The Ultimate Fighting Championship has come a long way since it was founded in 1993. Once seen as barbaric, the sport gave mixed martial arts a bad name. In the early 2000s, Dana White and the Fetitta brothers bought the UFC name. Totally revolutionizing the sport, they added the Ultimate Fighter series as a way for younger fighters to earn a UFC contract while still being coached by top fighters. The trio also added lighter weight classes as they bought most of their brand's competition.
Now, the UFC is changing once again. Ronda Rousey and Connor McGregor have risen to the top in a very unconventional way. Rousey, a bronze medalist in judo, was the first women's bantamweight champion in UFC history. After beating Liz Charmouche, she went on to defend her title in her next six fights and has been in a UFC main event six times in her career.
She gained much hype due to her aggressive style of calling out her opponents. Rousey was a pioneer for the women’s division. Despite her success, her push to be the face of the UFC was uncalled for. Dana White called her “one of the best two-dimensional fighters” that he had ever seen. In nine of her 12 wins, Rousey won by way of submission. More specifically, she won by armbar. Even though she is skillful when she takes her opponent down, this does not mean that she is an all-around great fighter. In her first UFC loss, she was dominated by Holly Holm. In the aftermath of the fight, Rousey stated that she went through depression and that she would need some more time to recover before her next fight. Dana White was hinting that Rousey may return to headline a main event when the UFC comes to Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Rousey has been relatively close with the WWE. During their pay-per-view WrestleMania, Rousey was seated in the front row and was eventually was brought into the ring. She even hip tossed WWE owner Vince McMahon out of the ring. She has made multiple appearances since and is part of a four-person team named The Four-Horsemen. In a tweet after WrestleMania, Rousey said that her relationship with WWE was, “Just getting started.”
Connor McGregor is another fighter who has been pushed to be face of the UFC. McGregor is an obvious loudmouth who isn’t afraid to start trouble with the company. Before beating Jose Aldo, McGregor grabbed Aldo’s championship belt at the weigh-in. McGregor is currently lashing out after retiring and un-retiring via Twitter. McGregor has become a headache for Dana White over the past month. The Irish lightweight has been using Twitter to mess with the fighting company. His retirement tweet came after a dispute over touring. He was then pulled from UFC 200.
McGregor’s rise is very controversial due to the talent that he faced before being given a title shot. Older talents, such as Uriah Faber and Chael Sonnen, feel as though McGregor’s five fights in the UFC shouldn’t haven’t warranted two title fights. These older talents are the backbone of the revolution of the UFC. It is understandable that there are younger talents and bigger markets to be tapped into, but the rise of McGregor and Rousey are starting to cause problems. Rousey has started to appear in WWE events and has had cameos in movies. McGregor also has said that he would consider making the leap into pro wrestling and recently started a “Twitter war” with former boxing champion Floyd “Money” Mayweather. It is true that any publicity is good publicity, but Dana White needs to gain control of his arrogant stars before he loses the fighters who don’t feed off of their own egos.
