I don’t think her body is anything special either, but really? Olympic medalist, one of the most dominant forces in MMA for however many years, gets knocked out once and she’s just “decent”?
I like how this thread has turned out, my 2 nominations
seems I’m the only guy who likes chicks a bit softer.
Don’t get me wrong, those athletic chicks getting posted are hotter than the sun, but if we’re taking the ideal, I like a girl to be softer, more curvaceous, etc.
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For the same reason Rich Froning is only a decent athlete (because if he was really good, he’d be making millions in big league sports).
Big fish, small pond. She won bronze, in a sport that isn’t exactly A-list. She dominated a division that probably wasn’t even attracting the best talent. Ronda Rousey started MMA in 2011 or so. Holly Holm was professionally boxing since 2002, with some losses and many of her fights going to decision. Holm started MMA in 2011 as well and is undefeated in MMA. The fight with Rousey wasn’t even close. I suspect Holm isn’t the only female boxer/kickboxer that could cross over and knock her out into next weekend.
So, yeah, that one fight proved what a lot of people already suspected.
So you have to be good at a high paying sport to be a good athlete? Off the top of my head, I believe gymnasts are pretty low on the pay scale. Are they only “decent” athletes? I think most would say they are quite athletic.
Maybe it just comes down to what I mean by decent and athlete. I mean athlete as in someone who makes their living based on performance at sports, so we’re looking at a fairly selective group anyways. I mean decent as in falling into the upper middle level of that group. I see this as about the big league bench warmer level. I figure that’s about where Ronda Rousey falls. She’s just got a good promotional team.
Honestly, I thought that was your actual point, but wanted to play a bit of Devil’s Advocate (it’s the internet after all). I would agree with your definition and as I think about it, there’s a big difference between being athletic and being an athlete. As well, Ronda = all (at least mostly) promo…So I think we actually agree on everything lol.
I feel your definition of athlete is actually the definition of “professional”, at least as it relates TO athletes.
Unless we’re willing to state that there historically were very few athletes until around the 60s-70s.
Well, by my definition, there are never going to be that many athletes as it’s basically a non-productive class beyond entertainment value. But I understand that the word is going to mean different things in different contexts.
I wasn’t so much explaining what I think of the word athlete in general as what I meant by saying that Ronda Rousey is a “decent athlete” in the context of her being on the cover of Sports Illustrated. I’m not trying to argue that she’s not in the 1%. However, within the 1% she is neither exceptionally skilled, nor exceptionally good looking, so I think she’s a poor choice for the cover. I hesitate to keep going back to Holly Holm, but she is better looking and a better fighter.
I know this is off the original topic, but can you explain to me how Ronda is just a PR product, and not exceptionally skilled? That makes zero sense to me. I don’t understand how you can call an Olympic medalist anything less than exceptional at what she does, and I also don’t get the argument of ‘someone beat her, so she’s not good.’ Can’t Holm and Rousey BOTH be elite athletes?
Your argument about Froning is equally preposterous. First of all, the guy IS making millions doing what he does, so your initial premise is flawed. But even if he wasn’t, you’re suggesting that his athleticism is dependent on the spectator interest in the sport he competes in. That’s really really weird to me. What if people suddenly stopped watching baseball, and nobody could make any money playing it anymore? Would all those guys who were making millions at it suddenly not be athletes anymore? They wouldn’t have changed, the audience would have.
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So, to be a really good athlete, you have to be in the top 1% of the top 1% of people playing team sports? Am I getting this right? If your particular skill set makes you great at something where you compete by yourself, tough shit, you’ll never be more than decent?
I don’t follow much MMA anymore but I thought what people suspected was that Rousey was a grappler who had been reading her own newspaper clippings and had been convinced by somebody she could hang in a legitimate stand-up fight when that is obviously not the case. Styles make fights and she didn’t use hers like she should have. Yes, there isn’t as much competition in women’s MMA right now, but she was utterly dominant for years, I’m not sure how you can overlook that. I’m sure there are plenty of other female boxer/kickboxers who could beat Ronda in a striking match, but how many of them could keep the fight on the feet?
And now, in keeping with the original and current trend of the thread.
Bill Pearl, my favourite of the old time bodybuilders. His book was the first thing I ever read on lifting weights when I was a kid.
Wow. Lot’s of love for Ronda here. No, I don’t think she’s that good. Let’s move on.
Hey so, not to be a wet blanket-cold shower-buzzkill, but if this thread could get back to the actual original topic instead of inching towards traditional SAMA territory as if we’ve never seen pics of hot women before, that’d be great.
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No love; I’d been waiting for her to get KTFO for a while. Agree to disagree on the merits of her achievements though.
So that’s what happened to my other picture. I didn’t think it was any less tasteful than push’s last contribution, but in any case it’s probably time I get back to lurking.
Although I was just going to say that Allison Stokke, pictured above, is my body ideal. Lilo Jones is fantastic, too, but a little squarer than I am or would prefer to be. So I would rather have - and do have, to some degree - a sprinter’s body.
There’s a difference between ‘loving Ronda’ and simply acknowledging her accomplishments. If she’s not good, I’m curious as to exactly how many women in the world are ‘that good’ at fighting. If you’re suggesting there are, like, less than 10 women in the world that are good at fighting, then we’re simply using different standards for the definition of good.
the internet strikes again! Someone can be an Olympic medalist in one discipline, go on to dominate another discipline for years and someone can still say they’re not good…