#1 Raquel Pennington
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Raquel ‘Rocky’ Pennington (9-5) is an American MMA fighter with a base of boxing. She holds notable wins over Miesha Tate and Jessica Andrade, only being finished once, early in her career, against Cat Zingano.
Pennington fought Holly Holm, in Holm’s UFC debut, dropping a closely contested split-decision to the former multiple-time boxing world champion.
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Pennington seems to be next-in-line for a title shot at 135 pounds after Amanda Nunes faces Valentina Shevchenko. At this stage in their respective careers, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if Pennington opens as a favourite against Rousey in a proposed matchup.
She possesses crisp boxing and good grappling, going toe-to-toe on the feet against strikers like Holm and Zingano, whilst holding her own in the grappling department against submission specialists like Tate and Andrade.
Out of the 5 proposed matchups in this list, ‘Rocky’ is the toughest fight, at least on paper, for the ‘Rowdy’ one. She completely out-classed Miesha Tate in Cupcake’s retirement fight and isn’t afraid to stand-and-bang.
At 28 years of age, she seems to have entered her prime. Rousey’s best bet to beat Pennington would be catching her by initiating the clinch on the counter. With the exception of the Tate fight, Pennington tends to plant her feet and throw combinations without setting them up from the outside.
This is where Rousey can implement her submission-based strategy and catch ‘Rocky’.
With killers like Holm (also fights at 145 pounds), Shevchenko, Nunes and Zingano in the top 5; Pennington seems to be the only winnable fight for Rousey among the division’s elite.
Raquel Pennington is a top-5 contender who’ll provide a stiff test for Rousey.
Most of you Rousey fans (or haters) out there, must have noticed the absence of two other favourable stylistic matchups, namely Julianna Pena and Bethe Correia.
Both the aforementioned fighters are downright terrible strikers, with Correia also being mediocre in the grappling aspect. Pena is a good grappler but mainly relies on a lay-and-pray, stalling strategy.
This exclusion has to do mainly with Rousey’s confidence in the build-up to her future fights (if any). Pena and Correia have repeatedly targeted Rousey in the past, going out of their way to launch scathing personal attacks at Rousey and her family.
The UFC’s main aim should be re-building ‘Rowdy’ from the ground-up- rebuilding her physically as well as mentally.
The fighters mentioned in our list represent the best prospective bouts for Rousey’s Octagon return, providing a good test to see where she’s at physically and mentally. Keeping up with our combat tradition, I’d like you, the reader, to chime in with your proposed matchups for our fallen Queen’s UFC comeback.
Till then, eat clean, train hard and never give up!
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