3. Her First Fight
The UFC made it very clear from the beginning that everything was going to be about Ronda Rousey in the women’s bantamweight division. At UFC 157 she was the star, the main event, and even before either her or Liz Carmouche stepped in the cage everyone knew this was Ronda Rousey’s “arrival”.
You can also make the argument that the UFC waited until they were confident Ronda’s next challenger represented less of a threat than others she had faced previously. Two months after Ronda faced Liz Carmouche in the first ever women’s UFC fight, Cat Zingano faced Miesha Tate in the second ever women’s UFC bout. One could definitely make the argument that either one of those two fighters would have been more of a threat to Ronda than Carmouche.
Granted Carmouche proved to give Ronda more trouble than most others have, but in the end she is someone that Ronda would finish 99 times out of a 100. It’s not as though Carmouche was a highly ranked fighter at the time either, her combined Invicta and Strikeforce record was only 3W-2L heading into the bout.
Tate had just lost to Rousey so not making that fight makes sense, but Zingano was undefeated at the time.
Since losing to Rousey at UFC 157, Carmouche is 2W-2L, having lost to Miesha Tate and Alexis Davis.
