This week a reporter from Fox Sports wrote an article proposing a fight between Floyd Mayweather and Ronda Rousey in a mixed martial arts fight on pay-per-view. The reported suggested it would be the biggest pay-per-view of all time. Mayweather holds the record for the top three pay-per-view bouts in history for boxing and MMA. He just recently close to 300 million dollars in his bout with Manny Pacquiao, which sold over four million pay-per-view buys.
Would a Floyd Mayweather Ronda Rousey sell? Maybe. But first off, it’s a man fighting a woman. Yes, Mayweather has had domestic abuse issues documented. But is that a message we’re going to send off to the masses that watch the pay-per-view – that it’s ok for a man and woman to fight?
Some people feel Rousey beat up on Mayweather as she said in the ESPY’s not too long ago.
“I wonder how Floyd feels being beaten by a woman for once,” Rousey said. Let’s not forget Rousey fights at 135 and Mayweather at 147 for those interested. The same Rousey that doesn’t want to go up 5 lbs. to fight Cris Cyborg will fight Mayweather at 147.
This all stems back from a question asked by Boxing Scene’s David Griesman during the Floyd Mayweather-Canelo Alvarez press tour in Washington DC. Griesman asked a question about Ronda Rousey in which Mayweather responded by saying,” Who is he?”
Rousey took issue with that when she won her ESPY award this year for best combat fighter defeating Mayweather in the process.
“I know for damn sure that he knew who I was because he was running against me for Best Fighter that year, and he has signed MMA fighters,” Rousey said in July. “So his feigned ignorance was meant to be a snarky remark to me.”
Yesterday at the press conference to announce his fight with Mayweather, a reported asked Mayweather about a possible fight with Rousey and Mayweather acknowledge her success.
“A while back I didn’t know who Ronda Rousey was, so I’m pretty sure she got upset. I want to say congratulations to Ronda Rousey and the UFC. You guys have done a tremendous job, and I’ve won probably six or seven ESPYS for Fighter of the Year. And I truly believe she deserves it. Congratulations to Ronda Rousey.”
But aside from it being a different sport, different gender, and different weight class, this fight will never happen because Mayweather is the A-side. Love him or hate him, he is the biggest draw in combat sports so it would be his rules. Boxing wise, I’ve seen Rousey get handled by 126 lb. past his prime, Vic Darchinyan, so imagine what the best boxer of this generation would do to her hypothetically speaking.
Not to mention he would want a humungous split because of this last quote.
“I’ve yet to see any MMA fighter or other boxer, make over $300 million in 36 minutes,” Mayweather said. “When she can do that, then call me.”
So keep that ridiculous fantasy fight in your fantasy.
