Everyone knows Ronda Rousey can grapple. The UFC female bantamweight champion is a two-time Judo Olympian and has won all of her MMA fights via arm bar submission.
Heading into this Saturday's UFC 170 main event where she'll defend her belt against Olympic wrestling silver medalist Sara McMann, Rousey recently told USA Today that she's also a good striker. Well, "Rowdy" went a bit further than that, actually.
"My MMA striking is the best in the game," Rousey said.
Rousey showed powerful punching in her last win, at UFC 168 in December against Miesha Tate, when she stunned her rival several times throughout the bout. The champ admits that her transition to MMA striking from strictly Judo grappling has been a challenge.
"It definitely is a challenge," she said.
"With judo I spent so many years with a certain posture that the hardest thing was adjusting it."
That said, the twenty seven year-old certainly feels as if she's well on her way to making that adjustment. Whereas she was once able to simply bull rush her way into a clinch situation where she'd be able to use her excellent take downs, Rousey said she's reached a point where more advanced striking technique is required of her to keep on winning.
"I've reached a certain level of competition where what's required out of striking to come into the clinch to grapple is a lot more complicated than at the lower levels," Rousey said.
"It requires much more high-level footwork and striking to be able to use grappling at all."
Do you think the fight Saturday will come down to who is the better striker between these two grapplers, Rousey and McMann? Let us know in the comments section.
Follow Elias on Twitter @EliasCepeda & @YahooCagewriter
Rob Broughton Mike Brown Junie Browning Paul Buentello Josh Burkman
No comments:
Post a Comment