Rousey: I can beat up Cain Velasquez
Ronda Rousey thinks she can beat UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez.
Not in a race.
Not at a surfing contest.
Not in a who-can-hit-the-most-armbars-in-one-minute competition.
Rousey thinks she can beat Velasquez -- the baddest man on the planet -- in a fight. At MMA.
"In any given moment, under the right circumstance, I think it is possible," Rousey told the Spanish-language newspaper Hoy (translated by Yahoo). "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."
Let's hope something got lost in translation.
Never mind that Rousey, the UFC women's bantamweight champion, gives up around 100 pounds -- or about one whole Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson -- to Velasquez. Never mind that Velasquez is, you know, a trained fighter who is arguably the greatest UFC heavyweight of all time. Never mind that Rousey would have a difficult time beating any man who actually is her weight.
Ronda thinks she's capable of anything. And maybe after the last year it's hard to blame her. Since January, Rousey has debuted in the UFC, become one of the most popular fighters in the world, landed on the cover of ESPN The Magazine and been cast in two blockbuster movies -- "Fast & Furious 7" and "The Expendables 3".
Even before any of that, Rousey was undefeated without so much as a challenge. No woman has ever taken her past the first round. And prior to MMA, the 26-year-old was an Olympic bronze medalist in judo -- the first woman from the U.S. to ever medal in the sport.
Ronda Rousey is one of the most incredible athletes on the face of the Earth -- man or woman. But beating Velasquez? The guy who just ran roughshod over Junior dos Santos for almost five rounds? That's a tough sell.
Unless of course Velasquez refuses to hit a woman. In which case, look for a first-round armbar finish.
