All About the Fight for Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche

History will be made this weekend when the UFC hosts its first ever women’s MMA fight between champion Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche. Al Dannity says for all the marketing buzz and side-stories, all that matters to these two competitors is which one gets her arm raised at the end of the contest.

It’s easy to get lost in the storylines. Ronda Rousey, the woman who brought Women’s MMA to a level Gina Carano and Cyborg Santos couldn’t. The woman who Dana White himself attributes with being the reason women fighters are now in UFC. Liz Carmouche, the challenger who fought so much to get recognition as not only a woman but as an openly gay fighter. It’s a pitch-man’s dream as these two talented athletes take centre stage on Saturday night. Even the actual combat itself holds stories of marketing and publicity. Will Ronda Rousey use the armbar again, as she has for all of her victories to date? If she does, will she and women’s fighters be seen as one-dimensional? If she doesn’t will fans be unhappy at not seeing her patented finish?

There’s no shortage of ways to spin this. From a MMA betting perspective however it’s easier to tune in to what actually matters to these two gladiators. What is it going to take to decide this fight? The Rousey armbar, naturally, will play a big role in this contest. An Olympic bronze medallist in Judo from 2008, the UFC champion uses her skills from this discipline to force situations where she can apply armbars from either side. With Rousey being equally adept forcing the issue left or right, the challenge for defending her becomes all the more harder. Miesha Tate fared better than any previous Rousey opponent in preventing it and even she succumbed in 4:27. Rousey’s other five career fights have lasted a total of 3:12. Never mind not going the distance in a fight, the champion’s entire career can be fit into two rounds.

Carmouche to her credit has a rounded game and possesses the submission threat most likely to threaten Rousey. Tate saw an opening for a rear-naked choke on Rousey in their fight but couldn’t lock it in. Carmouche comes into this bout on the back of a win in similar fashion over Kaitlin Young. Whether it’s a legitimate threat against the champion is another question entirely. We don’t know what endurance Rousey has and Carmouche knows she would be taking a big risk to try and drag out this contest. Look for Carmouche to come out swinging early, much like Tate, but for Rousey’s superior skill set to come up trumps. Rousey to win by submission in the first round.