlier response to some previous Rousey barbs was “I've yet to see any MMA fighter, or other boxer, make over $300 million in 36 minutes. When she can do that, then call me.”
Next up for Mayweather will be Andre Berto, a bout that is being billed as his last. It has failed to capture the imagination of fight fans around the world, however. Dan Rafael of ESPN took a swipe at Floyd’s choice of opponent during the press conference to announce the fight:
For the hundreds that are interested the #MayweatherBerto presser is beginning. #boxing
— Dan Rafael (@danrafaelespn) August 6, 2015
Perhaps it’s because these two extraordinary competitors have conquered all before them that crossover fights are being discussed. But it's all rather futile. Even Mayweather, as brash and talented as he is, would probably admit he’d struggle to take down an MMA expert in a frantic scrap, because boxing and MMA are completely different disciplines.
Talk of these hypothetical matches should inspire other competitors in the division to do more to reach Rousey’s levels. “It's getting to a point where the [UFC] girls need to step up and prove it's not a one-woman division, that others are pretty close, or on the same level, or potentially better,” Tate encouragingly admitted previously, per Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times.
But MMA Junkie’s Chamatkar Sandhu thinks that given the standard of Rousey’s recent displays, she’s genuinely run out of options:
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
There’s plenty of chatter about a potential bout with Cris “Cyborg” Justino, who typically operates at a weight 10 pounds heavier to Rousey, per MMA Junkie. Aside from squaring off against Tate for a third time, that seems to be the only other option for the UFC women’s bantamweight champion, unless we’re to see another ruthless beatdown.
As for Floyd, you suspect he’ll have no problem with a selection of recent jibes from the MMA stratosphere. After all, once he's conquered Berto in September, Mayweather will walk away from boxing as a very wealthy man with absolutely nothing to prove to anybody.
