This “woman warrior” meme may eventually get a woman killed. And it will all be Joss Whedon’s fault.
UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey recently spoke with Spanish-language daily Hoy newspaper and said that, under the right circumstances, she believes that she could beat heavyweight king Cain Velasquez.
“In any given moment, under the right circumstance, I think it is possible,” Rousey said of beating Velasquez when asked if she thought she could.
“You cannot tell me that it is physically impossible. It is possible that in any given moment that I could beat him. I simply believe in my possibilities.”
The Olympic judo bronze medalist never seems to lack in confidence but her assertion that she could beat Velasquez despite giving up about a hundred pounds in weight, might seem over the top. Before you’re quick to criticize “Rowdy” Ronda as delusional, however, remember that competitive fighting is necessarily an audacious practice.
In order to have a chance at successfully facing the tension of a fight, fighters need to believe in themselves to a ridiculous degree. In effect, all Rousey is saying is that, in a hypothetical situation where she had to fight Velasquez for some insane reason, she wouldn’t just curl up and die – she’d fight on and believes that she’d find a way to win somehow.
I suppose it’s true, if by “under the right circumstance” she means that she is armed with a .357 revolver and Velasquez is blindfolded with his arms and legs chained to a wooden pole.
But if she’s talking about the octagon, the fact is that Rousey not only couldn’t beat Velasquez, she couldn’t last two minutes with me or any other man under the age of 60 who has even a modicum of genuine martial arts experiment. Keep in mind that Rousey weighs all of 135 pounds. I weigh a good deal less than Velasquez and I curl that much weight. In fact, I did 8×110 this very afternoon. Also, she clearly has no idea how much faster men are than her, nor how little ability she has to take a full-force blow from a bigger, stronger, faster man.
As I mentioned before, I once tried to go toe-to-toe with 225-pound Marine at a time when I gave up about 50 pounds to him. I was just as strong as he was; we lifted together a few times. And being faster, I may have even hit him a little harder than he hit me, but I simply couldn’t stand up to his shots the way he could take mine. It’s not about being tough, it’s about having enough mass to absorb the force that is striking you.
Anyhow, the sooner someone makes Rousey put her body where her mouth is, the sooner this lunacy will end. It’s just irresponsible for female fighters like her to be mouthing off in this regard because as long as the warrior woman delusion persists, there is a chance some idiot girl is going to get her skull fractured as a result.