Strikeforce Challengers 18 Preview
Rousey vs. D’Alelio
Ronda Rousey won bronze at the 2008 Summer Olympics. | Photo:
Dave Mandel
Women’s Middleweights
Ronda Rousey (2-0, 0-0 SF) vs. Sarah D’Alelio (4-1, 0-0 SF)
The Matchup: There are some female fighters fans might see compete and think, perhaps after a couple beers, “Hey, I could beat her.” Rousey is not one of them. The American judo phenom won bronze at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, and has blazed through five amateur and professional fights. None of them lasted a minute, and three of them ended inside 25 seconds.
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D’Alelio is the more experienced of the two in MMA circles, with modest-at-best standup and an aggressive approach. She dropped a decision to EliteXC veteran Julie Kedzie in her last bout but has the advantage of having gone deep in fights. Rousey’s microwave-length cooking times are impressive, but we never really find out what fighters have until they hit the wall and have to fall back on conditioning and hard-wiring.
If one glaring technical difference exists in this fight, it can be found in the hips. Film of D’Alelio shows that, in certain grappling situations, hers are not optimally placed to solidify position or get takedowns. That is not the weakness one wants to bring into a fight with judo players, much less elite judo players, because that is the first thing they exploit once they get a hold of you. There is always the chance Rousey could be terribly green at taking a punch, but since she trains with “Judo” Gene LeBell, that seems a remote possibility at best. By sheer osmosis, spending time around LeBell automatically makes one better at taking shots.
The Pick: Rousey should be able to take this one to the ground and work chained submission attempts en route to getting the finish in the second round.
Finish Reading » Next Fight: Roy Jones vs. Derrick Mehmen
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