Yesterday on UFC Tonight Dana White confirmed that Holly Holm will defend her chick's Bantamweight title before a rematch with Ronda Rousey. Listed below are the UFC's top 10 fighters in their BW division. Who do you think gets the first shot at Holm's belt? It's not who you think DESERVES the shot, but who the FEC will line up to fight Holm next. 1) Rousey 2) Tate 3) Zingano 4) Nunes 5) Pena 6) McMann 7) Eye 8) Correira 9) Carmouche 10) Kaufmann The easy money is on Tate, but I've got this suspicion that Zingano makes her long awaited return in the early spring against Holm. [TABLE="width: 100%"] <tbody>[TR] [TD="class: number-column"][/TD] [TD="class: name-column"][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="class: number-column"][/TD] [TD="class: name-column"][/TD] [/TR] </tbody>[/TABLE]
It will be tate no doubt. Too much has gone on for them not to give it to her. They screwed her already and tried to screw holm into waiting for Ronda. Add to the fact that Holm basically said that tate should get the shot.
http://espn.go.com/mma/story/_/id/1...anjos-holly-holm-miesha-tate-headline-ufc-197 looks like it's going to be tate. oh, and mcgregor vs. dos anjos on the same card.
I don't know if I'd pick him to win, but McGregor would officially attain legendary status with a win over RDA. RDA has looked unbeatable lately, and he's much stronger than anyone McGregor has fought at featherweight. Beating Aldo and RDA a few months apart means he'd automatically be considered one of the best of all time.
Who was the last champ to have the balls to step up and challenge a dominant champion in a higher weight class? BJ Penn? It didn't work out against GSP, but you have to admire that kind of confidence and courage. I don't know if McGregor / dos Anjos is official yet, but it would be fun.
Otis Grant jumped two weight classes to make Roy Jones Jr. his bitch. Was GSP dominant at that time or was the Serra fight recent? Anyway, that's probably the best mma example. Pernell did it at 154 to fight JC Vasquez. It's not common, but I'm sure we can come up with quite a few examples with effort, at least in boxing.
Not really. The win over Hughes was Penn's first UFC title. The UFC didn't have a LW division when Penn beat Hughes. And Couture wasn't holding the LHW belt when he stepped up and beat Tim Sylvia for the HW title. I'm not aware of a case where a reigning UFC champion stepped up to challenge the champ above him.
I know it wasn't the UFC, but how about when Hendo KO'd Wanderlei as a welterweight to win the middleweight belt as well?
Dan Henderson is the only guy I can think of who held titles in 2 weight classes at the same time in a major MMA organization. Too bad it didn't work out for him when he came to the UFC. The fight with Rampage was close, but the fight with Anderson wasn't. No one has even attempted this in the UFC since BJ lost to GSP. GSP didn't want to fight Anderson, and Anderson didn't want to fight Jones. Jones has been talking about moving to heavyweight. It just hasn't happened yet. Conor moving up to fight RDA this soon might be a mistake. Lightweight is a tougher division than featherweight, and RDA has been dominating everyone lately. If Conor can pull it of somehow it would be one of the greatest accomplishments in MMA history.
It is also much more difficult to do than in boxing due to the larger weight difference between classes, not to mention hiw much more the extra weight plays a part in grappling.
Getting back to the original subject, would it help or hurt the UFC if Miesha beats Holly? That would stop the big money Holm / Rousey rematch, but it would give Ronda an easier fight when she comes back. Ronda won't be the same big money draw if she comes back and loses to Holly again.
If Meisha beats Holm and then Ronda beats Meisha, the rematch between Holm and Rousey would be even bigger.
No way. If Rousey blasted out a quality opponent pre-rematch, that might help make it bigger, but Holm must stay undefeated.
