UFC champion Ronda Rousey is certainly no stranger to making bold statements about her skills. Whether it’s flat out saying she will dominate her UFC opponents, to saying that under the right circumstances she can beat Cain Velasquez, it’s just the type of confidence that some athletes have to have with themselves.
The former Olympic Judoka is set to face a BJJ black belt in Alexis Davis next, and as she appeared on ‘The Great MMA Debate‘ podcast she made another bold claim, this time about BJJ competitors:
“One thing I couldn’t stand when I was only watching MMA coming from judo, is all these people saying that that all of these jiuitsu people would beat any judo fighter on the ground. It was such a stereotype. I still think that I can beat any BJJ girl in the world, any weight division, gi or no gi, black belt all the way, in any rule set that they want.”
“To be able to pull off being someone in Judo that can submit on the ground, it takes so much more skill because we have so little time to do it. Like Flavio Canto, Olympic bronze medalist from Brazil, who was known to have one of the best ground fighters in judo… He could definitely win a world championship in jiujitsu. I really feel that the Judoka who excel with their ground work, have never really gotten enough respect.”
“This fight against Alexis, who is a Brazilian jiujitsu blackbelt, the kind of person that should be the type to tap me on the ground with no problems, it would be nice to prove a point.”
While I can’t fault Rousey for being confident in her capabilities, this can certainly start up a debate within the grappling community. People will be able to give out several top names who Rousey wouldn’t be favored against — maybe Kyra Gracie, or the large and talented BJJ star in Gabi Garcia who is set to make her MMA debut — but it’s hard to be surprised or worked up about any of these statements, really.
If Rousey really wanted to prove a point though, instead of just trying to do it against Davis, maybe she can compete against the top jiujitsu artists at Metamoris. Now that’s something I’d get excited about.
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