Rousey to start favourite if Mayweather steps in Octagon

IT’S the hypothetical fight that will probably never happen (we think).

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s most well-known superstar, women’s bantam weight champion Ronda Rousey, up against the man many believe is the greatest pound for pound boxer of his generation, Floyd Mayweather, in a battle of the sexes.

And, would you believe, there are plenty who think Rousey would hand the 48-0 Mayweather a beatdown.

Chief among those are our friends at Sportsbet.com.au, who have released a market on the hypothetical match up.

“If unbeaten UFC thrashing machine Rousey was caged with world boxing champion Mayweather she would start favourite,” the bookie’s Christian Jantzen said.

“Should the battle ever occur in the Octagon we have Rousey as a $1.77 favourite, with Mayweather the $1.96 outsider.

“Rousey has won 11 of her 12 fights in the first round.

“There’s no doubt if they met in the cage she would hold her own against the men.

“Obviously that’s not going to happen, but Mayweather might take a swipe at her at the next awards ceremony they overlap at.”

The bookie has also released markets on how she would fare against the self proclaimed “uncrowned best athlete of all time” Anthony Mundine.

Wouldn’t you love to see her wipe the floor with Mundine? It wouldn’t be worth betting on though, she’s $1.10. ‘The Man’ is $6.

Part time fighter Sonny Bill Williams, another rugby player, would have a slightly better chance at $4.65 but would still cop a hammering, according to the odds, with Rousey at $1.15.

Rousey made light work of Bethe Correia on the weekend, beating the crap out of her in 34 seconds to retain her title, after the Brazilian had spent the past month running her mouth about the UFC superstar.

In bizarre scenes at the weigh ins before the fight, Correia had a maniacal look on her face and was repeating something in Rousey’s face.

Well we now know what she said, and what Rousey said after she sat Correia on her backside in just over half a minute.

“I said the exact same thing she was saying to me at weigh ins,” Rousey said.

“You know, she was screaming in my face at weigh ins.

“She was saying, ‘Don’t cry.’

“So I turned around to her after I knocked her out and I said, ‘Don’t cry.’”

“I’m sure she’ll have to think about me plenty. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over and done with.”

But could Rousey beat Mayweather?

She definitely thinks so, saying exactly how she’d win the bout.

“I wouldn’t even stand up, I wouldn’t even be anywhere near him,” Rousey said.

“I would just do like a little army crawl over there, and he would have to run away.

“I would just be skittering after him like the one dude in Bloodsport that was doing the whole monkey crawl fight system.

“I would do that.

“I would just bear crawl over there too low for him to hit me, and I’d tackle him down.

“I spend a lot of time on the ground, and I doubt that he does.”

The pair has had an ongoing war of words, with Mayweather claiming not to know her, before being beaten out on the best fighter gong at this year’s ESPY’s by the UFC champ.

“I wonder how he feels being beaten by a woman, for once,” Rousey said in a not so veiled swipe at Mayweather’s history of domestic violence.

When asked how he would fare against Rousey, Mayweather responded with: “I don’t even know who he is.”

UFC boss Dana White reckons it would be no contest.

“Yeah, you put Ronda Rousey in any fight situation: a street fight, a mixed martial arts fight – not only does she beat Floyd, she hurts him really bad,” White said.

“In a real fight, Ronda Rousey would hurt Floyd.

“He’s this big – Ronda gets her hands on him, I’ve seen her throw much bigger guys.”

Manny Pacquiao, the man who Mayweather beat for the welterweight world title that he was recently stripped of, agrees with Rousey.

“I believe so, she is strong and is strong enough to beat Floyd Mayweather in MMA,” Pacquiao said.

Former WBC welter weight champion Victor Ortiz is also in the Rousey corner, saying Mayweather would have no hope in the Octagon.

“That’s a different world (for Mayweather) … A boxer can’t step into an octagon and do boxing things to them,” Ortiz said.

“And if it is, it’s probably minimal.

“To think that Floyd has a chance in a UFC fight, against Ronda, no.

“But it’s also the other way around, if you put a UFC fighter strictly boxing for 12 rounds, it’s different.

“It’s just you can’t compare the two sports, I don’t think.”

One guy who does think Mayweather would come out victorious is former UFC light weight champion Anthony Pettis, who said the notion Rousey would win was “ridiculous”.

And even Sonya Lamonakis, one of the top heavy weight female boxers in the world, reckons the fight would be no contest, with Mayweather making short work of Rousey.

“Floyd Mayweather would knock her out in three seconds. That’s a joke,” Lamonakis said.

Boxing icon Bruce Silverglade said “women are terrific athletes and often better technicians, but there’s a physical difference.”

“The men are too strong for the women,” Silverglade said.

It’s never going to happen, but can you imagine the spectacle? The most loved female fighter of all time up against a man who is either loved or despised, depending on who you speak to, but possesses a boxing record to die for, but a domestic violence record that tells a sad tale of the person behind it.

Go Ronda.

Ronda Rousey hypothetical fight markets

Ronda Rousey v Floyd Mayweather in Octagon

$1.77 Rousey

$1.96 Mayweather

Ronda Rousey v Anthony Mundine in Octagon

$1.10 Rousey

$6.50 Mundine

Ronda Rousey v Sonny Bill Williams in Octagon

$1.15 Rousey

$4.65 Williams