UFC Betting Odds Prove Ronda Rousey's MMA Dominance

Ronda Rousey has several accomplishments and titles to her name, but few will compare to the title Sports Illustrated has given the UFC fighter: World’s Most Dominant Athlete.

Welcome to the (Very Small) Club

On May 13th, Sports Illustrated released the latest edition of their magazine featuring Rousey on the cover. It’s the second time a MMA fighter has appeared on SI’s cover page, light-weight fighter Roger Huerta was the first in 2007. While Huerta’s cover was a snapshot about how the sport of MMA was on the rise, Rousey’s feature is aimed at her complete dominance in the sport. Rousey joins a disturbingly small club with the reveal of her Sports Illustrated issue – female athletes who have been given the longstanding sports magazine’s cover. According to a very thorough report on The Little Data Set, “just 2.67% of Sports Illustrated covers have featured female athletes or coaches.”

MMA Dominance

The last year has been a successful one for Rousey, filled with record –breaking performances in the cage that included two incredible victories against some of the sport’s best women fighters. In July, she clocked a 16-second victory over Alexis Davis. In February, she completely annihilated Cat Zingano in just 14 seconds in a fight that was originally touted as a close match-up between two real contenders.

What are the Odds?

The release of the Sports Illustrated cover is only making the 28-year-old’s stock rise even higher. In August, she’ll take on Brazilian Bethe Correia at UFC 190 in Rio De Janiero. As it currently stands in the odds department, putting a $100 dollar bet on Correia, who is a major underdog at +800, would earn a bold bettor a whopping $900, but that would mean Rousey would have to make some big mistakes. If she is able to handle Correia in the same way she broke Davis and Zingano, then the sports world will need to come up with new adjectives beyond “dominant” to describe the so far unbeatable Rousey, who is currently listed as the -1300 favorite, meaning you’d have to wager $13 on her winning to earn just $1.

Outside of the cage, Rousey is also enjoying a rapid rise to pop culture stardom. She had a role in the recently released Fast 7, the latest in the Fast and the Furious franchise, did a bit of wrestling with her Fast 7 co-star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson at Wrestlemania, and just released her book “My Fight/Your Fight” which went on sale earlier this week.