During her dominant run in the UFC, the Hall of Famer and former WWE champion Ronda Rousey made stunning claims. ‘Rowdy’ believed she could easily beat the boxing legend Floyd Mayweather in an MMA fight. Interestingly, an old video of Jon Jones has resurfaced where he shared his take on the situation and made a shocking prediction about the hypothetical fight many years back.
Ronda Rousey steamrolled through her competition until the upset loss to Holly Holm at UFC 193. She racked up 12 straight wins in the UFC (and in Strikeforce), which is a record. It didn’t take Jon Jones much time to pick his winner for the fight between Rousey and Floyd Mayweather.
Jon Jones claimed Ronda Rousey would beat Floyd Mayweather
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Ronda Rousey, not once, but on multiple occasions took Floyd Mayweather’s name, claiming that she would beat him. She wasn’t worried about any weight class or gender and was confident enough in her abilities to overcome any opponent including Mayweather. Hence, reporters had to ask this question to someone who knew MMA, and who could have been better than Jon Jones.
The current heavyweight champion of the world answered this question in a FOX interview in 2014 when he gave his honest prediction and sided with his UFC colleague, Ronda Rousey. “In an MMA match, Sorry Floyd but I have to give this one to Ronda,” said Jon Jones.
Bones then substantiated his pick by laying down all the achievements and experience Rousey had in her combat sports career, from winning Olympic gold in judo to possessing excellent BJJ techniques.
“I got to keep it real. I mean, their weight is fairly similar and her strength is amazing. She also competed at the highest level, which is the Olympics in Judo.” Jon Jones thought Ronda Rousey’s BJJ skills would come in handy against Floyd Mayweather and that’s because a majority of her wins came off due to her prowess in grappling.
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“Her jiu-jitsu is on the highest level and if you’re on the ground against someone who knows jiu-jitsu and you’ve never trained it, it’s like drowning, I mean. It’s a whole science and I don’t think Floyd would handle it very well,” Jon Jones added.
Despite talking about fighting Mayweather, the 50-0 boxing legend once came out in support of ‘Rowdy’ at a time when many people were gloating about her loss to Holly Holm.
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Mayweather once backed ‘Rowdy’
We all know how the loss against Holly Holm turned around Ronda Rousey’s UFC career. She was pretty confident about her chances but she couldn’t get the job done and suffered a 1st-round knockout loss. Rousey’s opponents and fellow bantamweight contenders took a lot of shots at her, but an unexpected person backed her and that was none other than ‘Money’ Floyd Mayweather.
“I don’t think it’s cool how everyone is trolling her on social media. Certain things you have to learn. People will love you on Friday and then Sunday morning, it’s nothing but negative comments and people making jokes and people making fun about you, which I don’t think is cool,” Floyd Mayweather stated in an interview with Fight Hype.
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The competitiveness Ronda Rousey showed when she claimed that she could beat Floyd Mayweather did not affect how the boxer felt about her as he still carried a healthy amount of respect for her. But what do you think? Do you agree with Jon Jones that Rowdy would beat Mayweather?