UFC
Bellator's Bjorn Rebney: To characterize Ronda Rousey as the biggest star in MMA is disrespectful to a lot of fighters
Apr 14, 2014 - 2:55:14 PM Bellator's Bjorn Rebney: To characterize Ronda Rousey as the biggest star in MMA is disrespectful to a lot of fighters

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"I would never want to verbalize disrespect for a fighter... but to characterize her as the biggest star in MMA is, I believe, a little disrespectful to a lot of fighters who have put in year after year after year in this game. If Ronda fights 'Cyborg' and she could beat 'Cyborg,' I think that would be a big statement as to where she is in the game. But to characterize her as the biggest star is a bit disingenuous. I think there are a lot of huge stars in MMA.

In my own personal opinion, it seems like a very forced marketing position that someone's taking because she's attractive and she appears on a lot of magazine covers, and I think we saw that once before at Strikeforce, and [Gina Carano] fought 'Cyborg’ and lost handily. No disrespect to Brock [Lesnar], but he was forced into a situation very quickly coming off very few fights to be positioned as a world champ because he could be sold on pay-per-view. Not because he beat the best fighters in the world, but because he could be sold. I think we're seeing the exact same thing in Ronda, and anyone who would tell you differently is not speaking the truth."

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-Bellator's Bjorn Rebney talks to MMAJunkie.com with his thoughts on Ronda Rousey and the UFC pushing her as the sport's biggest star.

PENICK'S ANALYSIS: I actually agree with Rebney regarding the characterization of Rousey as the "biggest star" right now. Dana White simply saying "Ronda Rousey's the biggest star the UFC's ever had" doesn't make it true, and by any metrics regarding drawing power, ticket sales, pay-per-view buys, etc., it's simply not true. Now, Rebney loses it a bit when pulling the Brock Lesnar comparison, because both Rousey and Lesnar beat the best fighters that were put in front of them at the time. For Lesnar, that ended after diverticulitis and the emergence of Cain Velasquez as the top guy. For Rousey, she's defeated the best 135 lb. fighters the UFC has given her, and using Cris Cyborg-Gina Carano as the example doesn't work when it's quite simply a different weight class. Further, Lesnar was legitimately a star who won fights and sold pay-per-views. That said, pushing Rousey as the "biggest star" just isn't accurate, and indeed it appears she might be co-headlining for the second time in three fights this July. She's a rising star, sure, she's getting mainstream attention, but that's not equating to her being the biggest fighting draw yet, which is where that matters.

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