Ronda Rousey had another astonishing performance the other night against Bethe Correia in their UFC 190 title bout.
Both her and opponent Bethe Correia went into the fight undefeated, and unlike most of the champ‘s former opponents Correia looked like she was poised to do the unthinkable and give the fan-favorite champion her first loss — Correia’s 9-0 record gave this notion some credit. Unfortunately for her, Ronda Rousey is a demigod and knocked her out thirty-four seconds into the first round.
This got me thinking about the other megastar in the UFC, Jon “Bones” Jones who graced the cover of 2014’s EA Sports UFC alongside Alexander Gustafsson. These cover athletes were determined by a vote in which 16 UFC fighters were put into a bracket and the internet voted on the winner; Ronda Rousey was included in this competition but lost to the then squeaky-clean and still dominate Jon Jones.
Jones’ personal life seems to be in shambles after testing positive for cocaine following his title defense in UFC 182 and his hit-and-run accident weeks before his title defense in UFC 187 — I think it’s safe to say that he shouldn’t be representing the UFC in any official capacity for a while.
This video was all too prophetic:
The next UFC game from EA Sports is due out in 2016, and it’s safe to say that they’re gonna need another cover athlete. They could absolutely go the route of the vote again, in which the bantamweight champ lost fairly last time not being a household name in 2013. But a lot can change in two-years and Ronda Rousey is, in my opinion, the best thing the UFC has to offer — which is funny after in 2011 Dana White was caught saying women would never fight in the UFC. She is marketable, charismatic, outspoken, dominate and she doesn’t do drugs; I say screw the vote and make Ronda Rousey the face of the next UFC game.
“I say screw the vote and make Ronda Rousey the face of the next UFC game.”
EA has chosen her as the cover athlete for their free-to-play mobile game, which seemed like a consolation prize for losing the popularity contest that was the cover athlete vote. Since 2013, Ronda Rousey has appeared in The Expendables 3 and Fast & Furious 7, increasing her exposure to a ridiculous degree. That took her from a household name among UFC fans into the lives of the general public. Now, I’m partly confident that EA could leave the next UFC cover athlete to a vote and this constant champ would win, especially given the aforementioned decline of Jon Jones due to out-of-cage issues.
EA has been diversifying their sports games by adding playable women to UFC and FIFA 16. They even added Alex Morgan of the World Cup Champion U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team to the cover for the United States; given those recent moves it’s not insane to think they could hoist Ronda Rousey as their next cover athlete. Sure, EA has seemingly washed their hands of picking who is on the cover in favor of leaving it to a vote by the fans. I do think they should just skip that process given her recent success and dominance in the UFC, but who am I to get in the way of the democratic process?
