Strikeforce
Ronda Rousey on Sarah Kaufman: "She's depending on the competence of the CSAC to walk out of that cage alive"
Aug 17, 2012 - 2:15:33 PM Ronda Rousey on Sarah Kaufman: "She's depending on the competence of the CSAC to walk out of that cage alive"

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey is in full on fight mode as her first title defense fast approaches on Saturday night. Taking on perhaps her biggest challenge to date in former Champion Sarah Kaufman, Rousey went to some violent imagery in describing how Saturday's fight will play out during a pre-fight press conference for the event this week.

"[Kaufman] might not know it, but she should be thanking her lucky stars that MMA is properly regulated in California," Rousey said this week (transcribed by USA Today). "If I get her in an armbar, I'm going to try to rip it off and throw it at her corner. If I get her in a choke, I'm going to hold on to it until she's actually dead. And if I get a knockout, along the way I'm going to try to pound her face into the ground and she's depending on the competence of the California [State] Athletic Commission to walk out of that cage alive."

Kaufman feels prepared for that mentality however, and she responded to the comments in a calm and very unworried fashion as she remains confident in her own abilities into Saturday's bout.

"You want to put yourself in training in the worst possible situations," Kaufman said in an interview with MMAJunkie.com. "You want to go with people who you think are going to knock you out, you want to go with people who are going to tap you out, who are going to put you in every submission and every takedown possible so in your fight you don't get put in those situations – or if you do, you know how to work your way out of them."

"I feel really confident going into this fight. And I'm confident that Ronda's going to bring it. She's going to show up to fight. She's going to try to kill me – which is kind of mean. But that's all right. At the end of the day, someone's going to walk out with the belt – and I want that person to be me."

Penick's Analysis: Just like when Frank Mir said he wanted to break Brock Lesnar's neck in the cage, Rousey's taken things a step too far with her pre-fight trash talk. This sport already receives far too much backlash from uninformed onlookers who view it as barbaric, and the view of women's MMA is still a shaky subject as well. While MMA fans can appreciate world class women's MMA action, making people see it as two women fighting to the death is a massive overstep. That's not a sentiment that's going to fly with a lot of people, and it wasn't necessary for building this fight. It's great that Rousey can be driven and intense and confident into this title fight, but threatening to hold onto a choke until your opponent is dead is simply not an acceptable comment. She wouldn't actually do that, but making the statement throws it out there, and that's not the type of thing the sport needs to be associated with at this stage. Not only that, but it comes just days after a fighter did die following a fight in South Carolina. It's ridiculous and unneeded. As for Kaufman, she'll certainly do everything in her power to make sure Rousey doesn't have any of those opportunities come Saturday night.