Olympic bronze medallist in judo “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey wasted little time in picking up her second Strikeforce victory tonight in Las Vegas, Nevada. Rousey submitted Julia “The Jewel” Budd at Strikeforce Challengers 20 with a 39-second armbar that left Budd’s right elbow visibly dislocated.
Tonight’s fight could be the last time that Rousey competes at 145 pounds for the foreseeable future, however. Following her win, Rousey campaigned for a title fight with Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Champion Miesha “Takedown” Tate, and challenged number one contender Sarah Kaufman.
Rousey (4-0-0) immediately closed the distance and looked to clinch with Budd (2-2-0), but ate a pair of counter hooks on the way in. She was unfazed and took Budd to the mat, then moved right to mount. Rousey quickly spun into an armbar and Budd rolled to try to escape. Rousey dislocated Budd’s right elbow with the armbar, but Budd refused to tap out. Only when Rousey rolled back over and wrenched back on the arm did Budd finally submit.
Winner: Ronda Rousey by Submission (Armbar) at 0:39 of round one. She improves to 4-0-0.
To date, none of Rousey’s pro or amateur bouts has lasted even one minute in length. The dominant win tonight could have potentially placed Rousey in line for a shot at Strikeforce Women’s Featherweight Champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos, but she has instead set her sights on the 135-pound belt held by Tate. In post-fight comments, Rousey stated her intentions to face Tate. However, she noted that she was open to first challenging top contender Kaufman to ensure that “Tate didn’t lose first.”
Now one of the fastest-rising female stars in mixed martial arts, Rousey’s victory tonight put a stamp on a remarkable 2011 campaign that saw her win four times in a combined time of just 138 seconds.
she’s making the right decision to drop to 135. after tonight’s performance, i’m sure strikeforce would be next matching her up against cyborg, and as dominant as rousey is, she doesn’t have the experience to contend with cyborg yet.
if i was kaufman, tate, or anyone else in the 135, i’d be very worried about having to face rousey. this girl forces her wil on her opponents, and there’s really no way to keep her off of you. And once she gets her hands on you, it’s only a matter of a short time before thayt arm bar will be locked in. Rousey is truly amazing!
rousey has looked really good so far but realistically , she has had a great advantage on each fighter, so far , but tate , kaufman , coenen, cyborg , are all really good girls with experience and much more well rounded skills . lets be4 honest budd is just stasrting to learn the ground, so of course a world class judo ka is going to look good against a relative new comer to ground skills. lets also remember sara mcmann she also medaled in wrestling in the olympics and so far wrestling seems to beat judo in north american mma most of the time .time will tell about rousey , but at least this time she deserved the win . i still say her last fight should be changed to a no – contest .