UFC 157 headliner Liz Carmouche

By Joshua Molina

After watching UFC Primetime, it’s clear (as if it wasn’t before) that UFC 157 isn’t about Ronda Rousey vs. Liz Carmouche.  UFC 157 is an event designed to usher Rousey into the UFC.

The fighters, in the buildup, barely talk about one another. Carmouche sounds like a Rousey fan. Rousey barely acknowledges Carmouche, other than to say that she can’t underestimate Carmouche.  No, this is an event about Rousey’s arrival in MMA. The UFC has chosen an interesting way to promote this fight. It’s not Rousey vs. Carmouche.  It’s Rousey’s Coming Out Party.

Carmouche isn’t doing herself many favors. She’s strayed away from trash talk and, in the process, she’s convinced absolutely nobody that she can win.  She may have something in store for Rousey, but right now there’s no reason to believe that the fight won’t go like this:

Bell rings, Rousey closes the gap, goes for the clinch, judo throws Carmouche, slaps on the armbar and, five seconds later, history is made.

Yes, it feels like Carmouche is the proverbial broomstick, to steal a pro wrestling term. She’s in there to play a role with a superior opponent.  Nothing more, nothing less. And, in the primetime special, she comes across as just happy to be at the party.

Opportunities like this one don’t come often. Carmouche better have dynamite up her sleeve because, in the buildup to this fight, she’s barely a fizzle in the Ronda Rousey fireworks show.  She has a few days left but, if Carmouche doesn’t want to go down as a footnote, she had better give people a reason to believe in her. Her laid-back attitude probably isn’t getting inside Rousey’s head.

Otherwise it will be 7-0, 7 first-round armbars.