UFC Women's Bantanweight champion Ronda Rousey is dividing boxing fans after she was chosen by Ring magazine as its cover for the January 2016 issue. The argument is that why should the magazine feature on its cover a non-boxer?
The 93-year-old publication, considered the "Bible of Boxing," teases on an Instagram post that gave a peek of the cover with the question: 'SHE CONQUERED MMA. IS BOXING NEXT?"
NESN reports that because UFC fights have become so easy for Ronda - who finished her last match in Brazil versus Bethe Correa in 34 seconds - it would not be shocking to see the pretty MMA fighter take "a shot at the sacred ring some time in the future."
However, unless she becomes a pugilist, some boxing fans would not want to see her on the cover. Since boxing is mainly a male sport, Ronda becomes the second female to be its cover, but she is the first MMA fighter to be featured on the iconic magazine which hits newsstands in November.
That would be just in time for Ronda's seventh straight title defense in Melbourne, Australia, versus Holly Holm in UFC 193. But since Australia is about half a day ahead of the U.S., it would be Friday the 13th for many American viewers.
It is the second record for magazine cover broken by Ronda who also made history by being the first female cover of Men's Fitness, Australian edition for October.
While beating MMA fighters is so easy for Ronda, changing the mindset of boxing fans appears to be the bigger challenge for her.
A Facebook commenter sarcastically remarked that in February, the next cover of Ring would be rapper and fashion designer Kanye West. Another commenter, Gilbert Juarez, asked if UFC or MMA would return the favor and feature a boxer on its magazine.
John Johnson suggested that if non-boxers are on Ring's cover the perhaps it should also feature the US tae kwon do Olympic team. Lisa Phillips believes there are women boxers who deserve to be the cover.
Jorge Saavedra Dominguez says if Ring wants a bigger audience share, it should instead feature Holly Holm or Joanna Jadrzejczyk rather than Ronda whom he thinks sucks at boxing. Robert Ra Williams adds that Ronda's badmouthing Floyd Mayweather Jr., whom he considers a true champion, is reason enough not to have Ronda on the magazine's cover.
On Tuesday, in Los Angeles, Fox reports that Ronda says she wants to retire soon from MMA "as one of the greatest of all time," and given the chance would also want to try boxing as well as ju-jitsu.