Rousey's defeat could lead to huge losses to the UFC

Will Rousey’s loss prove to be a headache for the UFC?

Little did Dana White know, when he opened the doors to women in the UFC, that this would in due course ( 2 years and 8 months to be precise, for the first fight was in February 2013 between Rousey and Carmouche) be generating more revenue that most of the mainstream fights starring only males.

UFC 193, which was on held on 15th November broke one million PPV buys, finishing at an all-time second, behind only UFC 100 (Brock Lesnar vs Frank Mir 2) fought in 2009 which crossed 1.6 million PPV’s.

Undoubtedly, the credit goes to Ronda Rousey. She and only she has taken women’s MMA to where it stands today. She has headlined every main event, right from the first fight with Carmouche which drew only 450K PPV’s (that too courtesy of Lyoto Machida and Dan Henderson) to her last fight against Holm which drew in more than a million buys.

Her departure could thus result in an appalling drop in the PPV buys in the woman’s bantamweight division. Those who loved her, tuned in to see her rip the arm off her opponents and those who detested her tuned in too to watch her get her unblemished streak broken, both of which were good for the UFC.

Now, however with Ronda scarred, the PPV’s could take a hit. What could be worse would be if Ronda fails in her attempt to regain her crown or worse still does not choose to make a comeback.

There are only a hand few of female bantamweights who could be termed as crowd pullers (Meisha Tate & off late Holly Holm) that too none to the extent of Rousey.

Therefore, it would be fit the UFC to get a replacement, that in the form of Cris Cyborg, (one of UFC’s managers was quoted to saying). If there is someone who can fill her shoes then it has to be her.

The kind of reputation she’s built up certainly matches that of Rousey and her explosive stand up game is certainly something people would love to watch. With Rousey silent on her comeback, only time will tell what lies in fate for the women’s bantamweight division.