MMA superstar Ronda Rousey has caused quite a stir – or maybe that should be Oscar De La Hoya, the owner of Ring Magazine, has caused quite a stir – with the female fighter being the first MMA fighter to ever appear on the legendary publication’s front cover. Rousey will grace the cover of the January 2016 issue of “The Bible of Boxing,” and some boxing fans are somewhat upset at a practitioner of another sport, some say a rival sport, appearing on the cover of their “bible.”
The headline reads how Rousey, “Conquered MMA” and asks, “Is Boxing Next?”
Rousey’s next fight will be against female fighter Holly Holm, 33-2-3(9) as a boxer – the November 14th fight, Holm’s MMA debut, to take place in Australia. It’s unlikely Rousey will ever switch to boxing but it is possible. But is the criticism some have thrown at Ring Magazine justified? Are boxing fans right to feel insulted? Should the cover of arguably the most famous boxing monthly in the world be saved for boxers and boxers only?
Rousey is not the first female to feature on Ring’s front cover; back in 1978, female boxer Cathy Davis had that honour. Rousey, who says her favourite boxer is Gennady Golovkin, says she is indeed honoured to feature on the front cover. Yet fans across the globe, a good number of them anyway, feel what De La Hoya and his publication has done is nothing short of sacrilege.
One fan perhaps put it best when he/she said that whilst having nothing against Rousey, he/she buys Ring to read about boxing, not MMA.
What do ESB readers think?