Ronda Rousey continued her stretch of utter domination at UFC 190. Facing bitter rival Bethe Correia, the UFC champion stalked forward and slung heavy leather, a strategy never before employed by Rousey. It worked brilliantly, too, as she pressured Correia to the cage, unleashed a devastating series of punches and knees that sent the Brazilian faceplanting to the mat in front of a raucous Brazilian crowd.
It's a kind of domination rarely seen in MMA, and it's a kind that has made selecting next opponents in advance an almost standard maneuver.
Rousey will next face her old foe, Miesha Tate. The two have fought twice before, with Rousey taking both wins via her signature armbar. With that in mind, it's worth taking a close look at their previous fights in order to determine if the third outcome will be any different.
Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey
It's easy to forget how much negativity was going on surrounding the first fight between Tate and Rousey. The losses of legends like Fedor Emelianenko and Randy Couture were still fresh. Jon Jones was not yet a mainstream attraction. Conor McGregor was still working towards the CWFC featherweight title.
Oh, and Cris "Cyborg" Justino? A failed drug test robbed women's MMA of its only star, making it unclear whether women's MMA would still exist by 2013. Tate, remember, was still largely unknown at that point, having spent almost her entire career in regional promotions or fighting on the barely watched Strikeforce Challengers cards. Rousey was gaining momentum, but many were questioning whether an armbar specialist with a Judo base had any real staying power.
Showtime didn't quite know what to make of either woman and fell back on their sex appeal to push the fight. Come Sunday, however, it wasn't Rousey's looks that everyone was talking about. It was her pure ferocity.
Rousey did not look especially brilliant in her first fight with Tate. Tate swung wild against Rousey, and the Judoka was visibly flustered.
Eventually, however, Rousey found her groove. She nailed a picture-perfect throw. She isolated the arm. She straightened it and then folded it backwards over her thigh.
The fight was a sloppy affair from a technical standpoint. Both ladies' striking shone a vivid green, and neither looked like a complete MMA package. That didn't matter, though. What mattered was that Rousey looked like the WWE version of Ken Shamrock: a vicious, merciless, limb-destroying machine. Style has always been more important than substance when it comes to combat sports and boy, did Rousey have style.
UFC 168
UFC 168 was the point where the steak started to catch up to the sizzle for both Rousey and Tate. Following a contentious season of The Ultimate Fighter, both fighters upped their game in a big way.
Rousey began to display much more confidence in her striking and showed a new discipline and poise in her attack. While she was visibly uncomfortable in Strikeforce whenever Tate was on offense, at UFC 168 she did great work controlling when and where the action took place. Tate showed off some new skills of her own, surviving numerous grappling exchanges with one of the best submission artists in the game.
Unfortunately, the one thing Tate couldn't do was work her wrestling. While the matchup of Judoka vs. Wrestler typically breaks in favor of the wrestler, Rousey's perfectly solid base allowed her to repeatedly use Tate's momentum against her, resulting in takedown after takedown. Eventually, Rousey found a way to lock in the armbar and that, as they say, was that.
Both had clearly grown, but in very different ways. Rousey's repertoire was expanding in a focused direction, which complimented her established Judo base. Tate, on the other hand, was sharpening the tools she already had and specifically working to counteract Rousey.
Was that the right approach for Tate? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, she was clearly a better fighter than she was 20 months earlier.
Rousey vs. Tate 3
Neither Rousey nor Tate have plateaued since 2013, and both have continued improving.
Rousey has debuted a devastating clinch striking game perfectly suited to soften up opponents for a big throw. Not only that, but she has shown an almost veteran savvy that allows her to deal damage in the frantic scrambles along the cage.
Tate, unfortunately, hasn't had as much opportunity to grow and actually seemed to regress for a time. Since joining the remodeled Xtreme Couture team, however, she has polished her striking in a big way and put on an amazing performance against a solid Jessica Eye last month. While it's impossible to pick against Rousey at this point, Tate looks better than ever.
For Tate, the key to victory is keeping Rousey at a distance and landing that much-improved right hand. For Rousey, she just needs to stay in her comfort zone and control the pace of the fight.
Will the outcome be any different than their first two fights? Maybe. Maybe not. However, it's hard to deny that Tate isn't the greatest threat to defeat Rousey at 135 pounds today.
