Ronda Rousey wins first UFC women's match
 

Rousey wins first UFC women's match
(CNN) -- When mixed martial arts fighters Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche stepped into the octagon Saturday night, they made history for women's sports.
When Rousey stepped out, she was the champion in the first women's match in the Ultimiate Fighting Championship.
Rousey and Carmouche met in the headline fight for the UFC 157 pay-per-view event in the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Rousey used her signature armbar move to force Carmouche to submit late in the first round.
Just having two women in the ring was a historic first for the UFC, which has been around since 1993.
In 2011, UFC President Dana White said there would never be a women's MMA match in the UFC. At the time, he wasn't convinced people would pay to watch women fight.
But then Rousey came along, and White changed his mind. Before becoming an MMA fighter, Rousey competed in judo. She took bronze at the 2008 Olympics, becoming the first American to win a women's judo medal since it became an Olympic sport in 1992.
On Saturday, Rousey found herself in early trouble for the first time as an MMA fighter. Carmouche, a former U.S. Marine, mounted Rousey's back and tried a neck crank for several seconds before Rousey escaped.
Rousey recovered, responded with a series of strikes and eventually got Carmouche in an armbar. Carmouche quickly tapped out.
"It was a great fight," Carmouche said afterward. "I thought I had it."
The armbar has been a reliable weapon for Rousey. She had won by armbar in all six of her previous MMA matches before joining UFC. And like Saturday, all six of those came in the first round.
Rousey improved to 7-0 in her MMA career and made history by winning the first women's match in the UFC. Now, she just might become a household name.

Carmouche is also openly gay, so although she lost, she was still a publicly homosexual athlete performing in the highest level of cage fighting, of all things. Something you have never seen in the NFL or MLB. Of course, it 'helps' that she's a lesbian, because to most of us males that would watch UFC that's probably just 'hot' as opposed to a progressive move towards equality. I doubt a gay male would have received the same sort of reaction or reception. But I could be wrong.

Either way, a noteworthy event in more than one way. The fact that they headlined a UFC pay show with a woman's match is noteworthy, as well.

And I would bet the PPV money was the worst in recent history

I'd be really surprised if it wasn't.

Not trying to disagree with your statement that this is a legitimately huge event for womens sports, but... It's a sideshow and it's not going to last...

Guys don't like seeing jacked up women beating the shit out of each other, and women don't really like that either, at least apart from a small marketbase (I'm guessing)

Rousey is quite attractive.. Even if she's "jacked up"

Not saying she isn't a pretty girl, but does she make you want to order a PPV? I just don't see the allure to watching a good looking girl beat up another...

I don't see the longterm staying power

I would say it all comes down to the marketing and performance. What I mean by that is that I think find staying power if two things happen:

1) they promote the fights well (I've heard the primetime shows leading into the ppv were amongst the best ever by UFC)

2) the fights deliver (nobody wants to see shitty fights, period)

It may be a sideshow now, and there's a lot of inherent gender bias to get past (for both men and women) but I believe in the end that people would pay to see good fights with good build (i.e. stories leading into them), regardless of whether the genitalia of the fighters are on the inside or the outside.

I'm not sure if tonight's fight would qualify. I didn't watch, and don't watch UFC any longer; my interest in this is more - let's call it academic. Although it sounds like the live crowd loved it.

I've seen all the Rhonda Rousey matches and they have all been amazing. Carmouche vs Rousey was exciting as hell.

Ronda, yes.

I don't mind women beating the shit out of each other but there just tend to be too few to fill out the weight divisions properly. I imagine most of the womens fights will be on the undercard in the future unless it's a hot chick.

I thought a lot of strikeforce womens MMA was pretty good. They really go at it. I suppose they know they need to be exciting to keep their job.

It WAS exciting.... for 1 round.
It's a shame it didn't go more.

LMAO really?!??!

jfc I RARELY poney up the money for any PPV unless it's something I really wanna see. And you'd pay $50 or so to watch some woman armbar someone?

I'm sure he's got a gif of one on que if you are interested :evil:

My God...professional wrestling barges into the 21st century...LMAO